Error "TFTP open timeout"
 

Hi all,

I am trying to setup PXE booting using DHCP and a tftpd server.


Now dhcp works and the mobo (intel PXE Boot Agent) gets an IP address and then tries to connect to TFTP, It then complains about "TFTP open timeout" and then "Loading the boot image failed"

Thats it.

This seems to me to be a problem with the TFTP server, but the TFTP server just confuses me.

looking at the processes ("ps -ef | grep tftp" ) yields no server, reading around tells me that tftp is run within inetd (which is running on my pc and i can see the process). is that supposed to be like that or is TFTP supposed to show up on the process list?

Another thing which confuses me is the lack of a configuration file anywhere, there seems apsolutely no configuration file for the TFTP server, and googling for an answer didnt help me here.

the only thing i found was the in.tftp program, googling about tells me that this is the server (which is invoked by inetd when required), but no matter what commands i give it it just fails silently, whether I tell it to run standalone, or in inetd, it just seems to fail silently, so in desperation i am here to ask if anyone can help me with TFTP?

Cheers

Your in.tftp is going to be launched via inetd or xinetd (varies by distribution)

If I recall correctly, tftp doesn't do authentication, so access is going to be based on your /etc/hosts.allow | /etc/hosts.deny or specified in inetd settings.

Additionally, you want to make sure your tftp files are world readable. ie chmod o+r filename.

To see if it's running, you can just

netstat -at |grep tftp

netatst -at will show all tcp ports

If you make changes, you'll have to kill -HUP pid-of-inetd or xinetd, to have it reread the configuration file.

I use a bootp / tftp method

The timeout could be a couple of things.

First thing I would check is that you have a line for tftp in /etc/inetd.conf telling inetd to start in.tftpd on request.
should look soething like:
And that /etc/bootptab is configured properly for the machine you are trying to boot.

Second I usally find that inetd/tftpd just does not respond fast enuff to the inital request and a simple reboot of the
machine your trying to net boot will get a response the second time.

Hi,

For my config, to ease life, leave all the hosts.allow and hosts.deny as default it is the first time u install it. What u need to do is just make sure

1. "pxelinux.0" file and "pxelinux.cfg" folder is under /tftpboot
2. Your dhcpd.conf for each client must be pointing to "/pxelinux.0" and NOT "/tftpboot/pxelinux.0"

Lastly restart your dhcpd.

3. If it doesnt work, give all these files the attribute to view by all others:

root# chmod +r -R /tftpboot

hi all,

i met the same problem, how's is this tread going on??

Thanks.

Max.

A possible problem/solution (in hope it may be useful):

If there are more than one interface (especially if the interfaces are in the same network address) and the tftpd is not properly configured, messages like:

may appear in the tftpd log file.

Possible solutions are: bring down unused interfaces and/or properly configure the tftp daemon.