I have a peer to peer windows network at home and want to move away from windows to linux. I am aiming to move to ubuntu (debian) on my main pc with ltsp and have the other pcs connecting to the main pc via etherboot floppy.

So far ubuntu hoary is installed on the main pc. So also ltsp 4.1.1 - no dramas.

Of the 4 client pcs - 3 have realtek 8029as nic cards or chips (different motherboards etc. but same nic/chip) and one has a 3com 10/100 fast etherlink nic.
In windows the three realtek pcs connect through the switch at 10MPS and the 3 com at 100MPS.

My problem is this.

When I boot any of the three realtek pcs with the 2.6.9-ltsp-3 kernel I get exactly the same problem at the same point as follows:

Mounting the root filesystem /opt/ltsp/i386 on 192.168.1.5
Doing the pivot_root
nfs: server not responding still trying...

And each pc just hangs and gets no further.

If I drop back to the 2.4.26-ltsp-3 kernel (the other option with 4.1.1) I get almost the same

Mounting the root filesystem: /opt/ltsp/i386 from 192.168.1.5
nfs warning: mount version older than kernel
Doing the pivot_root
nfs: server not responding still trying...
nfs: server not responding still trying...

Either way both kernels stop at the same point.

I have even tried even tried going back to the earliest debian kernel on the ltsp site (2.4.29-ltsp-1) but still the same.

When I boot the 3 com pc there is no problem. regardless of what kernel is used. It goes straight to the login screen and connects to the user's desktop without a hitch - with sound as well.

So I know all the services (dhcpd3, nfsd, tftpd, rpc.mountd) are all working and have checked that anyway.

So the problem seems to be with the realtek chip although for such a generic chip that seems very strange.

Alternatively I was wondering whether the speed at which the nics are connecting through the switch makes any difference? (I do not have any spare network cards at the moment to test this).

Does anyone have any idea what the problem with the realteks could be with nfs?

I'm not that experienced with linux so it would be helpful even to know what someone thinks the exact nature of the problem might be.

Peter

You probably need to set some dhcpd.conf options, see:

http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/...sing_Etherboot

In short, for Etherboot add to dhcpd.conf:

option option-128 code 128 = string;
option option-129 code 129 = text;

option option-128 e4:45:74:68:00:00;
option option-129 "MOPTS=nolock,ro,wsize=2048,rsize=2048";

For dapper, if you installed ltsp via apt, notice that the dhcpd.conf file is actually in /etc/ltsp not /etc/dhcp3!

Kind Regards