Problems with the NFS server

baronobeefdip · 04-20-2012, 08:55 AM

I am running on a debian box and wanted to create a pxe boot server, from what i have learned through my intensive research is that when it boots it attempts to mount it and the way this works is that it mounts it through nfs (i think) and to do this a file must exist inside the /dev directory

i installed the package "nfs-kernel-server" and everything went well, all of the nfs shares are working perfectly i just need this file to make an appearance
/dev/nfs
without it the pxe boot server won't have anything to mount to i would just keep getting kernel panics

kyrunner · 04-20-2012, 09:07 AM

can you run this command

sudo /usr/sbin/exportfs -v

and report back

baronobeefdip · 04-20-2012, 09:48 AM

correct me if i'm wrong here but i found some way of making the /dev/nfs file in debian with this command

Code:

mknod /dev/nfs b 0 255

does this do the trick or is it not going to work
i am also having trouble putting in the directory path in the pxelinux default file
see here, the kernel line works when i just put this

Code:

kernel vmlinuz

but it won't work if i use

Code:

kernek ubuntu/casper/vmlinuz

any reason why because all of the other files required to boot use this structure and if they don't work then what does that mean (in previous versions of syslinux you would use the = sign to append directory paths but in this recent one you can just use spaces. the = don't work only the spaces with the lines that don't have any /'s)

baronobeefdip · 04-20-2012, 11:49 AM

alright i got another problem, the initrd and vmlinuz stuff works not and i have nfs going (still unsure about the /dev/nfs file that was created) the computer boots into the ubuntu live cd no problem and i am no longer getting the error saying that it can't find the live session on media, now its telling me this

Code:

BusLogic BT-958
ALERT! does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

BusyBox c1.13.3 (Ubuntu 1:1.13.3-1ubuntu11) built-in-shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands

(initramfs)

what is the problem, i am almost there and i really need some help with this

what i did this time instead of using an iso file i extracted the contents of it somewhere on the harddrive
the contents of te ubuntu live cd went in here

Code:

/srv/tftp/ubuntu

and the section of the /srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg/default looks like this

Code:

label INSTALL
menu label Ubuntu Lucid
kernel ubuntu/casper/vmlinuz
initrd ubuntu/casper/initrd.lz
append root /srv/tftp/ubuntu boot casper nfsroot 192.168.1.55:/srv/tftp/ubuntu netboot nfs

if i am missing something let me know

and my /etc/hosts file looks like this for the sharing of the root directory for the live cd

Code:

/srv/tftp/ubuntu        *(ro,async,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)

what is going on here and how do i fix this

kyrunner · 04-20-2012, 11:57 AM

You still haven't ran the first command that I ask you to run.

baronobeefdip · 04-20-2012, 12:02 PM

heres the output of the command you told me to run

Code:

/srv/tftp/ubuntu
		<world>(ro,async,wdelay,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)

and before the process gives up i get these messages

Code:

Begin:running /scripts/init-premount.....
Done
Begin:Mounting root Filesystem
Begin:Running /scripts/local-top.....
Done

and after running that command you told me about it still didn't work

kyrunner · 04-20-2012, 12:55 PM

Go here and install this http://sourceforge.net/projects/free.../FOG/fog_0.32/

This will install dhcp, tft, pxe this is the program I use when I need a pxe sever works perfect.

baronobeefdip · 04-20-2012, 01:45 PM

well i solved my alert does not exist problem, i moved the initrd statement after the append statement but now i'm getting a prompt that says that i need to "Provide a name for this Disc, Such as 'Debian 5.0.3 Disk 1" thats pretty much the problem so far and i guess that if i can overcome this dilemma it would work. and is FOG on the debian and ubuntu repo server?

thanks for all your help

kyrunner · 04-20-2012, 02:45 PM

No you have to install it. It has a script its easy. un tar the package once you down load it and go to the bin folder and just run the ./install script it will install pxe and everything.

baronobeefdip · 04-20-2012, 03:21 PM

alright i'll give it a shot after the pxelinux.0 tactic doesn't work, what i like about the method i am using is that you don't have to open a browser and go out an collect everything just to get it working, everything is just a simple apt-get install command away. as with your method i have to go out and download it manually and extract it i don't want that.

what does this latest error i am getting mean

Code:

 "Provide a name for this Disc, Such as 'Debian 5.0.3 Disk 1"

baronobeefdip · 04-20-2012, 10:30 PM

alright i just did some more tinkering and i have it to where the menu is now telling me that there was a kernel panic and that "Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempting to kill init!", i also ran a chown 755 against the /srv/tftp/ubuntu directory
here are the contents of my config files

/srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg/default

Code:

default vesamenu.c32
menu title PXE Server
label install
menu label Ubuntu
kernel ubuntu/casper/vmlinuz
append initrd=ubuntu/casper/initrd.lz boot=nfs root=/dev/nfs netboot=nfs nfsroot=192.168.1.55:/srv/tftp/ubuntu

/etc/exports

Code:

# /etc/exports: the access control list for filesystems which may be exported
#		to NFS clients.  See exports(5).
#
# Example for NFSv2 and NFSv3:
# /srv/homes       hostname1(rw,sync,no_subtree_check) hostname2(ro,sync,no_subtree_check)
#
# Example for NFSv4:
# /srv/nfs4        gss/krb5i(rw,sync,fsid=0,crossmnt,no_subtree_check)
# /srv/nfs4/homes  gss/krb5i(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)
#
/srv/tftp/ubuntu	192.168.1.0/24(ro,sync,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)

hope this helps

baronobeefdip · 04-21-2012, 03:43 PM

alright i just now isolated the problem, the pxe server is working fine the kernel files are being properly executed and everything, the problem is the part with nfs for some reason it's not pulling down the files from my nfs server no matter what i put in the /srv/tftp/default file, can someone post a sample of their working pxe server default file because i am now mixing everything up hoping that something works and so far there hasn't been any progress

kyrunner · 04-21-2012, 09:04 PM

LABEL CENTOS INSTALL
kernel memdisk
append iso initrd=netinstall.iso
MENU CENTOS INSTALL
ENDTEXT

LABEL DEBIAN
kernel memdisk
append iso initrd=debian.iso
MENU DEBIAN
ENDTEXT

LABEL OPCHACK
kernel memdisk
append iso initrd=ophcrack.iso raw
MENU OPHCRACK
ENDTEXT

LABEL CENTOS 5.8
kernel memdisk
append iso initrd=centos.5.8.iso raw
MENU CENTOS 5.8

LABEL UBCD
kernel memdisk
append iso initrd=ubcd511.iso raw
MENU UBCD
ENDTEXT

baronobeefdip · 04-22-2012, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyrunner

LABEL DEBIAN
kernel memdisk
append iso initrd=debian.iso
MENU DEBIAN
ENDTEXT

LABEL CENTOS 5.8
kernel memdisk
append iso initrd=centos.5.8.iso raw
MENU CENTOS 5.8

I'll take these two as an example, since the debian one is not a live cd then where do all the installation files get placed once loaded by the memdisk kernel, alot of this happens with nfs (or so i thought) and it's been getting very frustrating trying to get it to work since all of the config files i have seen have varied considerably between each other. and one thing i want to do here is load it with vmlinuz and initrd.lz because using memdisk would take too long and some of the live cd images i plan to use will most likely be well over 1GB. so how is the menu arranged if i want to install it with vmlinuz and initrd if i want it to invoke a live session (or at lease execute an installation process)

and as for centos this seems like a livecd (unless your using the installation disk) but this still raises the question of where all of the files go for the installation process, i tried it with a windows disk not too long ago since i was thinking since it didn't have a live session it would install perfectly but i was wrong, at the part where it said is was running windows at the bottom of the screen the blue screen of death displayed and i had to shut down the image. so what is going on here, i'll continue to post errors as they happen until i can get this thing to work.

i also don't see any declarations that mention NFS which is what i was aiming for since the NFS part is my issue (as far as i can tell)

kyrunner · 04-22-2012, 11:56 AM

If you install fog it will install nfs server pxe server then all you have to do is edit the pxe file in tftboot directory.

the iso that you see in the screen shot from the other thread they are netinstall.iso serach for netinstall centos or debian