I have a TFTP/DHCP/NFS/SMB server (Ubuntu server 12.04 LTS) on 192.168.26.1. I use pxelinux to display a menu containing startup and installation options for Windows, an Ubuntu network installer, and the Linux Mint 17 MATE live CD. Getting it running like this was already nasty and I'm running out of steam...
For Linux Mint, I have provided 2 netboot options: NFS and CIFS. I got it fully working with NFS: The user can select it in the boot menu, and a short while later, lands on the Linux Mint live CD desktop. But with CIFS, networking doesn't initialize properly. When Linux Mint starts, the networking hangs for 120 seconds. Then, it continues to boot to the Desktop, but net network-manager isn't started (and doesn't start). I suspected that it might be a problem with the DHCP server not responding, however, in the DHCP server log I can see the DHCP request and successful response.
Once in the Linux Mint desktop, ifconfig reports an IP address that is assigned by the DHCP, and pinging the server works.
My pxelinux configuration is (everything after APPEND is in one line, I just split it up for readability on this site):
NFS:
LABEL linuxmint17
MENU LABEL Linux Mint 17
KERNEL linux-mint-17/image/casper/vmlinuz
APPEND
root=/dev/nfs boot=casper netboot=nfs
nfsroot=192.168.26.1:/var/lib/tftpboot/linux-mint-17/image
initrd=/linux-mint-17/image/casper/initrd.lz
CIFS:
LABEL linuxmint17smb
MENU LABEL Linux Mint 17 (SMB)
KERNEL linux-mint-17/image/casper/vmlinuz
APPEND
root=/dev/cifs boot=casper netboot=cifs
nfsroot=//192.168.26.1/tftpshare/linux-mint-17/image
ip=dhcp
initrd=/linux-mint-17/image/casper/initrd.lz
Note that I had to insert the ip=dhcp option to the CIFS menu. If I don't do that, the boot process hangs for 120 seconds when initializing Networking, but then it doesn't continue. If I add that line, it still hangs, but after 120 seconds it continues to boot.
The setup:
The client and server virtual machines are only connected to each other (internal network). There are no other machines in the network at all.
The server has all the pxe boot files under /var/lib/tftpboot/. The Linux Mint ISO (unmodified) is mounted under /var/lib/tftpboot/linux-mint-17/image. vmlinuz and initrd are in /var/lib/tftpboot/linux-mint-17/image/casper. /var/lib/tftpboot/ is an NFS export. There is a samba share called tftpshare that maps to /var/lib/tftpboot/ (read-only, allows access to everyone).
smb.conf
[tftpshare]
comment = TFTP Root
path = /var/lib/tftpboot
browsable = yes
guest ok = yes
read only = no
create mask = 0644
dhcpd.conf
authoritative;
subnet 192.168.26.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 192.168.26.10 192.168.26.40;
next-server 192.168.26.1;
filename "pxelinux.0";
}
This is a strange 2 minute gap in the syslog of the client machine after a successful boot to the live desktop environment:
Jun 14 13:13:18 mint kernel: [ 23.388873] intel_rapl: domain core energy ctr 0:0 not working, skip
Jun 14 13:13:18 mint kernel: [ 23.528409] intel_rapl: domain uncore energy ctr 0:0 not working, skip
Jun 14 13:13:18 mint kernel: [ 23.528453] intel_rapl: no valid rapl domains found in package 0
Jun 14 13:13:20 mint ntpdate[1198]: Can't find host ntp.ubuntu.com: Name or service not known (-2)
Jun 14 13:13:20 mint ntpdate[1198]: no servers can be used, exiting
(2 Minute gap without any entries, roughly at the time when the 120 second boot delay occurs)
Jun 14 13:15:19 mint dbus[864]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit' (using servicehelper)
Jun 14 13:15:19 mint dbus[864]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1' (using servicehelper)
Jun 14 13:15:19 mint acpid: starting up with netlink and the input layer
Jun 14 13:15:19 mint acpid: 9 rules loaded
Jun 14 13:15:19 mint acpid: waiting for events: event logging is off
This is what happens in both cases when using CIFS:
On the server:
...
Jun 14 13:12:52 ubuntu-netboot in.tftpd[2722]: RRQ from 192.168.26.13 filename /linux-mint-17/image/casper/initrd.lz
Jun 14 13:13:14 ubuntu-netboot dhcpd: DHCPDISCOVER from 08:00:27:1c:c5:43 via eth1
Jun 14 13:13:14 ubuntu-netboot dhcpd: DHCPOFFER on 192.168.26.14 to 08:00:27:1c:c5:43 via eth1
Jun 14 13:13:14 ubuntu-netboot dhcpd: DHCPREQUEST for 192.168.26.14 (192.168.26.1) from 08:00:27:1c:c5:43 via eth1
Jun 14 13:13:14 ubuntu-netboot dhcpd: DHCPACK on 192.168.26.14 to 08:00:27:1c:c5:43 via eth1
The IP that is assigned to the client in case of a successful boot to the desktop, according to ifconfig, is indeed ...14.
This is what happens without the ip=dhcp:
This is what happens with the ip=dhcp, immediately before the Desktop shows:
I'm thankful for any ideas. If any other logs (which?) would help, I can provide them.
