[Techtalk] booting a diskless client

Maria McKinley maria at shadlen.org
Wed Oct 1 21:36:12 UTC 2008


Rudy Zijlstra wrote:
> Maria McKinley wrote:
>> Rudy Zijlstra wrote:
>>  
>>> The big difference i see, is i am using a kernel with all needed 
>>> immediate support compiled in. Not only the network aspects, but also 
>>> the filesystems i need. Subsequently i am not using any initrd... The 
>>> one diskless i am booting is slackware based, but normally slackware 
>>> also uses an initrd. I normally compile my own kernels though, and 
>>> make sure i need no initrd :)
>>>
>>> My pxe config file for the machine is:
>>> ------------
>>> default operational
>>>
>>> prompt 1
>>> timeout 100
>>> display tv-salon-msg.f1
>>> F1 tv-salon-msg.f1
>>> label operational
>>>   kernel tv-salon-2.6.21.3
>>>   append root=/dev/nfs rw,tcp 
>>> nfsroot=192.168.1.1:/data/HomeData/hd-cd/pc-tv-salon2
>>>   ipappend 1
>>> label test-system
>>>   kernel tv-salon-2.6.16.16
>>>   append root=/dev/nfs rw,tcp 
>>> nfsroot=192.168.1.1:/data/HomeData/hd-cd/pc-tv-salon2
>>>   ipappend 1
>>> label memtest
>>>   kernel memtest86.img
>>> ---------------
>>>
>>> This allows for some debug at need ;)
>>>
>>> For comparison here a netboot config for a machine which has its own 
>>> disks but is using a diskconfig that both lilo and grub do not like:
>>>
>>> -----------------
>>> default astra-2.6.19.1 noinitrd load_ramdisk=0 prompt_ramdisk=0 
>>> root=/dev/md_d0p1 raid=part ro
>>> prompt 1
>>> timeout 1200
>>> display astra.f1
>>> F1 astra.f1
>>> label slackware
>>>  kernel sl-bzImage-2.6.18.2
>>>  append initrd=sl-initrd.img-11.0 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 
>>> ramdisk_size=6464 rw root=/dev/ram raid=part
>>>  ipappend 1
>>> label system-2.6.18.2
>>>  kernel sl-bzImage-2.6.18.2
>>>  append noinitrd load_ramdisk=0 prompt_ramdisk=0 ro root=/dev/md_d0p1 
>>> raid=part
>>> label system-2.6.19.1
>>>  kernel astra-2.6.19.1
>>>  append noinitrd load_ramdisk=0 prompt_ramdisk=0 ro root=/dev/md_d0p1 
>>> raid=part
>>> label memtest
>>>  kernel memtest86.img
>>>
>>> -------------------------
>>>
>>> I hope this helps
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Rudy
>>>
>>>
>>>     
>>
>> Hmm, this sounds promising. Since I am compiling a kernel anyway, 
>> might as well compile one so I don't need an initrd, snce this seems 
>> to be my biggest headache. What all needs to be compiled into the 
>> kernel to eliminate the initrd?
>>
>> cheers,
>> maria
>>   
> Mostly support for the HDD drivers and the filesystems you are using.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Rudy
> 

So, I'm still having a problem. It boots up, gets its ip, says:

VFS: Mounted root (nfs filesystem).
Freeing unused kernel memory: 404k freed
Failed to execute /sbin/init. Attempting defaults...
Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found. Try passing init=option to 
kernel.

Before I found that the file system was being mounted on /root/ instead 
of /, so I tried passing init=/root/sbin/init, but I got the same 
message (but with the new path), so it is getting the init option, and 
both the client and the server claim that root was mounted, so I am at a 
total loss. init appears to be fine, and certainly works on the server.

This is driving me completely insane.

cheers,
maria


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