PupServer-435

For talk and support relating specifically to Puppy derivatives
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jrb
Posts: 1536
Joined: Tue 11 Dec 2007, 19:56
Location: Smithers, BC, Canada

#91 Post by jrb »

greengeek wrote:
jrb wrote: The TNG version of Pupserver gave me the same problem that you describe, PXE boots won't connect, wierd. :roll:
Hi jrb - thanks for trying that. I will give the other iso a trial. (I previously found that the gcmartin method would not boot one particular laptop I have, whereas the inbuilt netboot server in 435 did manage it, so I will try it again with the other iso and see if the result is the same).
Let me know about that. I've lost all my Pupserver and PXE development files in a harddrive meltdown (I had too much old junk anyway :D ) but I can extract the PXE stuff from PupserverTNG and build a .pet, maybe?

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greengeek
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Joined: Tue 20 Jul 2010, 09:34
Location: Republic of Novo Zelande

#92 Post by greengeek »

Ok, here is what I am finding:

PupServer435Original does not appear to have a network entry for the netboot server, so it is necessary to add the gcmartin dnsmasq and server3 pets, and then I need to add the vmlinuz and initrd inside the pxelinux.cfg folder (which seemed odd, since the doc suggests they should be in /tmp/netboot). Anyway, this method does succeed in PXEbooting an Acer Aspire One netbook (which can then connect successfully to the internet), but will not succeed in loading a 1.7Ghz "Penguin systems G731" laptop at all.

PupServer435TNG already has a network entry for a netboot server, so I did not add any pets, I just added the vmlinuz and initrd to the /root/tftpboot folder and it succeeded in PXEbooting both the Aspire netbook and the G731 laptop. However, neither would connect to the internet until after the PupServer was shut down and I reran the "auto dhcp" wizard.

I did find the comment I was looking for from other contributors who had a similar problem with non-internet-connection. It is here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 07&start=3
It is a bit complex for me to follow at this stage.

I will be doing a bit more experimentation to try and work out if it is the netmasq or server that is causing the lack of connection.

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jrb
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Location: Smithers, BC, Canada

#93 Post by jrb »

greengeek wrote:PupServer435TNG already has a network entry for a netboot server, so I did not add any pets, I just added the vmlinuz and initrd to the /root/tftpboot folder and it succeeded in PXEbooting both the Aspire netbook and the G731 laptop. However, neither would connect to the internet until after the PupServer was shut down and I reran the "auto dhcp" wizard.
Using the TNG version I have the same problem, but I just installed dnsmasq-2.55-1-i486-0.1.pet and the problem went away. :D I can netboot and the client connects to the internet without problem.

You should shut down the original dnsmasq server first, type "ppxe stop", then install the above .pet and type ppxe start (or go to the network menu). For this .pet you must place your links to initrd.gz and vmlinuz in /root/netboot. You can delete /root/tftpboot to avoid confusion.

Let me know if this works satisfactorily for you and I will modify the Pupserver435TNG iso and reupload.

Thanks, J

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greengeek
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#94 Post by greengeek »

OK, thats really interesting. (Many thanks for looking into this!). I wonder if that pet should be included for all versions of puppy instead of the pet that the gcmartin google document refers to.

I haven't tried your pet yet (will do later) - for now I have been up all night trying to find out exactly why gcmartin's version didnt work on PS435TNG and I finally got it to work as follows:

Basically it seems as if there is something wrong with the pxelinux.0 file created by the server3 pet and it is necessary to "borrow" the pxelinux.0 file from TNG and use it to replace the faulty file. Here is what I did:

Boot PS435TNG from live CD pfix=ram
Navigate to /root/tftpboot and rename folder pxelinux.cfg to pxelinux.cfgTNG
Install dnsmasq-2.55-static.pet
Install netboot-server-3.pet
Navigate to /root/tftpboot and remove file pxelinux.0 (which was just created by the server3 pet)
Find the old pxelinux.0 file that is in the pxelinux.cfgTNG folder and put it in as /root/tftpboot/pxelinux.0 (instead of the bad version we just removed)
Place the specially prepared ("netboot-ready") vmlinuz and initrd.gz files into folder /root/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg folder (which is the new folder created by the server3 pet).
Start the new version of the pxe server by going into the network menu - ignore the entry that says "Netboot Server Netboot - enabling" (which has no icon) and instead click on "Netboot Server" (which does have an icon)

Then boot the PXE client PC. After it boots it is possible to surf the internet fine. Works on a variety of machines tested so far.

EDIT: just confirmed identical behaviour when using Akita8, so not just an issue with PupServer. Definitely something in the server3 pet which creates an incompatibility with my G731 laptop
.

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greengeek
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#95 Post by greengeek »

Hi jrb, I'm happy with the way the PXE server side of things is working now (more testing of that to do later) but I have run into an issue with handling of USB drives.

If I boot from live CD everything to do with usb drive handling is working perfectly, but after I install to HDD and run with a pupsave I get a problem as follows:

My system has an inbuilt HDD (my boot partition) and I also have a 16GB USB stick permanently installed (it is partitioned into two ext2 partitions and one FAT32 partition). This usb stick holds my music collection and family files, so it is the one I want to stream from PS435 to my other machines.

When I use the live CD it mounts those usb partitions correctly and allows streaming of that data. The installed version does not. It appears to mount them, but when I look inside each drive (just looking locally on the PS435 machine - not via network) there is no data seen inside the partition - just an orange triangle icon which looks like a shortcut to that partition (eg: sdb2 will have an orange triangle with a superimposed black "shortcut" arrow, and with the text "sdb2" in red). No other files visible. The system also seems to ignore any request to "unmount" the drive - it's "green light" stays on (mounting and unmounting works without problems when running from live CD)

Just wondering if your system displays similar behaviour. I tried a couple of usb sticks, and different ports without change. (which doesn't necessarily mean that the sticks are not at fault, it could be something to do with the way I format them - I will continue to trial this further with other hardware...)

Of course I COULD just transfer all my files to inbuilt HDD, but it is just not going to be big enough - I want PS435 to have an attached 500MB (or bigger) usb storage drive so it is operating as a NAS.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

EDIT: if I insert the usb stick after the machine boots and mount it manually by clicking on it, it accesses and shares the data correctly - so it seems to be some issue with the automount procedure rather than incompatibility with the stick etc. Maybe automount happening too soon or something?

corinthian
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Joined: Sat 06 Oct 2012, 15:56

#96 Post by corinthian »

Well that was easy enough to setup :)

Full install on the bottom of drive 1
Writeable shares on drives 1 & 2
Read-only share on drive 3

Not bad for an eternal linux noob :)

I'm aiming to downgrade my machine to something smaller/lower powered in the near future, so I'll be after building up this server to do the hard work.

It would be nice to be able to run this headless and control it with a web interface if anybody has any suggestions how I might achieve this.

A BT server would be useful as well.

hottyson
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat 20 May 2006, 06:29

#97 Post by hottyson »

corinthian wrote:Full install on the bottom of drive 1
Writeable shares on drives 1 & 2
Read-only share on drive 3
:?: How did you create the Read-only share on drive 3? :?:

I don’t want others to accidentally erase my files.
Where would I change the settings for Read-only shares?
Thanks.

hottyson
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat 20 May 2006, 06:29

#98 Post by hottyson »

Anyone?... Anyone?...
Bueller?...
:?

Does anyone know where I can change settings to make shares Read-only?
Thanks.

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