From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Seewer Philippe Subject: Re: Netboot fails with multiple interfaces, wireless Date: Wed, 20 May 2009 09:11:55 +0200 Message-ID: <4A13AD3B.4010606@bfh.ch> References: <4A137E3C.1040204@redhat.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: In-Reply-To: <4A137E3C.1040204-H+wXaHxf7aLQT0dZR+AlfA@public.gmane.org> Sender: initramfs-owner-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org List-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format="flowed" To: Warren Togami Cc: "" Warren Togami wrote: > Harald, > > I tried your root=dhcp netboot code. > > Is it intended that you need both root=dhcp and ip=dhcp? Surely the > first implies the second? I guess a simple patch could set ip=dhcp if root=dhcp is supplied... > > So it does successfully mount and NFS root boot, but as I feared it has > trouble due to the presence of a wireless device. One thin client I > have is Intel Atom with e1000e NIC and iwlagn wireless. It appears to > dhcp once successfully on the eth0 ethernet, but its event-driven nature > also tries to launch dhclient again on the wlan0. dhclient complains > that dhclient is already running and fails. That's weird it shouldn't do that, since dhclient is started with an interface option. > dhclient wouldn't have succeeded at all on the iwlagn interface because > the firmware is lacking from the initrd, and it isn't associated. Also > I don't see when it is ever desired to netboot over a wireless interface. > > As for excluding wireless interfaces, we should do a few things: > - Do not copy wireless drivers into the initrd. You suggested using > /etc/modprobe.d/something.conf to blacklist the driver from loading. We > would need a way to blacklist the driver during the initrd without > blacklisting it on the host system where the initrd is generated. How? > - Perhaps we should exclude any interfaces named "wlan*" from ifup and > dhclient. This works for most devices, but some wireless drivers call > the wireless interfaces "eth*". > - I have no idea if it is attempting to ifup and dhclient other devices > that appear like wmaster0. I agree there. Wireless drivers shouldn't be included (yet). As for separating ethernet from wireless drivers, why not use 'nm' and disregard those drivers that contain 'ieee802011_register_hw'? > > A separate but related matter is what to do if a machine has more than > one ethernet interface. It seems the only sane thing you CAN do is ifup > and dhclient only on the first interface? That depends on your definition of sane. See the nfs/networking patches I sent in march. They're be able to handle all kinds of weird combinations. Regards, Philippe -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe initramfs" in the body of a message to majordomo-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html