Issue with Realtek card and iPXE

[m_theredhead]

I have a few boxes that I net boot using gpxe including one box with a realtek card. Under Linux, it shows up as:

04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03)

Using gpxe 1.0.1, it would fail to boot with the message “initialising devices…". This is also reflected in the etherboot wiki: http://etherboot.org/wiki/hardwareissues. However, I used the rom-o-matic to build a 1.0.1+ version of undionly and it has worked well on this motherboard for at least a year. I assumed the issue was resolved.

So today, when I upgraded to iPXE, I was a little surprised to see this error message return. Does anyone have any suggestions why it would work in gpxe 1.0.1+, but not with a current version of ipxe?

What is the best way to debug this?

Michael

[robinsmidsrod]

You could try to build your iPXE binary with DEBUG=undi,realtek and post a picture of those red/yellow lines you get right after the "initializing devices..." banner.

This could be a bug or incompatibility with your hardware, so I would suggest you send the question to the developer mailing-list.

[kknddandy]

Hi robinsmidsrod, I had the same issue here, and I tried to turn on the debug=undi,realtek. but nothing changed, the client just hanging there display the message "iPXE initialising devices....", no any debug message.

so I just wondering that, on the gPXE wiki "http://rom-o-matic.net/gpxe/gpxe-git/gpxe.git/contrib/rom-o-matic/", it allows me to select the driver "r8169" instead ALL, and the gPXE undionly.kpxe works well. but you know I don't want to give up iPXE, so is there any way that I can manually do the rom-o-matic thing? just only make the r8169 undionly?


Thanks man!

[robinsmidsrod]

You could try to go to http://rom-o-matic.eu and try and compile the version you require from that site. It is a new service that does the same as rom-o-matic.net, but for iPXE. it also has a slightly more modern user interface. It is still a very early project without, and bugs might occur.

[mcb30]

(2012-09-02 19:45)m_theredhead Wrote:  Using gpxe 1.0.1, it would fail to boot with the message “initialising devices…". This is also reflected in the etherboot wiki: http://etherboot.org/wiki/hardwareissues. However, I used the rom-o-matic to build a 1.0.1+ version of undionly and it has worked well on this motherboard for at least a year. I assumed the issue was resolved.

So today, when I upgraded to iPXE, I was a little surprised to see this error message return. Does anyone have any suggestions why it would work in gpxe 1.0.1+, but not with a current version of ipxe?

What is the best way to debug this?

It sounds as though you are using undionly.kpxe. If so, then try building as:

Code:

make bin/undionly.kpxe DEBUG=undinet,pxeparent

You could also try using the iPXE native driver for Realtek cards, which is likely to be substantially faster and more reliable then undionly:

Code:

make bin/ipxe.pxe

Michael

[imageel]

Michael,
I was encountering a similar hang on an ION mobo and compiling ipxe.pxe worked for me,
Thanks
Ed