Brand new HP z420 (freezing at boot command Red Hat 5 kernels)

[Torgeir]

Hi!

I am chainloading an iPXE linux-kernel v 1.0.0+ (09cc) from pxelinux.

I have som troubles with a brand new HP z420.
I can run these commands (no script), and it is freezing.

PHP Code:

dhcp
kernel tftp://tftp-server/vmlinuz_rhws5u3_x86-64
imgfetch tftp://tftp-server/initrd_rhws5u3_x86-64.img
boot vmlinuz_rhws5u3_x86-64 


(nothing is happening, kernel and initrd is downloading okey, but boot kernel is not doing anything)...

Switched to tftp since we had troubles with http.

With all Red Hat 6 kernels/initrds no problems at all.
Is this because of new hardware? If, is it possible to turn off some dmidecoding in iPXE?

Or some failsafe mode or something like that?

edit: Forgot to mention, the same kernel/initrds (Red Hat 5) is booting fine from pxelinux 4.05... So something with iPXE is freezing.

Torgeir

[robinsmidsrod]

I just have to ask, why are you running iPXE from PXELINUX? Usually I do it the other way around.

I also recall from IRC or the mailing-list (can't recall) that hpa (the writer of syslinux) that some versions had some issues with iPXE, but I believe it should be resolved in the most recent release. You might want to get in touch with the SYSLINUX project to ask in detail.

[Torgeir]

Hi!

Quote:I just have to ask, why are you running iPXE from PXELINUX? Usually I do it the other way around.

Because we have a large amount of clients (thousands) and lots of servers (citrix farms), which depend on pxelinux and our "default" menu.

We cant just switch to iPXE.

Currently we just use iPXE to develop an new install menu for our Red Hat Linux installations (trying to replace an old comboot menu).

Thats why pxe -> pxelinux -> ipxe kernel (with embed script, straight to apache/php webserver).

But somewhere in a near future, yeah maybe we can switch completly to iPXE (but that needs a lot of testing).

So you think my problems is because we have pxelinux first?
Ill put up my test system again (on a closed LAN), with a dhcp/tftp/http server handing out undionly.kpxe first, and iPXE user-class straight to web-server (Ill be back with updates in a few). With the same z420 to see if that makes any difference.

--Torgeir

[Torgeir]

Looks like it was the ipxe.lkrn that made Red Hat v5 kernels not boot.
Made it work with pxechaining -> undionly.kpxe (from pxelinux 4.05).

Now it is all good