The FE copies the /var, /etc, and some other directories and uses the /usr from the BE over NFS.

I would guess that you should be OK with both the DVD and remote, if the FE hardware is similar.

For example, if you had the same IR receiver and remote on the FE as you do on the BE you should be good. I took the easy way and bought 3 MCE remotes and the worked immediately.

Cheers
Victor
[/b]

_________________
Backend: Core 2-Quad CPU, 4GB RAM, 3TB
2 PVR-500, 1 HDHomerun
FE1: Zotac IONITX-B-E, w/2GB HD
FE2: Zotac MAG

I think thats going to be my problem. My FE is way different hardware than the BE.

Guess I need to play around with it. I was just wondering if you could install drivers/software on each diskless FE, or if all that is shared from the BE.

The initial configuration (i.e. when running config_diskless_frontend.bash) copies several directories and maps the /usr and /myth directories, so the end effect is that your configuration from the BE is the same as the new FE.

This usually means some fine tuning. For example, your xorg.conf (in /nfsroot/BACKEND_NAME/etc/X11/xorg.conf) will need to reflect the driver and other settings on the FE.

And so it goes: you need to change the settings for the BE that are different. However, executables, modules etc. that are on the BE are available, so if you have an NVidia card on the BE, and your FE is a VIA (and the necessary kernel mods are on the Be), then you only need to do is change the settings as above.

It is really not that difficult, just time consuming. Actually, it is probably easier than doing a Knoppmyth install and set-up, and that's saying something

Where things get crazy, is if you need to add kernel modules and applications to the FE .

I am at a loss how this would be done, and would love it to be added to the wiki. I am faced with this right now while trying to get the HDMI and XvM acceleration on my CX700-based FE.

Cheers,
Victor

_________________
Backend: Core 2-Quad CPU, 4GB RAM, 3TB
2 PVR-500, 1 HDHomerun
FE1: Zotac IONITX-B-E, w/2GB HD
FE2: Zotac MAG

I'm thinking of trying this approch (diskless FE) out when the next KM release hits. My MBE does not have an NVIDIA card in it, but my 2 frontends do. How does one "install" the NVIDIA binary if the backend did not need to configure for NVIDIA during installation?

_________________
Mike
My Hardware Profile

Hi all,

I am trying to set up a new diskless frontend using the new R5.5 release.

I have run the setup script ok on the backend, and when I start up the frontend it does start to boot up, so I think the dhcp, tftp stuff is working.

It stops during the boot process however with the following output (hopefully typed out correctly)


Does this mean anything to anyone? I have to admit I don't really know anything about how this is supposed to work!

(192.168.0.100 is the ip of the backend, and /extra/remotefe/livingFE is the path I entered in the setup script. I have mounted my old 10G /cache partition at /extra as my root partition doesnt have that much free space.)

I am getting quite worried about note 2.6 under known changes in tjc's R5.5 Hints guide though.

The motherboard in my frontend is an MSI K9AGM3 which I think has a Realtek 8111B NIC chipset on it. After some googling I think this may be the same as the 8168, which is far to close to 8169 for my liking!

If this is the problem, is there any workaround? (Crosses fingers and toes since there is no space for any expansion cards in this box!)

Thanks for your help.

If it is you may need to go to a custom built kernel. You can apt-get the sources and Cecil has posted directions with the details around here somewhere.

Sorry to be a bit of a pain, but could you possibly provide some more details on how to do this? I have tried to search and read up on this, but am still rather confused. I have tried to find a post from Cecil detailing these steps but have not been able to.

From what I can work out, I need to do the following steps. It would be great if you could clarify these, as I may be way off here!

First download and install the kernel source from the knoppmyth.net ftp site.


Then the existing config file should be copied across


Is it right that I now need to insert the correct drivers into the kernel source somehow? I can download the realtek 8168 drivers from their website, but how do I then combine them into the kernel? The instructions with them only seem to deal with loading as a module. Do I just copy the source files into the linux source tree??

To actually create then new kernel is it right that I just need to


Are there any steps needed after this?

I don't want to break my currently working install, so is it possible to create the new kernal just for the diskless frontend? Ie if I copy the /usr directory under the relevant nfsroot rather than linking it, and then use chroot, can I complete these above steps without affecting the main install?

Sorry if these are silly questions. Unfortunately my knowledge of this stuff is pretty limited. (I guess it's a testament to KM how little I have had to learn )

Many thanks for any help you can provide.

Here is another twist on this same topic. I have two nearly identical machines and they are having a similar problem. I have a backend installed on a Dell GX270 tower, and am trying to PXE boot from a desktop size GX270. They are different mother boards, but they do both have the same intel NICs onboard.

Backend (Tower size GX270):
02:0c.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 02)
Frontend (Desktop size GX270):
02:0c.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 02)

The frontend boots up but then cannot boot mount the NFS file system. I used wireshark on a 3rd box and can see the frontend booting up, once the PXE boot is complete (noted by the lack of tftp frames), the server arps for the backend and never hears from it. I see no frames coming from the frontend after the tftp. No DHCP request, no arps, nothing.

The frontend box had a disk in it, so I went ahead and installed knoppmyth on it and pointed it at my backend. I do prefer to have it booting via PXE. This myth setup is a hobby I rationalize by claiming to be learning, and I want to get some time with PXE.

So, as I understand it my problem cannot be that I am not loading the driver because this driver is obviously getting loaded into the backend that I am booting from. I am not sure about this analysis though.

This is frustrating as my Tower GX270 was a diskless frontend for an older home built system running R5F27, when I upgraded to R5.5 the diskless boot that was so easy before is no longer working for me.


Ray

I may be wrong on this, but I think the NIC drivers are included in R5.5, but as a separate module rather than built in to the kernel.

This is fine for your backend as the module is available locally (on the hard drive) so can be loaded okay.

For the diskless frontend however, it would need to load the module from the backend, which can't work if the network driver has not yet been loaded!

This makes sense to me, but I don't really know how this whole process works yet, so don't hold me to it!

I see what you are saying, the only thing tftp'd is the kernel, and if the kernel cannot operate the NIC without other files, then you are out of luck.

So, I am in the same boat as gezz, recompiling the Kernel. Sucks. I bet there are lots of sources of information out there on how to recompile kernels, so I won't belabor the point here.

Thanks,
Ray

Please let me know if you make any progress on this.

As I mentioned, I am a bit confused as to exactly how to add the drivers into the kernel, so am trying to do lots of reading at the moment!

I am also very conscious about breaking my currently working BE/FE box!

Okay, I have made some progress with this, but have still not managed to get it to boot.

I could not work out how to insert the r6186 drivers from realtek into the kernel, so for now I have just changed the 6189 drivers that come with the kernel to be compiled in rather than as a module, using make menuconfig. From what I have read, this should support the 8618 as well.

If I then replace /tftpboot/vmlinuz-nfsroot with the newly built kernel image the diskless frontend does seem to proceed further with the boot process. It now stops however with the following output on the screen:



If I check the logs on the backend, I can see the following output:



This implies to me that the backend is receiving the nfs mount request for the frontend's root filesystem.

If I try and mount this from the backend directly as suggested earlier in this thread (mount 192.178.0.100:/extra/remotefe/livingFE /mnt/test) then it does seem to work okay, so I think the nfs stuff is set up correctly.

Does anybody have any ideas as to what could be causing this problem?

I do see some other 'failed' messages appearing on the screen as the frontend is booting, but I am not sure if they are related to this problem. For example:



Many thanks for any help you can provide. I am determined to get this working eventually

Edit:

I managed to fix this problem in the end!
It turned out that the /etc/network/interfaces file being used for the remote frontend was an exact copy of the backend version, and so was trying to assign it the same static IP.
I commented out all the details relating to eth0 from the frontend version (as the network is already initialised in order to remote boot) and it now starts up fine

Now to get the ati drivers working...

I must be doing something wrong because I cannot get my diskless frontend video to work correctly. The FE/BE are running on different hardware. I manually installed the nvidia driver using the comman here in the forum on the BE, and after I got my diskless fe to boot I booted back to the working hard disk, and copied my xorg.conf over to the /nfsroot/disklessfe/etc/X11/xorg.conf dir. When I reboot its like it copies the xorg.conf from the BE again.

Edit:
Gosh totally forgot to include what ver. I am using R5F27. I ran into to many issues trying R5.5 like it does not support my sata card, and I am not smart enough to compile a custom kernel. Also it looks like some of you are having trouble with 5.5 diskless FEs too.

Also:
This just a simple question that I will find out once I get the diskless FE working too, but will the FE require a tuner card in order to watch LiveTV, or will they be able to use the tuners in the BE for that also?

Thanks.

Has anyone tried running this script after setting up a second disk using storage groups? I installed a 2nd hard drive, set it up as its own directory and declared it a storgae group in myth setup. I ran the script and set up a new diskless backend but got an error that it couldn't find the new hard drive or directory.
I assume that this has something to do with the exports file. True?

_________________
LINHES 8.6.1 BE/FE - MSI K9N6SGM-V with AMD A64 X2 4600+, 4GB Ram. 1.5TB WD. HDHR Prime. Nvidia GT210. MCE remote.
FrontEnd - Dell Vostro 400 3.0GHz Core2Duo NVidia GeForce210. MCE Remote