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Diskless Frontend - NFSroot
http://forum.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=10098		 Page 4 of 17
Author:  Greg Frost [ Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:57 pm ]
Post subject: 
Why can't you just run the nvidia installer on the frontend after it has booted over the network? I would have thought that would work. That shoud be the benefit of having a read/write NFS root.
Author:  red321 [ Mon Sep 25, 2006 1:38 pm ]
Post subject: 
yes it is !, but some clever fellow came up with the idea of sharing the /usr directory with the backend. :wink: The NVIDIA installer installs stuff and deletes stuff in the /usr directory., which is ro. I tried mounting it rw but it didnt like that, and still would not allow the installer to work. I would have expected that sharing /usr would have stopped you installing most things ... I must try a few random apt gets :-).
Author:  Greg Frost [ Mon Sep 25, 2006 3:47 pm ]
Post subject: 
can you pop the geforce card in the be, install the nvidia driver and then swap the cards back (after copying xf86config-4 to the nfsroot)? Perhaps you can install the nvidia driver on the be without the card? Just make a backup of xf86config-4 so you can put things back when the install completes.

Most things you would just install on the be and the fe would automatically get updated because of the /usr mount.
Author:  red321 [ Tue Sep 26, 2006 8:09 am ]
Post subject: 
I was too lazy to get the screwdriver out, so I built an nfsroot on another backend with a geforce card in. ( my frontend is a small form factor iwill box, which looks really nice but needs a masters degree in oragami to take apart :-) ). Then I copied the full nfsroot, and the "updated" /usr to the main backend to replace the symlink. As you say doing the installs on the be will be copied across, but unfortunately the NVIDIA installer doesnt run without the hardware.

Anyway, brilliant script :-)
Author:  Greg Frost [ Tue Sep 26, 2006 5:55 pm ]
Post subject: 
The whole point of nfsroot is to allow you to have a setup that will support different fe hardware. So, it's a bit of a bummer that you need to go to that effort, but I'm glad you got it going.
Author:  gazza [ Sat Nov 04, 2006 12:26 pm ]
Post subject: 
Could someone please post the latest knoppmyth_diskless_frontend.bash script, as I'd really rather not upgrade the BE at the moment.

Thanks very much

gary
Author:  Greg Frost [ Sat Nov 04, 2006 2:28 pm ]
Post subject: 
I have updated the post on the second page of this thread to the latest.
Author:  gazza [ Sat Nov 04, 2006 3:34 pm ]
Post subject: 
Appreciated.

I'll give it a go.

thanks

Gary
Author:  Mythin1 [ Sat Nov 04, 2006 9:54 pm ]
Post subject:  diskless frontend DHCP questions
My FE/BE is R5C7
I have a couple questions if I may.

Before the questions I wish to say I am not very familer with Linux.
Although I have used Ubuntu for almost everything for the last 18 months or so.
And I no longer have Windows installed.
But, I mostly muddle through Ubuntu.

Can a diskless frontend be used where DHCP is done on a router?
And not on the BE. I can manualy set IP's based on the MAC address from the router. But, the router must do the DHCP. Or other problems will develop. The router is also the file server and print server.(Freesco)

And if so how do I disable DHCP after running the script?

If I can use diskless frontend's it would save me a lot of time, trouble, and money.

If I understand what I have been reading about PXE and DHCP the very basics are:
The computer boots - broadcasts MAC address - recieves IP - then asks what do i do.

If that is close would it matter where the IP comes from?

Although I am currently using R5C7 because I am on dial-up and that was what I had. I will upgrade or reinstall to any version needed.


Thanks
Author:  Greg Frost [ Sun Nov 05, 2006 4:42 am ]
Post subject: 
Im not sure that you can DHCP from a different source to the one where it tftp's the kernel. There should be no reason why you can't run two dhcp servers. You can setup your backend so that it will only respond to dhcp request from specific MAC addresses.

My /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf looks like this:
Code:
# dhcpd.conf for KNOPPIX terminalserver

# global settings
allow booting;
allow bootp;
default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;

subnet 10.1.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
  next-server 10.1.1.6;
  filename "pxelinux.0";
  option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
  option domain-name-servers  198.142.0.51, 203.2.75.132;
  option routers 10.1.1.1;

  host fedell {
    hardware ethernet 00:06:5b:7c:8e:5e;
    fixed-address 10.1.1.20;
  }

  host felap {
    hardware ethernet 00:08:74:99:e5:5b;
    fixed-address 10.1.1.21;
  }
}

My two frontends get their ip from here and anything else on my home network gets its ip address from my router.

If you want to disable dhcp on your backend the following command should do it:
Code:
update-rc.d -f dhcp3-server remove


I'm not completely sure how it all works but I suspect that when it does the "then asks what to do" bit it will be asking the server that gave it the ip address. So if it gets the IP address from your router, I dont think it will work. I could be wrong.
Author:  sinspot1 [ Sun Nov 05, 2006 10:48 am ]
Post subject: 
Because the IP address is being requested at boot and not when the machine is almost up your router must support BOOTP which not a lot of routers do. I had problems getting DHCP to give IP address to my diskless FE so I am using the DHCP from KM and another one for all of my other computers. If you have problems with your other computers getting IP's from KM you can disable the booting option in DHCP config the it will only had out IP's for BOOTP.
Author:  Mythin1 [ Sun Nov 05, 2006 3:49 pm ]
Post subject: 
Thank You Greg

and

Thank You sinspot1

I have learned something today.

My router is a Linux box and I think I can get it to support bootp. Maybe after I create the directory on the backend I can move it to the router. I will have to consider that... for now I think I will just put a 20 gig drive or a 4 gig CF card in the frontend.

Thanks again
Author:  slowtolearn [ Thu Nov 09, 2006 7:34 pm ]
Post subject: 
Hi Greg,

Neat script you have come up with! Thanks for that.

One problem I ran into is that my media (music, videos, pictures, not recordings) is stored on an LVM in my basement, NFS-mounted on my BE (and I will be doing the same for the FEs) for access. I missed the "cp -aRx $DIR $NFSROOT" part of your script before I ran it, and ran my filesystem out of space as it tried to copy the NFS mount as well. No worries, cleared everything out of there and will adjust the script for my needs. I intend to add a check in that block to see if the directory is mounted from another source.

I realize mine is an odd setup, just thought I would "warn" anyone with the same/similar setup.

Thanks again for the script.
Author:  slowtolearn [ Fri Nov 10, 2006 8:04 pm ]
Post subject: 
In case anyone is trying to rip DVDs from their NFSroot frontend:

I found that mtd won't run properly unless the /var/lib/mythdvd/temp directory exists (to create/populate the mtd.log file). Creating this directory structure will allow you to Import DVDs from your diskless frontend - "mkdir -p /var/lib/mythdvd/temp" from the command prompt on your frontend.

Hope this helps someone...
Author:  sanger440 [ Fri Nov 10, 2006 11:04 pm ]
Post subject: 
Well I nearly have a nfsroot frontend working. The script seem to work perfectly. I connect to the BE and can set recordings, see mythweather, etc. But if I try to view recordings I get "The file for this recording cannot be found".

Initially I thought I was having this error because my router was giving me the dhcp IP. not the BE. But I disabled the DHCP on the router and verified that the BE was giving the FE the IP. With the BE providing the IP, same result.

My BE is upstairs on a wireless NIC so I am thinking this may be an issue. Although previously I had this same hardware configured as a FE (with a HD) and easily watched recordings over the wireless network from a BE downstairs.

Maybe the BE cannot stream the recording wirelessly so the FE cannot recieve the recording. "The file for this recording cannot be found" pops up immediately. If I try to watch TV from the FE, there is a delay as it seems to try and work and then pops back to the menu after 10 seconds or so.

So I may try and put the BE on a wire and verify if it will stream to my diskless diskless FE that way. My diskless FE is not wireless.
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