[CUWiN-Dev] power+serial+ethernet over cat-5 ?

[Matt Westervelt]

I'm with you on the 30 seconds.   It's pretty bad...  But.

1. how often do you reboot.

2. is a 30 second wait more inconvenient than climbing the roof/tower 
and pulling the box down so you can plug in a serial.

3.  If a dhcp server is present (but not offering PXE images), the boot 
process does not wait.

4. If the box does not have eth0 link (power only on ethernet) the boot 
process does not wait.




Bill Comisky wrote:

> On Mon, 19 Sep 2005, David Young wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Sep 19, 2005 at 12:22:37PM -0700, Matt Westervelt wrote:
>>
>>> Why don't you set the nodes to PXE on every boot (set before installing
>>> in hard-to-reach-places).   If there is no image available, the box
>>> boots normally (with a small delay).   If the box is lobotomized, 
>>> either
>>> trigger your PXE over the network (in the case of an already installed
>>> dhcp server), or bring a laptop onsite to re-image.
>>
>>
>> I don't remember why we don't PXE boot.  It is something I will 
>> consider.
>>
>> Dave
>
>
>
> Below is from last August. The 30-45 second delay waiting for PXE 
> booting to fail is certainly an inconvenience if it isn't adjustable..
>
> bill
>
> -- 
> Bill Comisky
> bcomisky at pobox.com
>
>
> From dyoung at pobox.com Fri Aug  5 11:48:06 2005
> Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 17:25:53 -0500
> From: David Young <dyoung at pobox.com>
> To: cu-wireless-dev at ucimc.org
> Subject: [CUWiN-Dev] [rob at nocat.net: Re: [Soekris] comBIOS boot 
> sequence....]
>
> More PXE developments.  A 30-seconds timeout for PXE boot, ouch.
>
> Dave
>
> ----- Forwarded message from Rob Flickenger <rob at nocat.net> -----
>
> From: Rob Flickenger <rob at nocat.net>
> Subject: Re: [Soekris] comBIOS boot sequence....
> Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 15:21:47 -0700
> To: Soren Kristensen <soren at soekris.com>
> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.619)
> Cc: soekris-tech at lists.soekris.com
>
> Excellent.  Thanks, Soren!  That works great.
>
> One last question...  I want to use PXE as a "safety net" for units 
> that are installed on a tower that have corrupted their flash, or 
> anywhere that having access to the console port is not practical.  The 
> only problem with attempting PXE on every boot is that it now takes 
> about 45 seconds for PXE to fail before it attempts to use the flash.
>
> Is there any way to adjust the amount of time that PXE will wait for a 
> DHCP response?  If there is no bootp offer in, say, 3 seconds, there 
> will likely never be one.  As it is, it waits about 30 seconds before 
> giving up.
>
> Cheers,
>
> --Rob
>
> On Aug 17, 2004, at 1:34 PM, Soren Kristensen wrote:
>
>> Hi Everybody,
>>
>> I was planning to add the functionality to the BIOS the right way 
>> using the "set" function, but since it keep comming up, let me 
>> explain how to do it now....
>>
>> The comBIOS currently store the boot sequence in the 4 cmos locations 
>> at 0x21..0x24. 0x80 mean the first harddrive, 0x81 mean the 2nd, 0xF0 
>> is the PXE rom, 0FF is none.
>>
>> The comBIOS will try booting starting with the value in location 
>> 0x21, and continuing with the next one if failing.
>>
>> to change it, do:
>>
>>> cmosread                    (see whats there now)
>>
>>
>>> cmoswrite 21 XX XX XX XX    (new values)
>>
>>
>>> cmoschecksum                (generate new checksum)
>>
>>
>>
>> If something goes wrong experimenting with the cmos, you can always 
>> write some random value and reboot without doing the cmoschecksum, 
>> the comBIOS will then load it with defaults when the checksum fails.
>>
>> Also, note that most empty CF modules come with a broken dos boot 
>> sector that do not return correctly, and therefore the comBIOS can 
>> not continue the boot sequence with a fresh empty CF module.
>>
>> And please note, my long term plans have always been to not have 
>> anything if the cmos, all setting will be stored in the flash at some 
>> point.
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>>
>> Soren Kristensen
>>
>>
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>>
>
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> ----- End forwarded message -----
>