[ipxe-devel] iPXE fail to execute dhcp on old system

Mon Aug 19 12:49:58 UTC 2013

On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 2:45 PM, Arnaud Adamy <arnaud.adamy at free.fr> wrote:

>   Just tested with the cable unplugged and no freeze. The command promt
> iPXE> is displayed and I can enter new commands.
>

That's very good to know. Thanks

> I tried to get the sources, but from this repo, git send the following
> message:
> Cloning into 'ipxe'...
> fatal: the remote end hung up unexpectedly
>
> so I can’t get them. An idea about what is causing this?
>

Maybe a firewall that is blocking the git protocol/port? Try the http link
instead:

git clone http://git.ipxe.org/people/meteger/ipxe.git

> Arnaud
>
>  *From:* Thomas Miletich <thomas.miletich at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Monday, August 19, 2013 1:56 PM
> *To:* Arnaud Adamy <arnaud.adamy at free.fr>
> *Cc:* ipxe-devel at lists.ipxe.org
> *Subject:* Re: [ipxe-devel] iPXE fail to execute dhcp on old system
>
>     Hello Arnaud,
> can you check if ifopen also freezes if the network cable is disconnected?
>
> I have also pushed some modifications to the 3c90x driver here:
> https://git.ipxe.org/people/meteger/ipxe.git/shortlog/refs/heads/3c90x
>
> One of the commits has a very slim chance of fixing your issue, I wouldn't
> hold my breath though.
> You can get it with:
>
> git clone git://git.ipxe.org/people/meteger/ipxe.git
> cd ipxe/src
> git checkout 3c90x
>
> Then build iPXE as usual.
>
> Thomas
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 1:41 PM, Arnaud Adamy <arnaud.adamy at free.fr>wrote:
>
>>   Thanks.
>> The card works perfectly in Windows 98 SE, in Windows 2000 and with
>> Debian 7.
>> In the BIOS, the plug&play option is set to off, the mainboard an ISA
>> card, an AGP video card and some PCI cards too.
>> The PC needs to be used today, but there is another 3C905C-TX in a box,
>> I’ll try with it in another computer. And if it works, I’ll exchange the
>> two cards.
>> Maybe it is an IRQ or a bus problem. I’ll try to put the card in another
>> PCI location and test it again the late afternoon.
>> Moreover I’ve done tests again early this morning and it freeze every
>> time. I cannot explain why if worked the first time....
>>  I confirm the vendor is 10B7 and the device id is 9200
>>
>>  Arnaud
>>   *From:* Thomas Miletich <thomas.miletich at gmail.com>
>> *Sent:* Monday, August 19, 2013 12:08 PM
>>  *To:* Arnaud Adamy <arnaud.adamy at free.fr>
>> *Subject:* Re: [ipxe-devel] iPXE fail to execute dhcp on old system
>>
>>    I just tried to reproduce the problem, but everything worked fine
>> here. I tested with a 3c905C, PCI ID 10B7:9200, the same as yours.
>>
>> Could you put the 3c90x card into another machine and see if iPXE freezes
>> in that machine too? Does the card work in Linux or Windows or whatever OS
>> you use?
>>
>> This should be valuable information in trying to track down the issue.
>> I'll also see if I can spot anything obvious in the driver code.
>>
>> Thomas
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 10:37 PM, Arnaud Adamy <arnaud.adamy at free.fr>wrote:
>>
>>>   What I wanted to say is if I don’t press Ctrl+B, the message to press
>>> it disappear and only the messages to the Features line remain.
>>>
>>> I just made the test again with the debug version I’ve build, and
>>> indeed, when I use ifopen or ifopen net0, it crach with the same messages
>>> as the debug for dhcp do.
>>> And I retested with the live CD and it freeze too.
>>> That’s strange... I’ve done hard reboot, stop and run again, but the
>>> fact is, now it crash every time with ifopen.
>>>
>>> I have done a memtest86 with 3 passes and 64% of the fourth and no
>>> errors detected. The machine is very stable and haven’t had any problem in
>>> the past.
>>>
>>>   *From:* Thomas Miletich <thomas.miletich at gmail.com>
>>> *Sent:* Saturday, August 17, 2013 8:48 PM
>>> *To:* Arnaud Adamy <arnaud.adamy at free.fr>
>>>  *Subject:* Re: [ipxe-devel] iPXE fail to execute dhcp on old system
>>>
>>>      Thanks for the log file.
>>>
>>> I'm quite puzzled by the output. You said you could open and close the
>>> interface manually, yet the log shows that it freezes in the open function.
>>>
>>> It seems to freeze right when we send the receive ring buffer address to
>>> the card.
>>>
>>> Can you get us another log, where you execute the following commands:
>>> ifopen net0
>>> dhcp net0
>>>
>>> Although there shouldn't be any difference, as dhcp calls open
>>> internally, I'd like to know why your manual ifopen didn't freeze.
>>>
>>> > For test purpose I’m using the live CD (1.0.0+ (c692a)) from your web
>>> site. It load SysLinux and iPXE and stop after the “Features:” sentence.
>>> Just the cursor blink forever.
>>> > When I enter the console with Crtl+B, I get:
>>>
>>> I'm not sure what you're saying here. iPXE freezes after the "Feature"
>>> line, but you can press CTRL+B to get to the iPXE prompt? iPXE should try
>>> to autoboot after the feature line.
>>>
>>> If it doesn't try to autoboot, please run memtest86+ or something
>>> similar on the machine and let it do a couple of passes, just to make sure
>>> we're not seeing any weird hardware issues.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Thomas
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
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