Boot problems with NFS

[Brenda J. Butler]

It looks like the output is working just fine, but going
to the wrong place.  Sounds like you need to set the kernel
command-line option:

console=ttyS0

(pick the appropriate device for "console=" - this example is
for putting the console on a serial line)

and/or:  configure the applications in /etc/inittab (like mingetty,
etc) to use the right console.  Not sure of the right syntax
at the moment, hopefully it's not too hard for you to find out.

For future debugging:

If you have leds, you can change your init program to flash
them if you want to be absolutely certain your init program is
being called.  Or if you have network connection, open a port
(ie, listen on it).  You can tell it's open by nmapping from
the other side.

cheerio,
bjb


On Sat, Feb 18, 2006 at 02:11:05PM +0100, Per Dalgas Jakobsen wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm trying to get a remote-booting PC up and running with
> buildroot/busybox, but I have ran into some trouble...
> 
> The system remote boots fine up to this:
> ---
> VFS: Mounted root (nfs filesystem).
> Freeing unused kernel memory: 272K freed
> ---
> And then it just sits there.
> 
> I have tried to replace /sbin/init with a "hello world" program:
> No "Hello world" text on monitor, but now the kernel panics due to init
> exiting (fair enough). Just for fun I tried to let "hello world" print
> out its text one million times before exiting; No "Hello world" text and
> the kernel panic message appears after a reasonable time (a couple of
> seconds).
> 
> So it seems like the kernel is fetched fine from tftp.
> It also seems like the nfs file system is mounted ok
> (changing /sbin/init certainly have some effect).
> 
> Any ideas?
> I have described the setup below. Please let me know if I have done
> something stupid.
> 
> ~Per
> 
> -------------------
> Client setup:
> *) i586 PC with Etherboot 5.0.6 in BIOS payload.
> *) Etherboot modified to look for a DHCP-server at port 1067
> *) CompactFlash disk attached but NOT used (yet).
> 
> Boot-server setup:
> *) i686 PC running Debian testing.
> *) DHCP server listening on port 1067
> *) tftp server running.
> 
> (Alternative DHCP port 1067 used because primary DHCP-server must not be
> touched).
> 
> 
> I'm using Buildroot snapshot 20060213:
> *) Target architecture: i386 - variant: i586
> *) Linux-2.4.31 (patched to allow for gcc-4.0.2 compiler)
> *) NOT using uClibc snapshot (uClibc-0.9.28)
> *) Binutils-2.16.1
> *) gcc-4.0.2
> *) Multilib support enabled, no large file support
> *) Busybox minimal system with daily snapshot (fetched 20060213)
> *) No extra packages selected.
> *) ext2 root
> 
> Kernel build steps:
> $ make ARCH=i386 CROSS_COMPILE=i586-linux- bzImage
> $ cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage <tftp-server-path>
> $ mkelf-linux --rootdir=<nfs-kernel-root> \
> --ip=<CLIENTIP>:<SERVERIP>:<GATEWAYIP>:<NETMASK>:<HOSTNAME> \
> arch/i386/boot/bzImage > <tftp-kernel-image>
> --------------------
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> busybox mailing list
> busybox at busybox.net
> http://busybox.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/busybox
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