[gPXE] remote booting on HP hardware results in blinking cursor

[Andrew Bobulsky]

Hello Andrew,

Based on information I read at HP and then here http://www.broadcom.com/collateral/pg/5764M-PG100-R.pdf , it looks like your Z400 has a LOM NIC with PCI VENdor and DEVice ID's of 14E4 and 1684.  

I'm not sure if there are any Broadcom drivers currently in gPXE, but if there are, does anyone know which one[s] if any might be worth trying?

--------

If you're using keep-san against an unformatted iSCSI target and booting a Windows 7 install disk, unless the NIC driver isn't present or some other software issue is preventing iSCSI connections, the target should show up as a disk in the system.  Not being able to install to it can happen, but that's a different issue with different causes, naturally ;-)

After gPXE attaches and then boots the SAN disk, if you're getting a blinking cursor, that could point to any myriad of errors (for what it's worth, I've noticed that the Windows Boot Manager MBR prints "SRLBCG" and then blanks the screen).  It could be helpful to troubleshoot by using a diagnostic MBR or something, but that's a little beyond the scope of this email.

I usually troubleshoot errors that you're experiencing by trying a different NIC.  Sometimes the UNDI driver, if that's what you're using, doesn't play nice with all NICs.

A few questions though for myself or others to help you troubleshoot:

What iSCSI target are you using?
What method are you using to boot gPXE?
Have you tried any other NICs?


Cheers,
Andrew Bobulsky




-----Original Message-----
From: gpxe-bounces at etherboot.org [mailto:gpxe-bounces at etherboot.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Dwyer
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2010 1:55 AM
To: gpxe at etherboot.org
Subject: [gPXE] remote booting on HP hardware results in blinking cursor

Hi all,

I’m trying to use gpxe to remote boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu over iSCSI on my desktop machine.  I’ve tried other operating systems and setup methods too (direct and indirect installation).  The problem is that once I’ve installed the OS and attempt to boot it nothing happens.  When it comes to installing Windows
7 using the ‘keep-san’ method, the installer doesn’t even list the iSCSI target. 

The commands I run at the gpxe console to boot an installed OS are:

dhcp net0
sanboot iscsi:SERVERNAME::::iqn.2010-11.foo:bar

The result:
Registered as BIOS drive 0x80
Booting from BIOS drive 0x80
"cursor blinks but nothing else happens"

I’m guessing my hardware isn’t compatible somehow because I’ve installed the same OSs to different machines without a problem.  The desktop machine is a HP
Z400 package system.  Both the motherboard and BIOS are HP.  The network card I’m using is a 3Com 3C905C-TXM because gpxe wouldn’t even recognise the onboard one. 

Has anyone else experienced this problem?  Anyone had any experience remote booting with HP hardware?  Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks

Andrew 


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