[gPXE] RTL8185L desktop wifi PCI card...works now..signal wasn't strong enough before

Thu Jul 21 09:54:25 EDT 2011

Update: This works now. The wireless signal wasn't strong enough before. I added an antenna with a longer cable that is now line of sight to the AP and it works as it should. 

I tried re configuring my PXE server and the only thing that made a difference was commenting the "splash.png". After that I got to the PXE default menu. The logs showed the most timeouts on the larger files like the image. After seeing that, I figured the issue had to do with the connection so I improved it.

This is great and thanks again! Now it's time to take my chances flashing this onto a wired NIC or a bios.

JC

--- On Thu, 7/21/11, J C <c7aff at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: J C <c7aff at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [gPXE] RTL8185L desktop wifi PCI card: "No filename...No network devices" error
To: "Joshua Oreman" <oremanj at rwcr.net>
Cc: "gpxe" <gpxe at etherboot.org>
Date: Thursday, July 21, 2011, 5:57 AM

I shutdown an extra test PXE server and switched wireless AP's. That IP was from the wrong AP. I also disconnected the client bridge router (may still have DHCP or DNSmasq on it) from my desktop PC, as well as booted form CD with new rtl8185 iso files on it. 

Now I get further thanks to your input. I'm glad I got this far. I think the gPXE may be partly working or completely working. Now, as shown in the screnshot, it just hangs at the line: "Trying to load: pxelinux.cfg/default     ok"

It later says: "Boot failed: press any key..."

This PXE server works when I use a wired boot and with serveral other client laptop and desktop computers. Is gPXE less forgiving with server config than standard PXE clients?

JC

--- On Thu, 7/21/11, Joshua Oreman <oremanj at rwcr.net> wrote:

From: Joshua Oreman <oremanj at rwcr.net>
Subject: Re: [gPXE] RTL8185L desktop wifi PCI card: "No filename...No network devices" error
To: "J C" <c7aff at yahoo.com>
Cc: "gpxe" <gpxe at etherboot.org>
Date: Thursday, July 21, 2011, 5:07 AM

On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 9:51 PM, J C <c7aff at yahoo.com> wrote:

Thanks for your response. I think I've successfully used gPXE with an http cloud boot on the 8139 NIC before.

Attached is a pic of the screen when running the commands you sent. It's not of good quality. 2 of the important but fuzzy lines read like so:

...Operation cancelled (0x0b4e40a0)
...Packet decryption error (0x1c1f6602)

My Wifi AP has WPA-PSK TKIP. I'd like to know more of what file this refers to: "DHCP server responded but didn't specify a filename to boot". I'm guessing it it's the pxe menu file. I play around with this.

Please keep the list in the CC (your attachment included on this message for their benefit).

None of the error lines you indicated are problematic - DHCP succeeds and obtains an IP address (10.0.0.5; is that correct for your network?)

Your DHCP server needs to be providing a "filename" option specifying which file gPXE should boot. It's not. That's the cause of your troubles here; you need to reconfigure your DHCP server so that gPXE knows what to do once it has its IP address. This is not wireless-specific; it's the same as for any PXE boot. Maybe your wireless network has a DHCP server that's separate from your wired network, and you've only configured the one on your wired network?

Josh

JC

--- On Thu, 7/21/11, Joshua Oreman <oremanj at rwcr.net> wrote:

From: Joshua Oreman <oremanj at rwcr.net>
Subject: Re: [gPXE] RTL8185L desktop wifi PCI card: "No filename...No network devices" error
To: "J C" <c7aff at yahoo.com>
Cc: "gpxe" <gpxe at etherboot.org>
Date: Thursday, July 21, 2011, 3:15 AM 

On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 7:49 PM, J C <c7aff at yahoo.com> wrote:

I'm using an RTL8185L desktop wireless PCI card (lspci says: rev 20), 10ec:8185. I used a rom-o-matic ISO, selected rtl8185, and placed this script in the "Embedded Script" field at the bottom:

#!gpxe
set net0/ssid MYAP
set net0/key MYPSWORD
autoboot

I tried many rom-o-matic combos, some with all drivers, some with no embedded script, but this seems to work the best. IWLIST shows my AP. IWSTAT shows my AP and connection quality. In IRC I did this:

<me1user> gpxebot: lspci 10ec:8185
<gpxebot> rtl8185

I also used the command line (ctrl-B) and typed:

set net0/ssid MYAP
set net0/key MYPSWORD
dhcp net0
autoboot

However, I keep getting the below text with the cmd line and the ISO files. B and C always show up and A only shows up sometimes and I don't recall the order used when it doesn't show:

A) Link status: The socket is not connected (0x38086001)
B) No filename or root path specified
C) No more network devices

The other thing I should note is that I'm booting via PXE using a wireless router in client bridge mode (makes my 8139 NIC 'seem' like a wifi card) - I haven't yet tried it with a CD:

label gPXE8185
 menu label gPXE8185
 kernel boot/gpxe8185/RTL8185.KRN
 append initrd=boot/gpxe8185/ISOLINUX.BIN

Any ideas on a solution? Do I need try a different card? I bought 2 for this purpose so far. Thanks, --c7aff

(I have another RTL8185L that says rev B1 on the card but it said 'Not Supported' when I tried it in gPXE command line)

Hi JC,

I'm the original author of the rtl8185 driver, but this doesn't sound like a driver-specific problem. Specifically, "No filename or root path specified" usually indicates that the DHCP server responded but didn't specify a filename to boot, and "No more network devices" just means a boot has been attempted off of every supported network card in the system. "The socket is not connected" message is normal on wireless before the interface is opened (which occurs when you type "ifopen netX" or automatically when you try to perform DHCP).

Note that the rtl8139 card in your machine is also supported, so you should be sure you're using the correct network interface for the wireless if you're using an all-drivers build. (The ordering will depend on which card has the lower PCI device number in your system, but it should be consistent between boots.)

It's very difficult to diagnose exactly what's going on when you're giving such vague impressions of the output. Could you please run the following commands and transcribe or take a screenshot (using e.g. a digital camera) of the results?

iwstat
[note which network device is listed, and replace "netX" with it in the below]
set netX/ssid yournetworkname
set netX/key yourpassword
iwstat
dhcp netX
iwstat
autoboot

Josh

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