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<tt>Shao Miller wrote:</tt>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:4CD94BDC.1010504@YRDSB.Edu.On.Ca">
<title></title>
<tt><a href="mailto:carlyoung@keycomm.co.uk" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" moz-do-not-send="true">carlyoung@keycomm.co.uk</a>
wrote:</tt>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:4610.1289307554@keycomm.co.uk"><tt><br>
<b>On Mon 08/11/10 6:09 PM , Shao Miller <a href="mailto:Shao.Miller@yrdsb.edu.on.ca" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" moz-do-not-send="true">Shao.Miller@yrdsb.edu.on.ca</a>
sent:<br>
</b></tt>
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<div lang="x-western" class="moz-text-html"><tt><a href="javascript:top.opencompose('carlyoung@keycomm.co.uk','','','')" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" moz-do-not-send="true">carlyoung@keycomm.co.uk</a>
wrote:</tt>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:3312.1289237828@keycomm.co.uk"><!--
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--><tt><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Hi all.<br>
<br>
... ... ...<br>
</span></tt></blockquote>
<tt><br>
</tt><tt>I know this NIC. :) It's the (previously NetXen) QLogic
"Phantom" NIC.<br>
<br>
</tt>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:3312.1289237828@keycomm.co.uk"><tt><span style="font-size: 10pt;">This has apparently been shipped with a
"gPXE" client and I am having some interoperability problems with a PXE
boot server in that the client sends a boot request with an empty boot
filename despite the DHCP ack containing a filename (for TFTP access).<br>
</span></tt></blockquote>
<tt><br>
</tt><tt>Can you capture the DHCP transaction with Wireshark or
'tcpdump' and filter it for DHCP and share the resulting packets as an
e-mail attachment? I don't quite understand what you mean by the client
sending an empty boot filename. Do you mean it makes a TFTP request
with an empty filename? If so, do you have a Control-B CLI? If so, can
you please try:<br>
<br>
</tt> <tt>dhcp net0<br>
</tt><tt>show filename<br>
<br>
</tt> <tt>and report whether or not you got a filename from the
DHCP
service?<br>
</tt></div>
<div lang="x-western" class="moz-text-html"><tt> </tt></div>
</blockquote>
<tt>Thanks Shao, <br>
I have attached gpxe.cap. You can see the DHCP ACK in frame 14 with a
boot file name present and frame 15 shows a TFTP read with an empty
filename. I managed to find out version of gPXE client this morning -
apparently it is 0.9.9 embedded. <br>
I can't do the CLI operations currently - I will have to ask for those
to be performed on my behalf. <br>
I just want to know if I should be looking at getting the gPXE client
'fixed' or the server or what...</tt></blockquote>
<tt><br>
Yes frame 14 is key. Your DHCP service appears to hand out a PXE menu
to clients. I'm assuming that the client times out by not pressing F8,
then performs another DHCP request; this time, already having the IP
address it previously negotiated.<br>
<br>
I would guess that the presence of the IP address and/or the direction
of this DHCP request directly to the DHCP server implies the PXE menu
timeout occurred. The DHCP server's subsequent ACK finally contains a
boot filename. In this case, it makes sense that it sends something
whose filename suggests that the client merely fall-through to booting
its HDD. Why, such a file could even be the two bytes 0xCD 0x18. :)<br>
<br>
However, the filename strikes me as unusual: #MPCPathBoot#\boothd<br>
<br>
I am now investigating to see whether there's a parsing problem with
such an odd-looking filename. Please stay tuned.</tt></blockquote>
<tt><br>
As a matter of fact, we do have a problem with such an odd filename.
You see, some HTTP URIs sometimes go something like
<a href="http://webserver/page#section" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">http://webserver/page#section</a> and we do some processing with #.<br>
<br>
While looking at this, I'd like to ask, though: Are you quite certain
that the DHCP + PXE service is configured correctly? Could it be that
#MPCPathBoot# is intended as a place-holder in the CA-Unicenter Managed
PC Boot Server settings? A palce-holder for whatever the TFTP
directory is supposed to be?<br>
<br>
- Shao Miller<br>
</tt>
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