PBA tftp open error

[twegner]

I have installed PBA on my Amahi box. When I do a network boot on another computer on the network, it gets a DHCP IP OK and lists the Amahi IP as DNS server. But then I get the error "TFTP OPEN Timeout". Is there something I have to do to enable the Amahi box TFTP server beyond installing PBA?

Tim

[cpg]

hmm, sounds like a bug.

but it could also be that your pc/laptop does not have the network bios enabled in the NIC or something. can you double check that?

can you also try to do network boot with other computers?

finally, you can also use SystemRescueCD to boot the machine you want to backup without using network boot.

we're trying to migrate to PXEKnife, but it's taking a while, since we're shorthanded.

[twegner]

Thanks for the quick reply. The PC is homebuilt with a Gigabyte motherboard. I enabled network boot. I have other options, though, including some you mentioned. I just thought I should mention it. ... Hmmm - I just checked administration->services, and tftp is installed but needs the xinetd package which is not installed. Is tftp installed with PBA or was it already supposed to be installed?

I installed xinetd on the Amahi box, and now my PC boots to a Linux prompt insert#. I can't use the keyboard because it doesn't recognize my USB keyboard. I'll try again later with a PS2 keyboard. However I thought from the instructions PBA was supposed to start. I think I will reinstall PBA.

Thanks,

Tim

[cpg]

good catch! a dependency is in order!!
(i just added)

this is somewhat strange, though. how did you install?

now - insert in the mini-distro included in PBA. it's a little dated, so new hardware may not be recognized by it, which i think may be what's happening here with the insert# prompt.

you can also try to do: ./pba.sh

as mentioned, we're a bit shorthanded on updating PBA. one idea is to move to Clonezilla.

in the mean time, you should be able to see this page: http://pba

with directions for using SystemRescueCD (or, to a lesser extent, Slax) for systems that do not work well with insert.

[moredruid]

on a different note, last I noticed some messages during a backup mentioning that the NFS mount was lost. It reconnected fine after a while, but still.
There was no mentionable network traffic other than the backup going on so that shouldn't have caused the issue.

[cpg]

yes, i have seen this.

we were speculating that it might be a combination of:

- very high volume of traffic on the wire
- possibly less-than perfect wiring (e.g. cat5 or less on a gigabit network)
- the nfs server in linux not being up to snuff in such a very large volume

i re-wired my home network (partially, though - i still have very long wires with a switch to make it longer), and i have not seen that for a long time. granted i do not use pba every day.

just my 2c

[moredruid]

hmm wiring: nah don't think so... I'm running CAT6 to & fro a 3com gigabit switch...
my best guess is the el-cheapo mainboard & onboard Gb NIC crapping out on 120GB+ file transfers...

[cpg]

hehe, i forgot that fourth bullet. yup, that can also be it. pba really stresses things network wise, from cabling to drivers to hardware and everything else in between.

[moredruid]

still, I get around 50/60MB/s wirespeeds, not bad actually.
I have a suspicion that this is mainboard related, sometimes the network transfer stalls a bit and then starts over again...
seems like some performance hit in either the chipset or sata controller/sata disk not being able to keep up with the transfer rate... I have SATA2 disks (300MB/s optimal speed) so I think it's in the chipset/controller.

I have an Intel dual Gb PCI-X NIC lying here at work, lemme see if I can put that one in the Amahi box and notice any difference.