1 Topic by wcb

  • wcb
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Topic: PXE boot OK but hangs on ethernet

I am PXE booting latest GParted 0.16.1-1-i486 in conjunction with our FOG server. The menu is fine and GParted will launch and begin downloading. On my Dell E4310 it runs fine. We have another model laptop I was testing on (Itronix XR-1) that hangs during boot. The last thing displayed is "Waiting for ethernet card(s) up... If this fails, maybe the ethernet card is not supported by the kernel 3.2.0-4-486?"

Ethernet card is listed as Agere Systems ET-131x PCI-E Gigabit.

Do I need to download GParted source and make my own build with this card enabled? I see the doc page on building from scratch but am not sure about adding all the drivers I may need into that. I am primarily a Windows admin. I can do some things in linux but not sure if I have enough time to learn this one yet.

Can I just request that this driver be added to the next build and wait for that?

2 Reply by gedakc

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Re: PXE boot OK but hangs on ethernet

Can you try downloading GParted Live 0.16.1-2 in the testing directory?

This is a newer release and uses a more recent Linux kernel and might include support for your hardware.

3 Reply by wcb

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Re: PXE boot OK but hangs on ethernet

Updated the vmlinuz, initrd.img and filesystem.squashfs from the testing zip file and tried again. I get the same message except the kernel is now of course showing as 3.8.1-486.

4 Reply by gedakc

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Re: PXE boot OK but hangs on ethernet

Since GParted Live is based on Debian Live, would you be able to try the latest Debian Live (SID) image?

I suggest trying the XFCE .iso.
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cur … so-hybrid/

If the Debian Live image works, then we have something wrong with the GParted Live image.
If not, then you might need to raise the issue with the Debian team.

5 Reply by wcb

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Re: PXE boot OK but hangs on ethernet

No joy.

I downloaded the xfce iso and took the vmlinuz1, initrd1 and filesystem.squashfs from the iso and set it up just the way the gparted was setup in the PXE boot menu. I have 2 test systems that booted into Debian from this setup through PXE boot but the Itronix with the Agere ethernet card still does not.

6 Reply by gedakc

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Re: PXE boot OK but hangs on ethernet

Based on your test results it sounds like the Agere ethernet card is not supported by the Debian Live image.  ;-(

To try to get this problem resolved you might consider raising this issue with the Debian team through their bug tracker.