✎ hardwareissues - Etherboot/gPXE Wiki

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.

====== Hardware Issues ======

This page contains some issues that people had while using gpxe.

===== 3Com 3C905-TX Card =====


This card is known to not support gpxe while using the MBA v4.0.

==== Symptoms ====

gPXE loads, negociate the link speed but the DHCP doesn't grab any valid adress even if the DHCP server make an offer.
This is due to a buggy PXE rom, this usually happens on the MBA (Master Boot Agent) v4.0.

==== How to Fix ====

3com deliver a firmware upgrade and can be downloaded [[ftp://ftp.3com.com/pub/nic/3c90x/util430.exe|here]].
This file have to be decompressed and run in a real dos mode.

Then run //mbaflash.exe//

If you don't have any dos system or floppy (this become more & more rare theses days), you can use this [[http://konilope.linuxeries.org/pxe/dos.img|floppy disk image]]. Then add an entry in your pxelinux configuration file like :

  LABEL flash
   KERNEL memdisk
   APPEND dos.img

The //dos.img// file must be put, in this example, at the root path of your tftp server.

Then boot your PXE and call the //flash// entry. The freedos environment loads and then call //mbaflash.exe//

=== After upgrading ===

The MBA version is now upgraded to v4.30, gpxe can now be loaded.


===== Nvidia nForce =====
Booting Windows XP/2k/etc using the WinAoE driver might not work, due to a missing service not being started. While this is not a hardware issue, nor a problem with gPXE, it is included here for informative purposes.

==== Symptoms ====
After installing WinAoE and making sure the NVENETFD service is started at boot, booting the image over AoE will work well until aoe32.sys is loaded. Upon loading aoe, the system will hang without any network activity. This happens even though the NVENETFD and nvnetbus services are loaded before aoe32.sys.

This is tested on Windows XP and Vista, both 32-bit. Not tested using 64-bit, but the problem is likely to be the same.

==== How to Fix ====
There are rumors (ref informal #etherboot chat) that another service needs to be active, but it is not known which one. Another option is to use the RIS driver for the nForce card (not verified). The simplest fix is to simply use another network adapter.

Trace: • ibft • journal • journal • gpxeonvmware • 2011 • usbwithstorage • andytim_todo • vmwarebios • contributing • gdbstub • staging • ubuntu_iscsi2 • msdhcp • commandline • oremanj • 2009 • 2010 • soc • project_plan • usermanual