Looking for an ASUS motherboard that net boots...

Colin McGregor colin.mc151-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
Wed Aug 20 14:42:35 UTC 2008


On 8/15/08, Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 10:51:31AM -0400, Colin McGregor wrote:
>> The board has the MAC address : db:b3:db:60:1d:00 . This is a
>> broadcast MAC address.
>
> So it has address 00:1d:60:db:b3:db when not read in reverse.  That
> would make sense.
>
> So you actually see the reversed address in the logs from the network
> boot server?

Yes.

So, to sum up what seems to happen is this:

- Script is run on the server telling it to expect a new diskless client.
- Diskless client is booted sends out a bootp request, with the
broadcast MAC address, which the server responds to.
- Kernel is downloaded by diskless client and run.
- Kernel sees the MAC address is invalid, and changes MAC address to a
randomly selected valid MAC address.
- Diskless client requests an IP address from DHCP server (running on
little router box), and gets a different IP address each time (because
the MAC address keeps changing).
- Things get weird... If I run the set-up script, the server will
continue to set-up a profile for the diskless client, based on the IP
number (which will not be the same on the next boot). If I don't run
the set-up script here, things will fail because the IP number has not
been configured.

If I restrict the number of available dhcp numbers to a small value
(say 4) then I will just run out of available IP numbers and
EVERYTHING breaks...

Kernel in all of this is 2.6.18 (not the latest ... and I am loath to
change because I have a solid reliable server there...).

Any event, the motherboard ASUS M2N-MX SE Plus motherboard was shipped
back to ASUS on Monday by FedEX Air and was delivered Tuesday morning
to the ASUS office in Indiana (the tab for the FedEx bill being picked
up by ASUS). So, what should be a 10 minute job is more more like a 10
week job and I have a motherboard that is collecting a lot more
frequent flyer points than me :-( ... This motherboard is now a
financial and good will loss for ASUS. I am annoyed and frustrated...
A no win situation all around... Sigh...

Colin McGregor

>> If I boot a live CD the the software will detect that I have an
>> invalid MAC address. The software will then change the MAC address to
>> a valid value selected at random. This is an issue as the server
>> software uses the MAC address to know what configuration files to be
>> loaded into which client machine(s)...
>
> Which kernel version are you booting?
> 	
> I see changes were made in the kernel git tree around a year ago (not sure
> when they entered the release kernels) to fix the fact that some newer
> nvidia chips (like the MCP61 on your board) in fact are NOT reversed and
> should not be messed with.  All kernels before that fix will get it wrong.
>
>> The motherboard sends an invalid MAC address across the network and
>> any software that respects the IEEE 802 standard will not work.
>
> The network boot code does?  ouch.  That means ASUS stored the MAC
> address reversed on a board where it shouldn't be, at least if the
> comments in the kernel code that says MCP61's are never reversed are
> correct.
>
>> The way ASUS could fix this would be to put a valid MAC address into
>> the BIOS. Alternatively, I gather one of the other motherboard
>> builders that had the same issue offers a free MS-DOS (gag) utility
>> that lets you change the MAC address in EEROM to anything you want
>> (not ideal, but this is a workable solution). If ASUS offered this
>> change MAC address utility, I could run MS-DOS once, change the MAC
>> address and have a working netbooting system...
>
> Hmm, I thought the MAC address was in the BIOS eeprom.
>
>> The whole point of this exercise was to build a small, light weight,
>> low power, quiet PC. If during set-up I need to connect a floppy drive
>> or a CD-ROM drive as a one time event, I could live with that. What I
>> am not willing to tolerate is having to keep any sort of drive
>> (floppy, optical or hard drive) as a perminate part of the system.
>
> Yeah that would defeat the purpose.
>
>> Well, if I could even change just the first byte of the MAC address I
>> could be off to the races, but with an invalid value there, and no way
>> to change the MAC address I am @#$%.
>
> Well the whole address simply needs to be reversed (or possibly not
> reversed in the first place).
>
> --
> Len Sorensen
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