x86 Client Installations

Review the following information about x86 client installations:

What Happens During the x86 Client Boot Sequence?
What Should I see During the x86 Client AI Boot Sequence?
x86 Booting Errors and Possible Causes

What Happens During the x86 Client Boot Sequence?

Boot the client from the network. For x86 clients, select the network device to boot from.

Note - It may be necessary to modify the BIOS configuration to select network booting.

The technical details of what occurs during the automated installer (AI) boot of an x86 client are as follows:

The client boots and gets an IP address and the bootfile, pxegrub, from the DHCP server.
pxegrub is loaded and reads menu.lst file by using TFTP.
pxegrub gets the boot_archive file and Solaris is booted by using TFTP.
The net image archives, solaris.zlib and solarismisc.zlib, are downloaded using HTTP.
The client contacts the install service through the AI HTTP server, and gets the install service by using multicast DNS, a DNS service.
The client contacts the server, http server, by using the information in the install service and gets the AI manifest.
The AI install program is invoked with the AI manifest to perform the installation.

What Should I see During the x86 Client AI Boot Sequence?

The x86 client installation is initiated by booting from the network, either by pressing the appropriate function key, for example, some systems use F12 to boot from the network, or by changing the boot order in the BIOS.

The first screen displays the following message when the client receives the correct DHCP response:

Intel(R) Boot Agent PXE Base Code (PXE-2.1 build 0.86)
Copyright(C) 1997-2007, Intel Corporation

CLIENT MAC ADDR 00 14 4F 29 04 12 GUID FF2000008 FFFF FFFF FFFF 7BDA264F1400
CLIENT IP: 10.6.68.29   MASK: 255.255.255.0    DHCP IP:  10.6.68.49
GATEWAY: 10.6.68.1

Next, the display shows the AI image that will be booted. Typically, there should be only one entry such as:

OpenSolaris 2009.06 snv_111 X86

Once the image is selected, the following messages are displayed.

Note - The image is selected automatically after a timeout.

SunOS Release 5.11 Version snv_111 64-bit
Copyright 1983-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
Use is subject to license terms.
Hostname: opensolaris
Remounting root read/write
Probing for device nodes ...
Preparing automated install image for use
Downloading solaris.zlib archive
--11:09:11--  http://10.6.35.226:5555//export/home \
/images/osol-0906-ai-x86//solaris.zlib
           => `/tmp/solaris.zlib'
Connecting to 10.6.35.226:5555... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 82,679,296 (79M) [text/plain]

100%[====================================>] 82,679,296    33.39M/s             

11:09:13 (33.36 MB/s) - `/tmp/solaris.zlib' saved [82679296/82679296]

Downloading solarismisc.zlib archive
--11:09:13--  http://10.6.35.226:5555//export/home/images \
/osol-0906-ai-x86//solarismisc.zlib
           => `/tmp/solarismisc.zlib'
Connecting to 10.6.35.226:5555... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 620,032 (606K) [text/plain]

100%[====================================>] 620,032       --.--K/s             

11:09:13 (36.48 MB/s) - `/tmp/solarismisc.zlib' saved [620032/620032]

--11:09:13--  http://10.6.35.226:5555//export/home/images/ \
osol-0906-ai-x86//install.conf
           => `/tmp/install.conf'
Connecting to 10.6.35.226:5555... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 39 [text/plain]

100%[====================================>] 39            --.--K/s             

11:09:13 (953.58 KB/s) - `/tmp/install.conf' saved [39/39]

Done mounting automated install image
Configuring devices.
Reading ZFS config: done.

Automated Installation started
The progress of the Automated Installation can be followed by 
viewing the logfile at /tmp/install_log

x86 Booting Errors and Possible Causes

Review the following information about x86 booting errors:

1. No DHCP or ProxyDHCP Offers Were Received

2. TFTP Error or System Hangs After GATEWAY Message

3. System Hangs After GRUB Menu Entry is Selected

4. HTTP Request Sent Results in 403 Forbidden

1. No DHCP or ProxyDHCP Offers Were Received

If a DHCP server is not responding to an x86 client's request, you see the following messages:

Intel(R) Boot Agent PXE Base Code (PXE-2.1 build 0.86)
   Copyright(C) 1997-2007, Intel Corporation

   CLIENT MAC ADDR 00 14 4F 29 04 12 GUID FF2000008 FFFF FFFF FFFF 7BDA264F1400
   DHCP......... No DHCP or ProxyDHCP offers were received
   PXE-MOF: Exiting Intel Boot Agent

The timeout message indicates that the client is sending a DHCP request and not getting a response. This issue is probably due to an error in the DHCP configuration. Check to see if your client is configured correctly in the DHCP server.

2. TFTP Error or System Hangs After GATEWAY Message

The DHCP server provides an IP address and a location of the initial boot program as part of the DHCP response.

If the boot program doesn't exist, then the AI client boot cannot proceed. The following message displays:

Intel(R) Boot Agent PXE Base Code (PXE-2.1 build 0.86)
     Copyright(C) 1997-2007, Intel Corporation

     CLIENT MAC ADDR 00 14 4F 29 04 12 GUID FF2000008 FFFF FFFF FFFF 7BDA264F1400
     CLIENT IP: 10.6.68.29   MASK: 255.255.255.0    DHCP IP:  10.6.68.49
     GATEWAY: 10.6.68.1
     TFTP.
     PXE-T02:    Access Violation
     PXE-E3C: TFTP Error - Access violation
     PXE-MOF: Exiting Intel Boot Agent

If the boot program exists, but it's an incorrect program, the AI client hangs after displaying this message:

Intel(R) Boot Agent PXE Base Code (PXE-2.1 build 0.86)
     Copyright(C) 1997-2007, Intel Corporation

     CLIENT MAC ADDR 00 14 4F 29 04 12 GUID FF2000008 FFFF FFFF FFFF 7BDA264F1400
     CLIENT IP: 10.6.68.29   MASK: 255.255.255.0    DHCP IP:  10.6.68.49
     GATEWAY: 10.6.68.1

3. System Hangs After GRUB Menu Entry is Selected

If the client is able to do the initial boot, but the OpenSolaris kernel cannot be booted, the system hangs after the user selects the entry from the GRUB menu.

On the install server, check whether the menu.lst file for this client is pointing to a valid boot archive. The boot directory of the image on the server should be loop-back mounted under the /tftpboot directory as shown in this snippet from df -k:

/export/home/images/osol-0906-ai-x86/boot \
60450439 21678071 38772368 36% /tftpboot/I86PC.OpenSolaris-12

If you know the name of the target directory that you used in the installadm create-service command, then you can use that information to find out whether that target directory is mounted. Also, check whether you can access the /tftpboot/I86PC.OpenSolaris-12/boot_archive file.

4. HTTP Request Sent Results in 403 Forbidden

On the install server, if one of the install programs doesn't exist in the location specified in the menu.lst file under /tftpboot, then the client is able to boot, but is not able to download that file. An error message is displayed indicating which file is causing the problem. For example, in the output below, the solaris.zlib file does not exist at the specified location.

SunOS Release 5.11 Version snv_111 64-bit
   Copyright 1983-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
   Use is subject to license terms.
   Hostname: opensolaris
   Remounting root read/write
   Probing for device nodes ...
   Preparing automated install image for use
   Downloading solaris.zlib archive
   --15:40:37--  http://10.6.35.226:5555//export/home/images/ai_x86_111/solaris.zlib
           => `/tmp/solaris.zlib'
   Connecting to 10.6.35.226:5555... connected.
   HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 403 Forbidden
   15:40:37 ERROR 403: Forbidden.

   FAILED
   Requesting System Maintenance Mode
   (See /lib/svc/share/README for more information.)
   Console login service(s) cannot run

Check the contents of the target directory that you specified when you ran the installadm create-service command.