Netboot on RHEL x86 (32bit) with Broadcom (tg3) – no network

I have a PXE installation server setup, and it usually works quite well. I have tried to install a Tyan based system using this setup, but this time – RHEL4 U3 X86 and not the usual X86_64 system.

RH installer starts by asking few questions (language, keyboard, method of installation) and fails to obtain DHCP IP. Even setting manual IP results with no communication.

I got an idea from a friend and would try it today – since the 1Gb/s Broadcom is connected to 100Mb/s switch, I should try and disable the auto-negotiation, and set a predefined speed for the card. We’ll see how/if it works, and if it allows for the 32bit installer to work. The 64bit installer works fine, by the way.

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One Comment

  1. In my post just below, I have defined a set of tests to verify the possible cause of the tg3 problem. It had nothing to do with autoneg, and was fixed in RHEL 4 Update 4. That 32bit installer works correctly.One last thing to test – rebuild the installer

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