[xcat-user] flash=cmos hangs on sshdos

[egan at sense.n. (E. Ford)]

Make sure the xcatd is running (service xcatd restart).

The ssh command is used to update the remote boot flag after the flash.  So it
is not critical, but nice.  Also with xCAT 1.1 only e100 based nodes were
supported.  1.2 supports e100, e1000, and bcm5700 (x86 and opteron).  The new
rflash in 1.2 works better, but is not released yet.  You might try that at the
end of the month.

Also you may want to consider the lflash utils on alphsworks.  rflash was
written before we had lflash, and I believe that lflash is supported on your
nodes.  lflash will allow you to flash the BIOS and other subsystems from Linux
and also change the CMOS setting by setting.  Very nice tool.  Search for ASU or
lflash.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: McCanta, Jay [mailto:mcc...@am...] 
> Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2004 5:51 PM
> To: xca...@li...
> Subject: [xcat-user] flash=cmos hangs on sshdos
> Importance: High
> 
> 
> I am having trouble with the flash=cmos setup in our 
> 1.1.RC9.1 xcat setup.  
> I have built a boot floppy in the /opt/xcat/flash area that 
> has the correct
> cmos file for the compute nodes.  
> I did the "mkflash", and "nodeset cn001 flash=cmos".  The 
> system boots with
> the right boot disk, sets the cmos fine, and then hangs on 
> the "sshdos -f
> flash..." command.  
> On the head node, there are a number of "hose" commands 
> generated by this,
> but no output at the compute node.  The "flash" account has
> /opt/xcat/flash/bootflag listed for the shell.  It seems to 
> run.  If I add a
> "set -x" in the bootflag file, I see the debugging output on 
> the compute
> node.  It shows that the "hose" command just sits there.
> 
> Ideas, guidelines, minor miracles, all welcome.
> 
> Jay McCanta
> Amgen, Inc.
> 206-265-8335
>