[Netkit.users] hostfs problems in fat-client

[Massimo Rimondini]

Dear Alessandro,

I don't see anything wrong with your setup but must admit that it is a
bit unusual.
All I can do for the moment is to suggest you to dig further into the
problem by considering the following hints:

    * host filesystem type (ok, it's networked, but what kind of FS?
      Maybe there are permission/bandwidth issues? Is there abnormal
      network activity when the hang occurs?)
    * potential bugs in the hostfs implementation in the kernel shipped
      with Netkit (there shouldn't be any, but some have been reported
      in the past with a behavior similar to the one you are reporting)
    * messages logged by host and guest kernels on hang (you can run a
      tail -f /var/log/messages in background in the guest to capture
      these messages, provided that the kernel is still alive during the
      hang; maybe starting the machines with the --verbose option also
      helps)

Cheers,
Massimo.


Alessandro Dentella wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to get working a setup in which several machines are fed a
> fat-client kernel from an ltsp ubuntu server, i.e. clients that don't even
> use local hard drive, get from dhcp kerel and contnue the boot using a
> network mounted root filesystem
>
> I want to use this setup to let a whole class of shool admin to practice in
> a lab where no desktop linux distro are available.
>
> I'm *sure* I saw it working correctly some days ago but right now I have a
> problem: in netkit-pahase1, mounting /hostlab (and /hosthome) leads
> to a situation in which an 'ls /hostlab' just hangs the netkit machine.
>
> Note that mount command exists with exit code 0
>
> I'm convinced that thare's nothing wrong in the host machine becouse when I
> tried some days ago I already had a situation in which sometimes I coud get
> a normal boot and someties I had the boot failure due to netkit-pahase1
> hanging, but at that time I didn't understand it was hostfs responsability
> and I didn't put enought attention in what made the difference...
>
> any hint is very appreciated
>
>
> thanks
> sandro
> *:-)
>
>
>
>
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