Software for PrimeNet farm

[PrimeCruncher]

Well, after much ado and dsouza123 pointing out a thread that I started , the Prime Cruncher is UP and RUNNING. Still have to check the save files to make sure it updates, but everything is looking good! Right now it only has one node, an AMD Duron 950 oc'd to 1017, but I have plans to expand. If I feel like it, I'll post some pix later. A big thanks to Prime Monster; without your How-To guide, this never would have happened.

'Scuse me, I need to go perform my victory jig some more...

[geoff]

Originally Posted by Angular

I have an Intel PXE NIC booting from the LTSP server, but am not excited about trying to get flashing a MB BIOS with etherboot...

Until now I have been booting my linux farm using bootp from etherboot rom images on floppy disk, because none of my machines (not even the ones with onboard ethernet) could boot directly from the network device, and the cost of a separate boot rom is far more than a floppy drive.

Recently I added an HP Vectra VLi8/SF (600MHz Coppermine P3) to the farm. I really like this little machine, it runs very quietly from a 90W power supply, and it has BIOS options for DHCP, BOOTP, PXE, and some other boot protocols that I am not familiar with. It uses a KZM-6120 motherboard, Intel 440zx chipset with onboard 3Com 3c905B ethernet, but I don't know whether the boot agent is a standard feature or something added by HP.

When I tried the BOOTP option it complained that the Linux kernel was too large. I am using a 2.6.9 kernel and can't make it smaller than 720MB without removing features that I need. When I add all the features that I want it is about 980MB.

I tried the PXE boot option, it complained that it couldn't find a pxe server (that is because I don't have one set up :-) but somehow it managed to load an etherboot .zpxe image anyway. From there it had no problem loading a 980MB kernel, but once loaded it complained about overlapping memory addresses. The solution was to add the --relocseg=0x8000 option to mknbi-linux when preparing the kernel for etherboot.

The end result is that this machine now boots directly from the network device using my existing etherboot bootp setup, no pxe server required. I can post more details of the configuration if anyone is interested.

[Mystwalker]

Did you mean KB instead of MB? I can't think of a Linux kernel not fitting even on a CD...

[geoff]

Originally Posted by Mystwalker

Did you mean KB instead of MB? I can't think of a Linux kernel not fitting even on a CD...

Yes 980KB sorry :-) I think the HP's BOOTP option wants it to fit in the first 640KB for some reason.

Also Angular was talking about flashing the motherboard BIOS with etherboot, there is a DOS program called cbrom.exe that might be capable of doing this for Award BIOS's, it is mentioned in the etherboot maual: http://www.etherboot.org/doc/html/userman/x302.html. If this works it could be the solution to getting some of my other machines booting directly from the network device.

[leifbk]

Can somebody please tell my why you'd want a diskless Linux computer? Personally, I'm quite happy with running a minimal Linux off a HDD. On my old Celeron I run Gentoo which is rather disk hungry because of the compiling, but the total required diskspace, including a very liberal swap area, is still below 2GB. However, there's no problem fitting a minimal, say Debian, installation on a 500-1000 MB HDD. Any old hardware packrat should have some of those floating around

regards, Leif.

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by leifbk

Can somebody please tell my why you'd want a diskless Linux computer?

Say for the sake of the arguement that HDD's cost 100money units (mu) and that a MB+CPU cost 200mu. For every HDD that you don't have you can get half of another comp. If you run only the minimum hardware required and use a net to boot the machines from, you can afford more nodes.

[leifbk]

Sure, I agree if you have to go out and buy brand-new HW. I'm pretty sure there are others like me here, though, who never gets around to actually throw away hardware which is still sort of usable

So, I've got a veritable junkyard under my desk ...

-Leif.

[sdbardwick]

Originally Posted by leifbk

Can somebody please tell my why you'd want a diskless Linux computer?

Besides the cost of the equipment itself, there is the added energy consumption (and related heat production). I'm at the point where my annual energy bill is equal to my annual hardware purchasing budget, so every watt avoided is welcome.

Sure you could use an older HD and have it spin down, but repeated start/stop cycles are the last thing you want for older HDs, and I'd be upset at any loss of CPU time.

[leifbk]

Originally Posted by sdbardwick

Besides the cost of the equipment itself, there is the added energy consumption (and related heat production). I'm at the point where my annual energy bill is equal to my annual hardware purchasing budget, so every watt avoided is welcome.

You've definitely got a point, considering that you live in sunny California. Here in Norway, we're blessed with vast amounts of inexpensive, clean, renewable hydroelectric power; at the same time we're cursed with a climate where we have to heat our homes most of the year. We're using a lot of electricity for heating, so it doesn't really matter whether the heat comes from the wall elements or from the computers. But I tend not to run my home computers 24/7 during the summer months

regards, Leif.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by leifbk

You've definitely got a point, considering that you live in sunny California. Here in Norway, we're blessed with vast amounts of inexpensive, clean, renewable hydroelectric power; at the same time we're cursed with a climate where we have to heat our homes most of the year. We're using a lot of electricity for heating, so it doesn't really matter whether the heat comes from the wall elements or from the computers. But I tend not to run my home computers 24/7 during the summer months

regards, Leif.

Here in the UK we are not blessed with inexpensive, etc, energy but we are cursed with a miserable climate. I regard computation as a valuable by-product of my fan heaters.

I also have a fair collection of all sorts of bits and pieces, out of which I build fan heaters.

Paul

[geoff]

It is easier to administer a diskless system. In most cases to install or update a program it is sufficient to install or update it on the file server.