Plan B Edubuntu Terminal Server Install Problem

[dbclinton]

Coincidentally, my first successful thin client connection was with a
laptop (a Compaq PIII 1.0 ghz whose BIOS controlled the boot-to-NIC
perfectly). Check out the BIOS of some of your clients to see if their
boot options include booting to an NIC. 
Resetting the switch simply involves pulling its adapter plug for a few
seconds and letting it start up again. Either it will make a difference
immediately or it won't. Not a lot of guessing on that one.
Check outputs from /var/log/syslog during client boots to see if your
clients are getting IP addresses. This is the beginning of a successful
thin client boot on my system:

Apr 15 13:13:58 rishon dhcpd: DHCPDISCOVER from 00:50:da:d0:c6:af via
eth1
Apr 15 13:13:59 rishon dhcpd: DHCPOFFER on 192.168.0.244 to
00:50:da:d0:c6:af via eth1
Apr 15 13:14:01 rishon dhcpd: DHCPREQUEST for 192.168.0.244
(192.168.0.254) from 00:50:da:d0:c6:af via eth1
Apr 15 13:14:01 rishon dhcpd: DHCPACK on 192.168.0.244 to
00:50:da:d0:c6:af via eth1
Apr 15 13:14:09 rishon dhcpd: DHCPDISCOVER from 00:50:da:d0:c6:af via
eth1

"00:50:da:d0:c6:af" is my client's MAC address - the first sing that the
computers are at least talking to each other.
Good luck,
David

On Tue, 2008-04-15 at 12:56 -0700, operationsengineer1 at yahoo.com wrote:

> 
> i have other old computers that also don't connect.  i think i need to 
> 
> 1. make sure the switch is working correctly
> 2. make sure the dhcp on the server is working correctly.
> 
> can anyone help with troubleshooting ideas?  i do have a winxp laptop that i could use.  i could even boot off of a dsl linux cd, if that will help.
> 
> i will try resetting the switch if it turns out i can't get my laptop to connect.
> 
> i do believe that i'm getting a link light, although i will double check. 
> 
> there is only one nic card on the server and on on the client.
> 
> thanks for the info on the bios issue.  i will give it a shot - and that will give me another test computer, too.
> 
> oe1
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: dbclinton <dbclin at gmail.com>
> To: EDUBUNTU MAILING LIST <edubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2008 4:05:25 PM
> Subject: Re: Plan B Edubuntu Terminal Server Install Problem
> 
> > i think this could either be a romomatic problem (perhaps i didn't create the boot disk correctly), a software configuration problem or a nic compatibility problem.
> 
> If you have another NIC available, perhaps you could try troubleshooting
> with that. I had one older client (PII 500) that I simply gave up on
> when it refused to boot to the network (returning an similar error
> message to yours) despite trying at least three different NICs. I
> suspect that the BIOS was somehow the culprit.
> You might also want to reset your switch just in case that's an issue (it was once for me).
> I assume that you've successfully booted other clients to this server...
> Good luck
> 
>