Re: how to set PXE-linux default reboot time debian-edu squeeze

[Petter Reinholdtsen <pere@hungry.com>]

[George]
> Hi,
> 
> I sometimes have problem with thin clients getting in to a "stalled"
> state just filling up the logs of the tjener with "squash-fs"
> messages.. That is, the client has somehow lost contact with tjener.

Hm, perhaps a good idea.  Any idea why it lost contact with tjener?

> I read on http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX that you
> could set a default reboot time for the client, to reboot say 30
> minutes after loosing contact. That is a dhcp option.
> 
> How can I set/change this in tjener? Are the clients supposed to
> reboot in case of loosing contact in the default debian-edu squeeze
> edition?
> 
> Option 211: pxelinux.reboottime

I doubt it do what you hope, though I have never used it myself.  It
is a setting to pxelinux, the program running very early in the boot
to fetch the kernel and the initrd, and will most likely only affect
the operation of that part of the boot.  Once the kernel take over and
the Linux system start, I suspect it will be ignored.

To do something similiar from within linux, I suspect a watchdog
process of some kind is the best option, checking if the NFS server is
reachable and/or the root file system is available.

-- 
Happy hacking
Petter Reinholdtsen