Crack rack is operational...

[Russ]

The hardware is, anyway. Got the switch boxes and cables in this morning so all the slaves can use the same keyboard and monitor as the server. All slaves boot just fine off the Linux Router floppy I've been playing with. Link lights on the switches sure look pretty when they're fired up.

ccalvert,

Any word from Dnet yet on your Linux floppy RC5 project? You could be my hero.

Russ, NCNE

 

[BurntKooshie]

Awsome! I don't normally post congrats posts because i don't have THAT much time, but congrats!

 

[SYST3M]

so now that you have your rack up and operational, have you decided to give in to the right thing to do and join TWTA?

 

[Russ]

SYST3M,

I will certainly give that idea all of the consideration that it merits.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Ken g6]

Russ, while you're waiting, I'd like to point out that Seti already has a floppy: http://lrp.gibbsoft.com/ Just a thought.

 

[Russ]

Ken_g6,

See foregoing response.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Possessed Freak]

RUSS, the decision is definity worth a considerable time in consideration. Have we told you the perks yet, ummmm if you join I will send you a brand new aol CD! But thats only to the first one to switch over right now

 

[Russ]

HMM... a new AOL CD, huh? HMM...

Russ, NCNE

 

[Ken g6]

Oh, you can use a monitor and keyboard for each node. :Q Okay, forget what I said last (I'm not sure of it anyway ) and try Tom's Root Boot Linux (actually Minix). It loads on a ramdisk, so once you've booted you can remove the disk and insert one with RC5.

Get Tom's Root Boot Linux here: http://www.toms.net/rb/home.html

 

[SYST3M]

hey i might even have some spare thermal paste lying around somewhere that i could send ya! think of that free thermal paste!

 

[Russ]

Ken_g6,

HeHe. I'm more than a little lost with those mini-linux distros. I have several, and I can't figure out how to get the nodes to communicate with the network. The NIC's all show up fine when I run ifconfig; they'll ping themselves and LO, but I'll be damned of I can get them to ping the the server, or any of the other systems. Hell, I can't even figure out how to unmount the boot floppy, than mount the RC5 floppy to start cracking.

I'm merely a zygote when it comes to Linux.

Russ, NCNE

 

[BoberFett]

Well I don't know Linux, but I do know networks. You can ping each machine meaning the loopback or the actual IP? If you can ping the IP then is your subnet mask correct?

 

[Russ]

I can only ping the NIC and the loopback on each node itself. The problem is that I can't figure out how to get the Linux on the node floppies to communicate with the network or the master node (server). For example, on the LRP floppy, it has a menu driven interface to configure all the settings, but nothing I've tried works.

I use the same IP range as the rest of the systems, and set the subnet the same, but no connecto.

I even tried setting it up for DHCP, but bootup stops and stays when it tries to initialize eth0.

The Linux on the server communicates just fine using DHCP on eth0 and an assigned address on eth1.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Russ]

YEEHAWWW!!!!!!!!!!! I just got Node 1 communicating with the rest of the network!!!!!! I can ping the other systems AND I can ping the outside world!!!! Now, on to the other Nodes.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Viztech]

Paulson-

As a Winblows network Geek, I can certainly appreciate Russ's position right now. Sometimes we really get off on justbeing able to 'ping' another computer because that means that a lot of things are working right.

viz

way to go Russ.

 

[Russ]

Ah, life is good. All five slave nodes are now operational and communicating! Node 5 wasn't getting a DHCP offer from the router, but that turned out to be a compatibility problem between the TNT2 and the SMC Ultra chip NIC. Swapped in a different video card, and presto!

Okay, Linux whizzes, how do I unmount the boot floppy, and mount the dnet client floppy? If I can do this, I can add over 2000Mhz tonight!

I think I'll order in a stack of 566's, crank them to 850 and add five more nodes to this bad boy!

Russ, NCNE

 

[Michael]

I predict that Russ will slowly be won over to the evil Linux side as the flexibility of creating different solutions with 1) all the source code available & 2) enough difficulty that it takes an experienced geek like him to get full power from the system take over.

I'm glad you got it working. I was going to try and get you a solution this weekend (via Usenet and Linux sites). You really shouldn't need the videocards and keyboard. It does help, though <grin>.

Michael

ps - I'm only just over the beginner stage with Linux but there are tons you are great at it that would help on a project like you've been doing.

 

[office boy]

<< I think I'll order in a stack of 566's, crank them to 850 and add five more nodes to this bad boy >>


That would be great russ, but I thought those were LX boards (60,66,75,83)

 

[Michael]

Russ,

First, go to your server and type:

man mount

man umount

Ok - here's what I think you have to do, it may vary depending on exactly how the floppy mounts from the bootup. I'm also assuming that you can't see the filesystem on the server (far better to run the program off a shared directory).

umount /dev/fd0 /mnt

you need to know what file system the floppy has to mount.

If msdos:

mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt

If ext2 (linux)

mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt

What floppy are you using, Linux router? If so, can you give me an URL?

Michael

ps - I found this on the Linux Router docs page:

umount /dev/fd0
mkdir /floppy
mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /floppy

After those commands, you should be able to see the rc5 files in directory floppy

pps - try

man nfs

That may be what you really want to do. Mount the server filesystem/shared directory and use a shared buffer just like a shared netwrok instalation would.

 

[Viztech]

Good point OB.
Russ is really getting into it now.
Go Russ!

viz

 

[Russ]

office boy,

The LX boards are already on the rack.

Michael,

I didn't run man on the server; instead I looked it up in Running Linux, but I still didn't understand what I was looking at. Yours looks much simpler; I'll try it. Here's the distro I'm using:

http://www.linuxsupportline.com/~router

Russ, NCNE

 

[Michael]

Russ - _Running Linux_ is open right beside me (trying to make sure I don't screw up too much). Pages 550-554 have a decent desciption of NFS and how it works.

Michael

ps - from reading the doics at the url you gave me, I'm wondering if this is exactly what you want. I think it will work, but you want more of a cluster set-up where the computer boots from the floppy but then reads from your server.

 

[Russ]

No need, Michael! You already gave me the fix!!!!!! The /floppy did the trick. Only one hurdle left and she'll be full force.

I'm getting:

Network::Failed to resolve name &quot;euro.v27.distributed...

I can ping anything on the web, including distributed.net, from the node with no problem, so I know it's communicating with the outside world. The dnet files on the floppy were taken off the server, and it talks to the keyserver no problem either.

Any ideas, guys?

Russ, NCNE

 

[Russ]

Just got another interesting error:

Open failed for './buff-out.rc5'
Access was denied.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Russ]

<< I think it will work, but you want more of a cluster set-up where the computer boots from the floppy but then reads from your server. >>



That is the eventual plan, but at this stage of my knowledge it's simpler for me to just have each node access dnet directly.

Russ, NCNE