Live CD problem

[Michael E Brown]

On Wed, Aug 22, 2007 at 01:21:38PM +0100, Dr A V Le Blanc wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 20, 2007 at 05:20:28PM -0500, Michael E Brown wrote:
> > New packages are now posted which fix this bug, and additionally, I've
> > got a really slick GUI: inventory_firmware_gui.
> 
> Well, I rebuilt the CD yesterday with the new packages, and
> I can report some success: the CD actually has upgraded the BIOS
> on one of my servers, and it seems to work.  Thanks to everyone
> who has worked on producing this CD.

Can you post the latest scripts you've used to create the live CD?

Now that I have a usable GUI, the next step is I'm going to try to
automate producing a live CD for general consumption.

> Unfortunately it doesn't solve my real problem: the DRAC III cards
> on 11 of my servers are not allowing remote access after boot.
> Console output gets sent out via the DRAC, and I can read it,
> but it refuses to accept keyboard input.  The output from
> getsysinfo includes:
> 
>      Firmware Version   = 2.50 (Build 07.21)
>      Firmware Updated   =
>      Hardware Version   = A05
>      System ID    = 0121h
>      System Model = PowerEdge 2650
>      BIOS Version = A15
>      ESM Version  = 2.50
> 
> If I login to the DRAC card and 'connect video', my typing is
> recognised (partially) enough to let me pass options to the
> boot loader, but after the system boots, though I see the output
> and get a prompt, anything I type is ignored.  Bizarrely, if I
> go to the machine and plug a PS2 keyboard in, the DRAC begins
> to accept input from that moment.  Unfortunately I don't have
> space in my racks to plug keyboards into everything.
> 
> The unfortunate fact is that they worked properly when we bought
> the machines, but stopped when we installed a BIOS upgrade (which
> fixed a serious problem, so I don't want to go back!)

If you do not get a good response on the list, you might have to call
support on this issue. I dont know much about DRAC III, but this sounds
like an "interesting" issue.
--
Michael