"Marlier, Ian" <ian.marlier@studentuniverse.com> writes:
(This situation -- where the NIC is on a network with DHCP, but doesn't get an address -- can be an indication that negotiation between the NIC and the switch to which it's network is taking a while -- and that the PXE process times out before the link is negotiated and brought up. It's happened with some of my machines, though only in cases where the networking hardware behind them is Cisco)
There's a IOS configuration option that will help speed up the initial handshaking -- portfast, IIRC? hth, john, not the network guy; just hollers at the network guy when the PXE boots start timing out... -- genehack.org * weblog == ( bioinfo / linux / opinion / stuff ) * daily * Format a program to help the reader understand it. - The Elements of Programming Style (Kernighan & Plaugher)