[Beowulf] Changing BIOS settings on nodes

[Geoff Jacobs]

Honest Guvnor wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> We would like to change the BIOS settings on our compute nodes to
> enable PXE booting which is disabled by default (AMIBIOS on Intel
> D875PBZ Pentium 4 motherboard). Reading and writing with /dev/nvram
> seems to work as expected but reboot fails because of a test against
> the checksum of the previous BIOS settings. Is there a way round this?
> 
> The nodes have no video card, there is no support for a serial console
> in the BIOS but there are floppy disk drives. Any thoughts on
> alternative ways to change the BIOS?
> 
> We have the fallback option of putting an Etherboot floppy disk in
> every node when we want to reinstall but would like to avoid this if
> we can,
> 
> Andy.

This is where the Crash Cart comes into play. You know, the one with the
 tools, crimper, maybe some spare fans, etc. Usually a monitor and
keyboard as well.


-- 
Geoffrey D. Jacobs

To have no errors
  would be life without meaning
  No struggle, no joy