On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 00:26, <ol...@atlanticbb.net> wrote: > Hello all, > > I'm trying to set things up so that gPXE or PXElinux will boot to the optical > drive when sanboot fails so I can install an OS. I know this is supposed to > work by default but my BIOS is junk. Yes, the dvd drive is set up to be the > second boot device after the network card. I posted my question on > linuxquestions.org so I wouldn't junk up your inboxes. The post is here: > http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?p=4222474 > > And thank all involved for developing gPXE. It's great!
I just posted two replies at LinuxQuestions.org correcting the SYSLINUX-related syntax errors. As far as anything else, it'll depend on what "sanboot fails" results in. A permissive failure should tell the BIOS to use the next boot device. Have you tried to see about upgrading your BIOS? I'm assuming the NIC in question is a LoM (LAN On Motherboard) and probably gets its PXE stack from the BIOS ROM. If it's blank (binary 0's), all it'll do is execute the instruction "add [bx+si],al" (if I have the info correctly). In order to do anything useful, it needs to execute something like "INT 18h" or "INT 19h". Some BIOSs are nice and analyze the boot sector to determine if it's a blank before executing it. I believe gPXE just boots it. Manually booting from an optical drive probably won't work because booting an optical drive normally requires the BIOS to configure the El Torito boot. I'm very uncertain you'll ever find the answer you seek. -- -Gene _______________________________________________ gPXE mailing list gPXE@etherboot.org http://etherboot.org/mailman/listinfo/gpxe
