Why we need a PXE HOWTO. :)
> Why do you use etherboot at all? * I may just prefer Etherboot, e.g. if I already have a working Etherboot config for other machines. * Mostly C, so it can be easily developed by more people. * My goal is to flash Etherboot into my boot roms and replace PXE. > PXE does all you need, at least with the LTSP-2.09pre3 kernel and initrd > package: No, it doesn't. I do not question the fact that your system works but the statement that "PXE does all you need". There seems to be mythology about what PXE actually is. It's a description of how to load (via DHCP/ TFTP) and run a "Network Bootstrap Program" (NBP), which can then use the PXE run time environment and to boot the OS. The PXE code in the rom CANNOT just load the OS; it's a 2 stage process. There's no way round it: read Intel's doc; don't ask me why they designed it that way. :( ftp://download.intel.com/ial/wfm/pxespec.pdf > Just configure "pxelinux" from "syslinux" (use freshmeat.net to find it) > to boot the kernel and the new initrd. Exactly: you use pxelinux *instead* of Etherboot, which is perfectly OK, but contradicts your previous statement. Whether you choose pxelinux or Etherboot is a matter of taste: it is fairly easy to change to one from the other; at the moment both have their advantages, but it seems clear to me that Etherboot has more of a future for non-trivial network configurations. BTW - there's nothing wrong with H. Peter Anvin's pxelinux. Though the existing Etherboot/PXE code doesn't include any of it, I know that Vasil did look at the pxelinux assembler (yes, assembler, not C). My main criticism is that pxelinux shows its origins from the syslinux disk loader; it is not really a starting point to develop interesting network booting behaviour. Currently one real advantage of pxelinux is its use of UNDI, the PXE device independent network card abstraction. The existing Etherboot does not use UNDI, so that you have to ask rom-o-matic for the right nic, and it's possble that pxelinux may work on a PXE NIC which Etherboot does not support. Anyone know of an example, just out of interest? It would be nice to port Etherboot to UNDI to give it the same power. Such a port would probably use pxelinux code. Anyone looking for a useful assembler project? Etherboot could also use PXE's DHCP and TFTP libraries, but I see no advantage in doing so: this would not increase portability, and PXE TFTP implementations are known to be buggy. > The whole setup needs: > 1. dhcpd configured to load "pxelinux" binary > 2. pxelinux.cfg configured to load kernel and initrd. > 3. kernel from kernel package > 4. initrd build from initrd package. The same as using Etherboot, except that you use pxelinux as the NBP, pxelinux.cfg instead of adding lines to dhcp.conf, and don't mknbi your kernel. If this works for you, fine. If I had a large network with many different network card types all with PXE nics, I'd use pxelinux too. I do not wish to discourage anyone from trying pxelinux. I just wish to correct the assertion that PXE, or a boot rom PXE client somehow does work instead of (or "better than" or "simpler than") Etherboot. Not so. -- Peter Lister, Sychron Inc. - 1-866-SYCHRON Intelligent Infrastructure - www.sychron.com _____________________________________________________________________ Ltsp-discuss mailing list. To un-subscribe, or change prefs, goto: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ltsp-discuss For additional LTSP help, try #ltsp channel on irc.openprojects.net
