Bug#607417: win32-loader: please offer a Boot from network with gPXE option
block 607417 by 474034 thanks Hi Alkis, and thanks for your bugreport, We've modified it a bit so that it adds a Boot from network entry in the Windows boot loader, instead of loading a Linux kernel. To accomplish this we statically linked gpxe.lkrn [1] to win32-loader.exe, and we modified main.nsi to load this instead of vmlinuz. No initrd was necessary. Nice. Currently the resulting ltsp-loader.exe [2] is used in some thousand Greek school PCs to netboot thin and fat clients. But many others have asked for this functionality in the #ltsp irc channel and in the ltsp-discuss mailing list, so we think it'd be much better if the upstream win32-loader Makefile supported a Boot from network with gPXE target. Unfortunately gPXE is not yet in Debian due to (afaik) some unresolved licensing issues. However if the win32-loader Makefile supported a gPXE target, maybe one of the following would be possible: * The gPXE devs to compile win32-loader with the gPXE target, and to host the resulting win32-loader-gpxe.exe on their site themselves. * Or a sysadmin or user could do that for his own use. * Or win32-loader.exe could dynamically download gpxe.lkrn from the gPXE website. As gPXE is not in Debian, I don't think it would be correct to upload a win32-loader including said functionality in Debian right now (in particular not in these times of freeze). Hence I marked that bug blocked by the gPXE ITP. But more generally, I don't see a reason to keep your patch out: merging is always good. If you want we can send you the .diff for main.nsi that we currently have, but we aren't very skilled with NSIS scripting so if you decide to add that functionality upstream you'd probably want to properly reimplement this yourselves. :) Please do so; attach the patch to this bugreport so that we can take a look at it. In any case thanks again, Alkis Georgopoulos Thanks also go to you for making such a nice use of win32-loader. :- Cheers, OdyX -- Didier Raboud, proud Debian Maintainer (DM). CH-1020 Renens did...@raboud.com signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part.
Processed: Re: Bug#607417: win32-loader: please offer a Boot from network with gPXE option
Processing commands for cont...@bugs.debian.org: block 607417 by 474034 Bug #607417 [win32-loader] win32-loader: please offer a Boot from network with gPXE option Was not blocked by any bugs. Added blocking bug(s) of 607417: 474034 thanks Stopping processing here. Please contact me if you need assistance. -- 607417: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=607417 Debian Bug Tracking System Contact ow...@bugs.debian.org with problems -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/handler.s.c.129293443022209.transcr...@bugs.debian.org
Bug#607417: win32-loader: please offer a Boot from network with gPXE option
Package: win32-loader Severity: wishlist X=Debbugs-CC: Alkis Georgopoulos alk...@gmail.com First of all thank you for your wonderful win32-loader. We've modified it a bit so that it adds a Boot from network entry in the Windows boot loader, instead of loading a Linux kernel. To accomplish this we statically linked gpxe.lkrn [1] to win32-loader.exe, and we modified main.nsi to load this instead of vmlinuz. No initrd was necessary. Currently the resulting ltsp-loader.exe [2] is used in some thousand Greek school PCs to netboot thin and fat clients. But many others have asked for this functionality in the #ltsp irc channel and in the ltsp-discuss mailing list, so we think it'd be much better if the upstream win32-loader Makefile supported a Boot from network with gPXE target. Unfortunately gPXE is not yet in Debian due to (afaik) some unresolved licensing issues. However if the win32-loader Makefile supported a gPXE target, maybe one of the following would be possible: * The gPXE devs to compile win32-loader with the gPXE target, and to host the resulting win32-loader-gpxe.exe on their site themselves. * Or a sysadmin or user could do that for his own use. * Or win32-loader.exe could dynamically download gpxe.lkrn from the gPXE website. If you want we can send you the .diff for main.nsi that we currently have, but we aren't very skilled with NSIS scripting so if you decide to add that functionality upstream you'd probably want to properly reimplement this yourselves. :) In any case thanks again, Alkis Georgopoulos [1]: http://www.etherboot.org/ [2]: http://users.sch.gr/alkisg/tosteki/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2136.0;attach=1941 -- signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Processed: Re: Bug#607417: win32-loader: please offer a Boot from network with gPXE option
Processing commands for cont...@bugs.debian.org: submitter 607417 Alkis Georgopoulos alk...@gmail.com Bug #607417 [win32-loader] win32-loader: please offer a Boot from network with gPXE option Changed Bug submitter to 'Alkis Georgopoulos alk...@gmail.com' from 'Christian PERRIER bubu...@debian.org' thanks Stopping processing here. Please contact me if you need assistance. -- 607417: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=607417 Debian Bug Tracking System Contact ow...@bugs.debian.org with problems -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/handler.s.c.12926565477844.transcr...@bugs.debian.org