Re: [Etherboot-discuss] grub -> gpxe : how to pass parameters ?

[Miller, S. <Sha...@yr...>]

Good day Mat,

While I have created a very quick patch to allow boot-loaders such as SYSLINUX and GRUB to pass an executed command-line as well as an initrd which gPXE executes before DHCP is tried on the first network interface (search the etherboot-devel mailing list archives; a better patch coming very soon), I do not think you actually need these features for your purposes...

gPXE can be compiled to _embed_ an image.  gpxelinux.0, included in the latest SYSLINUX distributions, is just such an example: It is gPXE with PXELINUX embedded.  That is, as soon as DHCP is successful on an gPXE-supported-and-discovered network interface on the client, PXELINUX will be run.  If you want to customize gPXE's behaviour, you can compile gPXE with a gPXE script embedded.  You might appreciate something like the following gPXE script:

#!gpxe
echo Downloading PXELINUX from http://matcontrol.myorg.blah/
# DHCP params already set by gPXE before this script is called
# We are assuming that net0 is the network interface on our network
# The following DHCP options for controlling PXELINUX' behaviour
# are manually set.  The first is the PXELINUX config file.  The
# second is the path to this config file, as well as the default
# path for file references inside the PXELINUX config file
set net0/209:string menu.ini
set net0/210:string http://matcontrol.myorg.blah/
kernel http://matcontrol.myorg.blah/pxelinux.0
boot pxelinux.0

Such as script can be embedded into your own compilation of gPXE with the following command, executed from the gpxe/src/ directory:

make EMBEDDED_IMAGE=mat_script.gpxe bin/gpxe.lkrn

Where gpxe.lkrn is your particular gPXE build target, such as gpxe.dsk, gpxe.usb, gpxe.pxe, gpxe,kpxe, undionly.kpxe, etc., etc.

A sample menu.ini file for PXELINUX to use the SYSLINUX-included MENU.C32/VESAMENU.C32 menuing system is available for perusal at http://paste.etherboot.org/?page=view&id=1231215026.

I certainly hope that this helps you in your efforts!

- Shao Miller

-----Original Message-----
From: Mat [mailto:ma...@vo...]
Sent: Sat 1/17/2009 8:13 AM
To: eth...@li...
Subject: [Etherboot-discuss] grub -> gpxe : how to pass parameters ?
 

I'm launching gPXE through a local grub boot since the onboard PXE isn't 
working correctly.
I'm on a network with a main DHCP server for which I can't control the 
"next-server" and "filename" options (DSL box), so I put those on 
another non-authoritative DHCP server.

When I launch gPXE, it successfully gets a network configuration from 
the authoritative DHCP but it doesn't get the next-server and filename 
from my non-authoritative one. If I specify them manually through the 
interactive gPXE "shell", I can then successfully do my PXE boot by 
manually fetching, loading and executing the next image (pxelinux.0)

Is there a way to specify those next-server and filename directly in the 
grub configuration so that gPXE will use them without manual intervention ?


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