File	Date	Author	Commit
AUTHORS	2010-02-17	ocalladw	[9c1b51] Include pypxeboot-0.0.3 from Magnus Leuthner
COPYING	2007-02-16	childss	[997ad4] Added standard docs.
README	2010-02-17	ocalladw	[9c1b51] Include pypxeboot-0.0.3 from Magnus Leuthner
outputpy.udhcp.sh	2007-02-16	childss	[b4eaa9] New-style script that outputs key-value pairs.
pypxeboot	2010-02-17	ocalladw	[9c1b51] Include pypxeboot-0.0.3 from Magnus Leuthner
pypxeboot.spec	2010-02-17	ocalladw	[9c1b51] Include pypxeboot-0.0.3 from Magnus Leuthner
udhcp_usermac.patch	2007-02-02	childss	[c4c8b8] Tidied up main file, added patch for udhcp and ...
xen-bootloader-reboot.patch	2007-09-13	childss	[5f6458] Patch to xend to delay bootloader invocation un...

Read Me

pypxeboot

pypxeboot is a bootloader for Xen guests that simulates a PXE client. pypxeboot
runs on the Domain 0 as part of the creation of a new domain, and requests an
IP address and configuration information on behalf of the as-yet uncreated guest
(DomU). pypxeboot uses a modified version of udhcp [1] that allows a MAC address
to be specified on the command line. A patch against verion 0.9.8 of udhcp is
included in the tarball. From version 0.0.3, you will also need tftpy installed (package "python-tftpy" in Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu) [2]

Download
A tarball including pypxeboot, the patch for udhcp and the script for udhcp to
output information retrieved from the DHCP server is available here: 
pypxeboot-0.0.3.tar.gz. [3]

Installation

   1. Download udhcp [1], patch it, build it and install it. Download and
      install tftp. Download pypxeboot.
   2. Copy pypxeboot to /usr/bin and outputpy.udhcp.sh to /usr/share/udhcpc
   3. Add the following lines to the Xen configuration file for the domain:

      bootloader="/usr/bin/pypxeboot"
      vif=['mac=AA:00:86:e2:35:72']
      bootargs=vif[0]

Now when you do

xm create "domain-name"

you should see output like this if the pxelinux.cfg entry is set to localboot:

[root@tg23 pypxeboot]# xm create  cagnode50-slc308
Using config file "/etc/xen/cagnode50-slc308".
pypxeboot: requesting info for MAC address AA:00:86:e2:35:72
pypxeboot: getting cfg for IP 134.226.53.114 (86E23572) from server 192.168.12.1
pypxeboot: dropping to pygrub for local boot
Going to boot Scientific Linux CERN Xen DomU-xenU (2.4.21-47.0.1.EL.cernxenU)
  kernel: /vmlinuz-2.4.21-47.0.1.EL.cernxenU
  initrd: /initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.EL.cernxenU.img

and something like this if the pxelinux.cfg entry specifies a network boot:

[root@tg23 pypxeboot]# xm create  cagnode50-slc308
Using config file "/etc/xen/cagnode50-slc308".
pypxeboot: requesting info for MAC address AA:00:86:e2:35:72
pypxeboot: getting cfg for IP 134.226.53.114 (86E23572) from server 192.168.12.1
pypxeboot: downloading initrd using cmd: tftp -c get 192.168.12.1:slc308_i386_xen/initrd.img
pypxeboot: downloading kernel using cmd: tftp -c get 192.168.12.1:slc308_i386_xen/vmlinuz
Started domain cagnode50

N.B. the kernel and initrd on the tftp server must be Xen Linux kernels.

Bugs
pypxeboot assumes a lot about the pxelinux setup on the server. In particular
it assumes that configuration files are in the directory pxelinux.cfg and it
also only copes with single-entry config files. It also leaves downloaded files
in /tmp

Related stuff
If you're interested in getting anaconda/kickstart working for Xen DomUs, Linux
Support at CERN have some suitable installation images and instructions
available for SLC3/4 (RHEL3/4 compatible).

pypxeboot was written by Stephen Childs (C) 2007 Trinity College Dublin.
Email help at grid dot ie if you have feedback, problems, bug reports.

[1]: http://udhcp.busybox.net/
[2]: http://tftpy.sourceforge.net/
[3]: https://grid.ie/pypxeboot/pypxeboot-0.0.3.tar.gz
[4]: https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/LinuxSupport/XenHowTo