Syslinux - Sep 2010 - Network booting FreeBSD with gpxelinx almost works (fwd)

We have been network booting FreeBSD for some time with pxeboot. But now 
we would like to have menu of OSs to boot and got the idea somewhere that 
gpxelinux could do that for us. We copied gpxelinux.0 from the 
syslinux-4.02 distribution and replaced pxeboot with "gpxelinux" in
the
dhcpd.conf file. Indeed with a configuration file in pxelinux.cfg like 
this:

   default freebsd
   label freebsd
     PXE pxeboot

and the root path still specified as a DHCP option, FreeBSD 8.1 does boot. If I 
replace the first line with:

   UI menu.c32

the client does display the menu but if one hits return to select the 
single item offered the client merely hangs for a minute, then announces 
"boot failure". I am guessing that once the UI is interposed, somehow
the
root path isn't getting transmitted to pxeboot. All the other gpxelinux 
boot kernels seem to expect the information about the root filesystem to 
be specified in the pxelinux.cfg file, rather than in dhcpd.conf. Does 
anyone have experience with this? The various web posting I have found 
linking FreeBSD to gpxelinux are about installations from ISO files over 
the net.

In the syslinux mailing list there is an unanswered  posting which is 
similar to this:

   http://syslinux.zytor.com/archives/2006-February/006582.html

but we do not modify vfs.root.mountfrom, or rename pxeboot.

I found this in the "changes in 3.36:

   PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)

but I haven't found any information about implementing chainbooting
for FreeBSD.

There are a number of web pages showing how to install FreeBSD from an ISO 
image over the net - this is not what we want to do. We are currently 
using the built-in facilities of FreeBSD to boot over the net and wish to 
continue without a major upheaval. Our setup is described at:

   http://www.nber.org/sys-admin/FreeBSD-diskless.html

Daniel Feenberg
NBER

Hi every body!

I'am a new member.

First off all, I want to congratulate every people who have work on the
syslinux project, beginning by the first Hans Peter Anvin! :)



I'm working with linux for 2 years and with isolinux since june 2010.

The project is to do computers witch have the same boot every time, even
if the power off is made ... unexpectedly.
This is why the solution is Linux live cd ... with, of course, isolinux
:)

I'm working on the Linux 'customisation' in order to have the more
light
OS as possible.

But ... yes, there is but...

I have to remove every displayed message on the screen.
I use actually the 3.63 Version.

The kernel loading '...' are removed.
Not the Syslinux message.

I've found then in the isolinux.asm file : syslinux_banner!

Is there any option in new isolinux version command line to remove this
printing?
If not, I have to generate isolinux with my modification needed.

I think I'm not the only one who wants to do that, or perhaps have not
choice syslinux because of messages printed.

Thanks a million!

Cdlt,
Daniel
------

PS: if i am not in the good place with may question, please tell me, and
/ or where i can found response.
:)

On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 11:50, Daniel Feenberg <feenberg at nber.org>
wrote:
>
> We have been network booting FreeBSD for some time with pxeboot. But now we
> would like to have menu of OSs to boot and got the idea somewhere that
> gpxelinux could do that for us. We copied gpxelinux.0 from the
syslinux-4.02
> distribution and replaced pxeboot with "gpxelinux" in the
dhcpd.conf file.
> Indeed with a configuration file in pxelinux.cfg like this:
>
> ?default freebsd
> ?label freebsd
> ? ?PXE pxeboot
>
> and the root path still specified as a DHCP option, FreeBSD 8.1 does boot.
> If I replace the first line with:
>
> ?UI menu.c32
>
> the client does display the menu but if one hits return to select the
single
> item offered the client merely hangs for a minute, then announces
"boot
> failure". I am guessing that once the UI is interposed, somehow the
root
> path isn't getting transmitted to pxeboot. All the other gpxelinux boot
> kernels seem to expect the information about the root filesystem to be
> specified in the pxelinux.cfg file, rather than in dhcpd.conf. Does anyone
> have experience with this? The various web posting I have found linking
> FreeBSD to gpxelinux are about installations from ISO files over the net.
This sounds like it's an issue specific to menu.c32 and the kernel
type PXE.  Have you tried creating a copy of pxeboot as pxeboot.0?
If, somehow, menu.c32 is messing up and using the file extension as
the kernel type or not passing the kernel type parameter properly,
this might be an interim solution until another solution is found.

-- 
-Gene

Daniel Feenberg <feenberg at nber.org> writes:
> If I replace the first line with:
>
>   UI menu.c32
>
> the client does display the menu but if one hits return to select the
> single item offered the client merely hangs for a minute, then
> announces "boot failure".
Does this message come from pxeboot?
Just an idea: can you try with pxelinux.0 instead of gpxelinux.0?
-- 
Regards,
Feri.

Hallo, Daniel,

Du meintest am 26.09.10:

> Indeed with a configuration file
> in pxelinux.cfg like this:
>    default freebsd
>    label freebsd
>      PXE pxeboot
> and the root path still specified as a DHCP option, FreeBSD 8.1 does
> boot. If I replace the first line with:
>    UI menu.c32
> the client does display the menu but if one hits return to select the
> single item offered the client merely hangs for a minute, then
> announces "boot failure".
Just an untested idea:

    default freebsd
    UI menu.c32

    label freebsd
      PXE pxeboot

Viele Gruesse!
Helmut

We have been network booting FreeBSD for some time with pxeboot. But now 
we would like to have menu of OSs to boot and got the idea somewhere that 
gpxelinux could do that for us. We copied gpxelinux.0 from the 
syslinux-4.02 distribution and replaced "pxeboot" with
"gpxelinux.0" in
the dhcpd.conf file. Indeed with a configuration file in pxelinux.cfg like 
this:

   default freebsd
   label freebsd
     PXE pxeboot

and the root path still specified as a DHCP option, FreeBSD 8.1 does boot. 
If I replace the first line with:

   UI menu.c32

the client does display the menu but if one hits return to select the 
single item offered the client merely hangs for a minute, then announces 
"boot failure". I am guessing that once the UI is interposed, somehow
the
root path isn't getting transmitted to pxeboot. All the other gpxelinux 
boot kernels seem to expect the information about the root filesystem to 
be specified in the pxelinux.cfg file, rather than in dhcpd.conf. Does 
anyone have experience with this? The various web posting I have found 
linking FreeBSD to gpxelinux are about installations from ISO files over 
the net.

In the syslinux mailing list there is an unanswered  posting which is similar 
to this:

   http://syslinux.zytor.com/archives/2006-February/006582.html

but we do not modify vfs.root.mountfrom, or rename pxeboot.

I found this in the "changes in 3.36":

  > PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)

but I haven't found any information about implementing chainbooting
for FreeBSD.

There are a number of web pages showing how to install FreeBSD from an ISO 
image over the net - this is not what we want to do. We are currently 
using the built-in facilities of FreeBSD to boot a working system over the 
net and wish to continue without a major upheaval. Our setup is described 
at:

   http://www.nber.org/sys-admin/FreeBSD-diskless.html

Daniel Feenberg
NBER