I've been using pxelinux since version 3 (way back when Fedora was new
and RedHat was still free :-) ) but looking at the more modern releases
I have a sinking feeling I've "just been doing it wrong" all these
years.
E.g. back then I'd download the syslinux tarball, copy pxelinux.0,
menu.c32, and maybe memdisk to /tftpboot/ and that was pretty much it.
I don't recall ever needing to compile anything.
Now as I look at 6.02 (because I'm facing a need to deal with EFI) it
doesn't seem like it's that simple anymore, and at the very least I will
need additional modules (syslinux.efi for 32- and 64-bit?), and maybe
others.
The wiki (http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX) still says:
"copy pxelinux.0 (from the SYSLINUX distribution) and any
kernel or initrd images that you want to boot"
like I've been doing forever, but how do I know what else I need, and
whether I'm missing libs or something they require?
I was thinking of 'make install', but Makefile apparently compiles
everything, and if that's the preferred way I'll go that route; mostly
I'm looking for some guidance: what's the "best" way to
populate a
/tftpboot/ with the necessary PXELINUX files?
Cheers,
sr.
> The wiki (http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX) still says: > > "copy pxelinux.0 (from the SYSLINUX distribution) and any > kernel or initrd images that you want to boot" > > like I've been doing forever, but how do I know what else I need, and > whether I'm missing libs or something they require? > > I was thinking of 'make install', but Makefile apparently compiles > everything, and if that's the preferred way I'll go that route; mostly > I'm looking for some guidance: what's the "best" way to populate a > /tftpboot/ with the necessary PXELINUX files? >No need to 'make' anything :). Search the Syslinux wiki for "Library modules". I'm not saying it will solve every single problem you might have with version 6.02, but it will give you a generic answer to your question. Regarding /tftpboot/ and mixing BIOS and EFI files, this ML has some prior threads about the same topic already. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to effectively search the ML and find what you might be looking for, so you might need to manually go through the mailing list archives. Regards, Ady.
On 10/30/2013 12:52 AM, Ady wrote:> >> The wiki (http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX) still says: >> >> "copy pxelinux.0 (from the SYSLINUX distribution) and any >> kernel or initrd images that you want to boot" >> >> like I've been doing forever, but how do I know what else I need, and >> whether I'm missing libs or something they require? >> >> I was thinking of 'make install', but Makefile apparently compiles >> everything, and if that's the preferred way I'll go that route; mostly >> I'm looking for some guidance: what's the "best" way to populate a >> /tftpboot/ with the necessary PXELINUX files? >> > > No need to 'make' anything :). Search the Syslinux wiki for "Library > modules". I'm not saying it will solve every single problem you might > have with version 6.02, but it will give you a generic answer to your > question. > > Regarding /tftpboot/ and mixing BIOS and EFI files, this ML has some > prior threads about the same topic already. Unfortunately, there is > no easy way to effectively search the ML and find what you might be > looking for, so you might need to manually go through the mailing > list archives. >A Google search with site:syslinux.org should work. -hpa
On Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 09:52:57AM +0200, Ady wrote:> > > The wiki (http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX) still says: > > > > "copy pxelinux.0 (from the SYSLINUX distribution) and any > > kernel or initrd images that you want to boot" > > > > like I've been doing forever, but how do I know what else I need, and > > whether I'm missing libs or something they require? > > > > I was thinking of 'make install', but Makefile apparently compiles > > everything, and if that's the preferred way I'll go that route; mostly > > I'm looking for some guidance: what's the "best" way to populate a > > /tftpboot/ with the necessary PXELINUX files? > > No need to 'make' anything :). Search the Syslinux wiki for "Library > modules". I'm not saying it will solve every single problem you might > have with version 6.02, but it will give you a generic answer to your > question.Thanks Ady; I had previously found this: http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Library_modules which was indeed helpful in sorting out module dependencies. But more generally: is copying files from the syslinux distribution into your /tftpboot/ dir still the best recommended way to "install pxelinux"?> Regarding /tftpboot/ and mixing BIOS and EFI files, this ML has some > prior threads about the same topic already. Unfortunately, there is > no easy way to effectively search the ML and find what you might be > looking for, so you might need to manually go through the mailing > list archives.Google has been relatively effective at finding pretty good info both on the Syslinux wiki and elsewhere; e.g. the Redhat/Fedora example dhcp.conf for PXE with EFI, which I can probably adapt to my needs. But the common (almost only?) advice I could find for "how to install pxelinux" was either copying individual files to /tftpboot/ (ala the simple advice from the syslinux wiki and elsewhere, like I've been doing for years) or installing a 3rd-party package from one of the Linux distributions and thereby ending up with e.g. /usr/bin/syslinux, /usr/share/syslinux/*.c32, and more. That latter method seems overkill for setting up pxelinux in a tftp server, and I'd prefer to get the original distribution from syslinux than a possibly-modified Linux distribution in any case. If the ole tried & true method is still the right way, I'm entirely happy to keep doing things that way, and do my own experimentation to figure out what modules (and their lib dependencies) I want to use besides the core. Just wanted to make sure I'm not missing something new and simple. Thanks, sr.