Syslinux - Sep 2015 - PXE-Linux like default configuration file selection with syslinux?

Hello,

when booting via pxelinux I can change the image to be booted based on
client uuid, and MAC-Adresses.
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX#Configuration

Now when using syslinux I would like to be able to also do this as I like to
use one usb flash-drive for booting multiple machines.

Is this possible or impossible by design because syslinux always uses
syslinux.cfg?

Regards

Sven

-- 
"Every time you use Google, you're using a Linux machine"
                             (Chris DiBona, a programs manager for Google)

/me is giggls at ircnet, http://sven.gegg.us/ on the Web

On Thu, Sep 17, 2015 at 9:37 AM, Sven Geggus via Syslinux
<syslinux at zytor.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> when booting via pxelinux I can change the image to be booted based on
> client uuid, and MAC-Adresses.
> http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX#Configuration
>
> Now when using syslinux I would like to be able to also do this as I like
to
> use one usb flash-drive for booting multiple machines.
>
> Is this possible or impossible by design because syslinux always uses
> syslinux.cfg?
In a sense.  You'll need a COM32 to be the selector rather than the
core Syslinux binary itself.  The initial config will run the selector
and the selector would choose the next configuration.  See also
ifcpu.c32 and the like.

-- 
-Gene

> On Thu, Sep 17, 2015 at 9:37 AM, Sven Geggus via Syslinux
> <syslinux at zytor.com> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > when booting via pxelinux I can change the image to be booted based on
> > client uuid, and MAC-Adresses.
> > http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX#Configuration
> >
> > Now when using syslinux I would like to be able to also do this as I
like to
> > use one usb flash-drive for booting multiple machines.
> >
> > Is this possible or impossible by design because syslinux always uses
> > syslinux.cfg?
> 
> In a sense.  You'll need a COM32 to be the selector rather than the
> core Syslinux binary itself.  The initial config will run the selector
> and the selector would choose the next configuration.  See also
> ifcpu.c32 and the like.
> 
> -- 
> -Gene
 
Unfortunately, even coding such c32 module selector would not be enough 
nowadays for "automatic" selection (manual selection is obviously 
possible, but such method would be somewhat limited in practical 
situations).

We already have several if*.c32 and whichsys.c32, which might help in 
some cases (and might be an initial inspiration for a new selector c32 
module). But those are relevant for BIOS systems.

When trying to use the same portable storage device for a mix of BIOS 
and/or UEFI systems, then we are limited to either BIOS+UEFI32 or 
BIOS+UEFI64.

In the same sense that if*.c32 and whichsys.c32 are (partially) helpful 
for automatic selection, my one-year-old proposal and resulting patch 
[1] would help to have BIOS+UEFI32+UEFI64 in one (portable) storage 
device.

Yet, a fully-automatic selector (based on some particular 
characteristic of each system) is not currently available.

There are ways to retrieve some information from a booted / booting 
system (hdt, sysdump, SYSAPPEND...), but then we are already late as a 
boot selector.

[1]:
 http://www.syslinux.org/archives/2014-October/022712.html 
 http://www.syslinux.org/archives/2014-August/022545.html 

Regards,
Ady.
 
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Sven Geggus via Syslinux <syslinux at zytor.com> writes:
> when booting via pxelinux I can change the image to be booted based on
> client uuid, and MAC-Adresses.
> http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX#Configuration
>
> Now when using syslinux I would like to be able to also do this as I like
to
> use one usb flash-drive for booting multiple machines.
>
> Is this possible or impossible by design because syslinux always uses
> syslinux.cfg?
It's possible in a different way.  You can extract DMI information (like
the system UUID) with Lua and implement conditional behaviour based on
that.  See http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Lua.c32 for example.
-- 
Regards,
Feri.