Syslinux - Oct 2003 - PXELinux with 3C509 and mba-on-disk or with vmware

HI there.
Probably my message is a bit off topic but I do not know where else I 
could be asking.
.
I'm running a linux terminal server with one client provided with a 
3C509B ISA card. I boot the later with a floppy bootable rom image taken 
from http://www.rom-o-matic.net/
Everything is working just fine. I decided to try to set up a PXE 
network boot (I'll needed it for installing a linux system on a laptop 
with a capable XPE bios and without floppy or bootable cdroms) and I 
tried two different approach, both failed.

1. With the 3C509B ISA card
Since this card has not pxe capabilities I download from 3com an mba on 
disk kit: that allows you to create a bootable disk for network booting 
(http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/result.jsp?selected=5&sort=effdt&order=desc&sku=3CMBA-D).
It offers the possibility to use different boot methods, among which PXE 
and tcp/ip with dhcp.
If I create a disk with PXE the system seems  to boot: a mba disk loader 
appears, followed by a screen with copyrights (by Intel 3com etc). After 
that everything stops with an 'unable to read from media' message.
I tried also tcp/ip with dhcp, but in this case the dhcp request seems 
to fail. While booting a message that reads "node 000000000000"
appears:
that, AFAIK, should be the mac address of the network card, which is 
obviously wrong.
Any idea of what is causing my problem? (I've read success stories about 
using a 3c509 with mba on disk for pxe network booting).

2. with vmware
According to 
http://www.zytor.com/pipermail/syslinux/2003-May/002043.html, even 
though vmware has not a pxe capable bios, using a M$ RIS boot disk, that 
is a PXE stack on disk, you should be able to boot a VM.
I created a boot disk with rbgf.exe.Booted and thats the output:
AMD PCnet Adapter
Node: [the correct mac address]
DHCP...
TFTP...

PXELINUX 2.06 2003-08-22 Copyright....
Found PXENV+ structure
PXE API version is 0063
Old PXE API detected, using PXENV+ structure
UNDI data segment at    991B
UNDI data segment size: 564D
UNDI code segment at:   97BD
UNDI code segment size: 15E0
PXENV entry point found (we hope) at 941F:0DAF

then nothing happens.

Given this information do you thing I'm soffering of a configuration 
problem somewhere? Any idea, suggestion? I searched the net without 
finding any useful answer.
Any clue would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrea

On Wed, 08 Oct 2003 13:36:31 +0200, Andrea Rossato
<mailing_list at istitutocolli.org> wrote:

>3C509B ISA card. I boot the later with a floppy bootable rom image taken 
>from http://www.rom-o-matic.net/
>Everything is working just fine. I decided to try to set up a PXE 
>1. With the 3C509B ISA card
>disk kit: that allows you to create a bootable disk for network booting 
>(http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/result.jsp?selected=5&sort=effdt&order=desc&sku=3CMBA-D).
>It offers the possibility to use different boot methods, among which PXE 
>and tcp/ip with dhcp.
>If I create a disk with PXE the system seems  to boot: a mba disk loader 
>appears, followed by a screen with copyrights (by Intel 3com etc). After 
>that everything stops with an 'unable to read from media' message.
Did you see discover messages in the dhcp server message log? Have you
configured appropriate etherboot images (when using rom-o-matic I assume you
created a straight etherboot image, while with pxe you need an image which
will overlay the client pxe).
However, the 00000 as mac address is not encouraging.

>2. with vmware
>According to 
>http://www.zytor.com/pipermail/syslinux/2003-May/002043.html, even 
>though vmware has not a pxe capable bios, using a M$ RIS boot disk, that 
>is a PXE stack on disk, you should be able to boot a VM.
>Given this information do you thing I'm soffering of a configuration 
>problem somewhere? Any idea, suggestion? I searched the net without 
>finding any useful answer.
>Any clue would be greatly appreciated.
Cannot help with RIS, however see
http://www.emboot.com/vmware/
for vmware pxe.
They have a trial version, I tried it and it works fine with pxelinux.

-- 
giulioo at pobox.com