rbitter at cntnl.jnj.com
2004-Jan-15 12:18 UTC
[syslinux] Re: pxegrub + memdisk + dos + undi
Hi Aaron,
i know it is not an interactive menu - but in my 'config' file i call
for a textfile to be displayed : DISPLAY menu.txt
that contains all my labels. See the first part of my 'config' :
label 0
LOCALBOOT 0
label 1
KERNEL memdisk/memdisk
APPEND initrd=images/w2k/unatt.ima
label 2
KERNEL memdisk/memdisk
APPEND initrd=images/dos500/dos500.ima
label 3
KERNEL memdisk/memdisk
APPEND initrd=images/dos600/dos600.ima
In my 'menu.txt' i display all labels :
0. local disk
1. unatt. W2K SRV SP4 install
2. dos 5.00
3. dos 6.00
4. dos 6.20
5. dos 6.21
6. dos 6.22
etc...
If i do not overdo the descriptions i get 23 lines on my screen, and i can
use 3
or 4 columns - that's at least 69 boot options...
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Rijk
-----Original Message-----
From: Aaron McSorley [mailto:aaron.mcsorley at amd.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 8:36 PM
To: Philippe Gramoull?
Cc: syslinux at zytor.com
Subject: [syslinux] Re: pxegrub + memdisk + dos + undi
In our testing, pxelinux and Dos UNDI is much more stable than pxegrub
with ten different nic drivers compiled in. The only thing holding us
back on using pxelinux for all of our tftp images is the lack of a menu
system. We are very close to buying a proprietary software but, I would
much rather use an open source type solution.
It should be possible to write some comboot code
(http://syslinux.zytor.com/comboot.php) that would look at
a config file and display a menu system. It looks like the basics of
this are in the com32 examples in the syslinux source package, but I'm not
much of a programmer and wouldn't know how to start writing a menu
in this code.
I would be very grateful to anyone who could give us an example of
a comboot menu that could be used with pxelinux.
Thanks
Aaron
On Wed, 14 Jan 2004, Philippe [ISO-8859-15] Gramoull? wrote:
>
> Hello Aaron,
> I saw of post from you on the bug-grub ML, and i wondered if you had
managed to > do what you were looking for ?
> Well, i've just started to play with PXE, pxelinux, pxegrub, DOS
images,
etc...> and i must say that given my current NICs ( Broadcom 5701 on DELL
PowerEdge 2650 )> i had success only with pxelinux.
> So my question now is: did you manage to get a menu system with pxelinux ?
> All i can get right now is to enter a description in the pxeboot.msg file
of all images available> on the TFTP server and enter it through the keyboard.
>
>
> Any help is appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Philippe
>
> --
>
> Philippe Gramoull?
> Lycos Europe
>
>
>
> pxegrub + memdisk + dos + undi
>
> * From: Aaron McSorley
> * Subject: pxegrub + memdisk + dos + undi
> * Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 13:47:14 -0700
>
> I have an image of a dos floppy that loads
> the undi driver from 3com and mounts an smb share.
>
> This works great with pxelinux(from syslinux) and memdisk
>
> I need to make it work with pxegrub so we can use menus.
> (or figure out a menu system for pxelinux)
>
> With pxegrub I use memdisk as the kernel and load the
> dos image as a ramdisk.
> The undi driver loads and doesn't complain but, the network
> is not accessible. I think maybe pxegrub isn't letting me keep
> the pxe stack or something. Strange that the undi driver
> doesn't complain when it's loaded, usually it complains if there
> is no pxe stack to grab.
>
> Aaron dot McSorley at amd dot com
>
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That is what we are doing now but, we have many images that change frequently. I display menu text files just as you say, and use the Function keys for sub menus. For organization and speed this becomes confusing for the people selecting the images, especially when the images change. We are selecting between a number of very specific versions of OS installs and diskless utilities, the names can get long, so I can usually only fit two columns. Aaron On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 rbitter at cntnl.jnj.com wrote:> Hi Aaron, > > i know it is not an interactive menu - but in my 'config' file i call > for a textfile to be displayed : DISPLAY menu.txt > > that contains all my labels. See the first part of my 'config' : > > label 0 > LOCALBOOT 0 > label 1 > KERNEL memdisk/memdisk > APPEND initrd=images/w2k/unatt.ima > label 2 > KERNEL memdisk/memdisk > APPEND initrd=images/dos500/dos500.ima > label 3 > KERNEL memdisk/memdisk > APPEND initrd=images/dos600/dos600.ima > > In my 'menu.txt' i display all labels : > > 0. local disk > 1. unatt. W2K SRV SP4 install > 2. dos 5.00 > 3. dos 6.00 > 4. dos 6.20 > 5. dos 6.21 > 6. dos 6.22 > etc... > If i do not overdo the descriptions i get 23 lines on my screen, and i can > use 3 > or 4 columns - that's at least 69 boot options... > > Hope this helps. > Regards, > Rijk > > -----Original Message----- > From: Aaron McSorley [mailto:aaron.mcsorley at amd.com] > Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 8:36 PM > To: Philippe Gramoull? > Cc: syslinux at zytor.com > Subject: [syslinux] Re: pxegrub + memdisk + dos + undi > > > > In our testing, pxelinux and Dos UNDI is much more stable than pxegrub > with ten different nic drivers compiled in. The only thing holding us > back on using pxelinux for all of our tftp images is the lack of a menu > system. We are very close to buying a proprietary software but, I would > much rather use an open source type solution. > > It should be possible to write some comboot code > (http://syslinux.zytor.com/comboot.php) that would look at > a config file and display a menu system. It looks like the basics of > this are in the com32 examples in the syslinux source package, but I'm not > much of a programmer and wouldn't know how to start writing a menu > in this code. > > I would be very grateful to anyone who could give us an example of > a comboot menu that could be used with pxelinux. > > Thanks > Aaron > > On Wed, 14 Jan 2004, Philippe [ISO-8859-15] Gramoull? wrote: > > > > > Hello Aaron, > > I saw of post from you on the bug-grub ML, and i wondered if you had > managed to > > do what you were looking for ? > > Well, i've just started to play with PXE, pxelinux, pxegrub, DOS images, > etc... > > and i must say that given my current NICs ( Broadcom 5701 on DELL > PowerEdge 2650 ) > > i had success only with pxelinux. > > So my question now is: did you manage to get a menu system with pxelinux ? > > All i can get right now is to enter a description in the pxeboot.msg file > of all images available > > on the TFTP server and enter it through the keyboard. > > > > > > Any help is appreciated. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Philippe > > > > -- > > > > Philippe Gramoull? > > Lycos Europe > > > > > > > > pxegrub + memdisk + dos + undi > > > > * From: Aaron McSorley > > * Subject: pxegrub + memdisk + dos + undi > > * Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 13:47:14 -0700 > > > > I have an image of a dos floppy that loads > > the undi driver from 3com and mounts an smb share. > > > > This works great with pxelinux(from syslinux) and memdisk > > > > I need to make it work with pxegrub so we can use menus. > > (or figure out a menu system for pxelinux) > > > > With pxegrub I use memdisk as the kernel and load the > > dos image as a ramdisk. > > The undi driver loads and doesn't complain but, the network > > is not accessible. I think maybe pxegrub isn't letting me keep > > the pxe stack or something. Strange that the undi driver > > doesn't complain when it's loaded, usually it complains if there > > is no pxe stack to grab. > > > > Aaron dot McSorley at amd dot com > >