Daniel Feenberg
2010-Sep-26 15:50 UTC
[syslinux] 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. :)
Gene Cumm
2010-Sep-27 20:27 UTC
[syslinux] Network booting FreeBSD with gpxelinx almost works (fwd)
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
Ferenc Wagner
2010-Sep-27 21:12 UTC
[syslinux] Network booting FreeBSD with gpxelinx almost works (fwd)
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.
Helmut Hullen
2010-Sep-28 07:28 UTC
[syslinux] Network booting FreeBSD with gpxelinx almost works (fwd)
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
Daniel Feenberg
2010-Sep-28 11:26 UTC
[syslinux] 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.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