Syslinux - Jul 2014 - iPXE chain to lpxelinux.0 6.03-pre17 inconsistencies and failures

On 07/01/2014 09:55 PM, Gene Cumm wrote:
> On Jul 1, 2014 10:37 PM, "Alexander Perlis" <aperlis at
math.lsu.edu
>  > I believe I'm seeing a bug in lpxelinux.0 6.03-pre17 ...
>
> Odd. 4.07 should be good but the 4.10/5.1*/6.0* revisions make sense.
My bad. I tried again, and in 4.07 we do get further. We couldn't boot 
all the way because, it seems, using pxelinux-options in 4.07 to force 
in "-b next-server pxe.ip.address" doesn't seem to have an effect,
and
so we got stuck after launching 4.07 pxelinux.0, which led to the 
mistaken report. Indeed, as you expected, the iPXE-to-pxelinux chaining 
itself does work fine in 4.07. In fact, just tried something: if we tell 
iPXE itself the value of next-server before chaining (instead of 
modifying pxelinux.0 using pxelinux-options), then we make it all the 
way to our graphical vesamenu.

But now back to 6.0x, as that's the version we're now running and would 
love to stick with the newer stuff! Just for completeness, I just tried 
6.03-pre18 but have the same problems as reported with pre17. (But based 
on your message, your understanding would have correctly guessed that.)
> This is probably related to a bisect I did recently. I found the culprit
> commit in my case but a blind revert feels wrong.
A revert would toss out your work. Can another patch be made that 
maintains the goals of your work while also fixing the 
iPXE->(l)pxelinux.0 chaining?

Or is there a different (non-ipxe?) way we can locally boot a machine 
and get it to chain to our 6.0x pxelinux server?

Alex

On Jul 2, 2014 11:13 AM, "Alexander Perlis" <aperlis at
math.lsu.edu> wrote:
> Or is there a different (non-ipxe?) way we can locally boot a machine and
get it to chain to our 6.0x pxelinux server?

Unless this is a completely isolated network, talk with your IT department.

If there's no DHCP, make a simple server. If there's DHCP and no boot
info,
add a PXE server that listens to DHCP requests and only offers boot info.
If there's DHCP with boot info but no PXE, a PXE may work. If there's a
DHCP and PXE, you'll need to talk with the administrators.

--Gene

On 07/03/2014 06:31 AM, Gene Cumm wrote:
> On Jul 2, 2014 11:13 AM, Alexander Perlis wrote:
>
>  > Or is there a different (non-ipxe?) way we can locally boot a machine
> and get it to chain to our 6.0x pxelinux server?
>
> Unless this is a completely isolated network, talk with your IT department.
>
> If there's no DHCP, make a simple server. If there's DHCP and no
boot
> info, add a PXE server that listens to DHCP requests and only offers
> boot info. If there's DHCP with boot info but no PXE, a PXE may work.
If
> there's a DHCP and PXE, you'll need to talk with the
administrators.
I'll take that as a "no". :)

I suppose we could try making an ISOLINUX CD for the local boot, which 
then uses pxechn.c32 to connect to our PXE server?

That is, perhaps the way pxechn.c32 loads and transfers control to 
lpxelinux.0 is different from the way that ipxe does it (thereby perhaps 
avoiding the hang/reboot we're seeing)?

Or is (l)pxelinux.0 sensitive to being chainloaded no matter who is 
doing the chainloading?

Alex