Syslinux - Jul 2014 - pxelinux HTTP transport UEFI vmlinuz

Hi,

Since which version of pxelinux.0 is understood in pxelinux.cfg/default that

  kernel http://host.lan/netboot/vmlinuz

means vmlinuz should be transported over HTTP?

Since which version of pxelinux.0 is it possible to boot on UEFI?


Those questions elaborated:

What I want is fast netboot UEFI servers.
What I'm looking for is an advice which version of PXELINUX
between version 4.something and 6.03pre18.

If http transport only works with DHCP Option 210 (pxelinux.pathprefix),
please tell so.

If pxelinux can't do  UEFI booting, please tell so.


Groeten
Geert Stappers
-- 
Leven en laten leven

On Wed, Jul 23, 2014 at 10:32 AM, Geert Stappers <stappers at stappers.nl>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Since which version of pxelinux.0 is understood in pxelinux.cfg/default
that
>
>   kernel http://host.lan/netboot/vmlinuz
>
> means vmlinuz should be transported over HTTP?
For non-EFI systems, this has meant use HTTP services if available
(ie, iPXE/gPXE or lwIP as in lpxelinux.0) since somewhere in the 3.xx
series when gpxelinux.0 was first introduced.
> Since which version of pxelinux.0 is it possible to boot on UEFI?
In UEFI, there is no pxelinux.0, only syslinux.efi.  Somewhere along
the 6.0x chain after bugs were worked out.  I just did this with
6.03-pre18 loading everything before the kernel over TFTP and the
kernel and initrd payloads via HTTP.
> Those questions elaborated:
>
> What I want is fast netboot UEFI servers.
cptime.c32 should be able to help coarsely estimate transfer speeds
given a large enough file.
> What I'm looking for is an advice which version of PXELINUX
> between version 4.something and 6.03pre18.
I'd suggest 6.02 or the latest 6.03-pre release (currently 18).
> If http transport only works with DHCP Option 210 (pxelinux.pathprefix),
> please tell so.
No need.
> If pxelinux can't do  UEFI booting, please tell so.
See second statement.

-- 
-Gene

Op 2014-07-23 om 17:57 schreef Gene Cumm:
> On Wed, Jul 23, 2014 at 10:32 AM, Geert Stappers <stappers at
stappers.nl> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Since which version of pxelinux.0 is understood in
pxelinux.cfg/default that
> >
> >   kernel http://host.lan/netboot/vmlinuz
> >
> > means vmlinuz should be transported over HTTP?
> 
> For non-EFI systems, this has meant use HTTP services if available
> (ie, iPXE/gPXE or lwIP as in lpxelinux.0) since somewhere in the 3.xx
> series when gpxelinux.0 was first introduced.
> 
> > Since which version of pxelinux.0 is it possible to boot on UEFI?
> 
> In UEFI, there is no pxelinux.0, only syslinux.efi.  Somewhere along
> the 6.0x chain after bugs were worked out.  I just did this with
> 6.03-pre18 loading everything before the kernel over TFTP and the
> kernel and initrd payloads via HTTP.
Okay, thanks for confirming that HTTP & UEFI netboot should work.
And telling that the trick is `syslinux.efi`.

> > Those questions elaborated:
> >
> > What I want is fast netboot UEFI servers.
> 
> cptime.c32 should be able to help coarsely estimate transfer speeds
> given a large enough file.
Acknowledge. FWIW, I'm after a faster transfer as plain TFTP.
HTTP does deliver the wanted speed advantage.

> > What I'm looking for is an advice which version of PXELINUX
> > between version 4.something and 6.03pre18.
> 
> I'd suggest 6.02 or the latest 6.03-pre release (currently 18).
With syslinux-6.03-pre18/bios/core/lpxelinux.0 I have the wanted HTTP transfers.
(With syslinux-6.03-pre18/bios/core/pxelinux.0 no succes yet on my (old)
virtualbox
test environment )
> > If http transport only works with DHCP Option 210
(pxelinux.pathprefix),
> > please tell so.
> 
> No need.
Nope, no extra DHCP server configuration needed
(in my test environment with VirtualBox O.S.E.).

> > If pxelinux can't do  UEFI booting, please tell so.
> 
> See second statement.
What I read / understand is that for UEFI netboot request the DHCP server
should provide `syslinux.efi`, not the `pxelinux.0` I'm  used to.

To be continued ...


Groeten
Geert Stappers
-- 
Leven en laten leven