Syslinux - Aug 2023 - UEFI syslinux PXE boot issues

On Thu, 1970-01-01 at 00:00 +0000, AL13N via Syslinux
wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm used to non-UEFI PXE boot, and I use it for my network installer 
> since forever ago.
> 
> Looking up how to UEFI PXE boot, I use the syslinux.efi file and 
> allthough it was loaded and stuff, nothing happend after it, I had at 
> least expected the ldlinux64 to be requested from the TFTP server, but 
> nothing.
> 
> After searching, I noticed someone asking to test the new pre-release, 
> and so I downloaded the 6.04 version. I replaced the syslinux.efi file 
> only, and I got a lot more success. I symlinked the pxelinux.cfg dir and 
> images so it could find the files it needed.
> 
> Then I got the prompt, I typed "install" to trigger that menu
item and
> it transferred the vmlinuz file (14sec for 11MB). Then the initrd 
> (47MB), which takes a long time, but does not ever show the "ok",
even
> after the transfer was complete (as far as I could tell from the TFTP 
> server), which takes more than a minute. after some seconds of nothing 
> happening, it just reboots...
> 
> 
> Can anyone help met out here?
> 
If I recall correctly, UEFI is somewhat broken. Try iPXE instead.

Joakim Tjernlund schreef op 2023-08-16 13:15:
> On Thu, 1970-01-01 at 00:00 +0000, AL13N via Syslinux wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I'm used to non-UEFI PXE boot, and I use it for my network
installer
>> since forever ago.
>> 
>> Looking up how to UEFI PXE boot, I use the syslinux.efi file and
>> allthough it was loaded and stuff, nothing happend after it, I had at
>> least expected the ldlinux64 to be requested from the TFTP server, but
>> nothing.
>> 
>> After searching, I noticed someone asking to test the new pre-release,
>> and so I downloaded the 6.04 version. I replaced the syslinux.efi file
>> only, and I got a lot more success. I symlinked the pxelinux.cfg dir 
>> and
>> images so it could find the files it needed.
>> 
>> Then I got the prompt, I typed "install" to trigger that menu
item and
>> it transferred the vmlinuz file (14sec for 11MB). Then the initrd
>> (47MB), which takes a long time, but does not ever show the
"ok", even
>> after the transfer was complete (as far as I could tell from the TFTP
>> server), which takes more than a minute. after some seconds of nothing
>> happening, it just reboots...
>> 
>> 
>> Can anyone help met out here?
>> 
> 
> If I recall correctly, UEFI is somewhat broken. Try iPXE instead.
I tried to use the iPXE /usr/share/ipxe/ipxe-x86_64.efi, but it had some 
issues with the network card, iirc, I think I saw the network interface 
down, though it likely uses a wrong driver?

Still, the newer 6.04 one did work, except for loading the large initrd 
file (which took more than 1 minute, which may be the reason it times 
out?), which is probably not UEFI related?