[syslinux] Question about pxelinux and gpxelinux

Sean Lv jie.lv.mvp at gmail.com
Mon Jan 5 08:19:14 PST 2009


Hi Hpa and all

	I am confused about some function of pxelinux and gpxelinux/gpxe.

	1, after I read the document
(http://edgyu.excess.org/ols/2008/H%20Peter%20Anvin%20-%20x86%20network%20bo
oting%3a%20integrating%20gPXE%20and%20PXELINUX.pdf), I knew there are two
major module in standard gPXE, PXE BC and UNDI. And I can understand why I
need to produce different boot file for different NIC from
http://rom-o-matic.net/, because the output file contain different UNDI.
But I am really confused that why only one gpxelinux.0 (in syslinux 3.72
package) could support all my NIC (at least 5) in my environment?  I guess
the gpxelinux.0 use its own PXE BC and call vendor-UNDI from physical PXE
ROM, as a result, gpxelinux.0 could support all my NIC(actually, it is
supposed to support all NIC which have PXE ROM)  Am I right? 

	2, From rfc5071, pxelinux should request non-standard DHCP option
from DHCP server, option 208-211. In my environment, I am using a Microsoft
DHCP (Windows 2008). And I tried to set option 67 (boot file name) to
publish pxelinux.0 & gpxelinux.0. I used wildpacket(just like Wireshark) to
capture the packets btw PXE client and DHCP server. I could not see PXE
client request option 208/209/210/211, although I am sure I configured these
syslinux-DHCP option on my DHCP Server.  Why? I searched the google and
official web site, all examples are using a linux-DHCP Server. I am not
familiar with linux, and I am not sure if my issue is related to my
Micrsoft-DHCP Server.  

	It's appreciated if you can help me out. Thanks in advanced.





More information about the Syslinux mailing list