[syslinux] ISOLinux + PXELinux

[ganapathy murali krishnan]

This netbooting is new to me, so bear with me a little.
 From what I understand,

For each specific NIC, I can create a "Linux Kernel" using etherboot, 
which when booted into, will go fetch the real kernel (in case of linux) 
/ a floppy image (in case of DOS), from an nfs mountpoint (which is 
hardcoded into the etherboot generated kernel.

What I would ideally, like is an "image" in ISOLinux called say netboot, 
so that typing

 > netboot boot=server:/dir/kernel a=b c=d ...

will boot the specified kernel with the specified initrd (in case of 
linux) or just boot into the floppy image (specified by boot) in case of 
DOS image.

Is this feasible?

I write a COMBOOT image called "netboot" which queries the BIOS and 
finds out, the Vendor and Device ID of my NIC, and then runs the 
etherboot floppy image specific to that NIC (which also lives on the 
CD), and passes its arguments through.

The NIC specific etherboot "linux kernel", gets the kernel specified by 
the boot argument, and passes the remaining (a=b c=d...) to the kernel.
I hope to actually call it with something like

netboot boot=myserver:/export/kernel initrd=myserver:/export/rootfs.img 
hdc=ide-scsi...

I dont expect to have this working anytime soon. Just so that I get an 
idea of what can be done and what cannot.

- Murali