[syslinux] Pxelinux image filename oddity?

[Simen Thoresen]

Hello Sir,

(This applies to the RH8.0 supplied syslinux 1.75-3 and the upgraded tftp-server-0.32-1 from RH Rawhide)

I'm having fun remotebooting my ViA EPIA box (an ITX form-factor 800MHz ViA C3 semi-embedded pc), and have landed on pxeboot as the 'best tool for the job'.

Right now I have it working, but the documentation found elsewhere on the web has confused me.

Specifically, having a dot ('.') in the filename of the image seems to crash or reboot my machine.

I'm not sure if that is intended behaviour (or even a known bug), but I have found other documentation that specifies 'linux.0' as the kernel and 'linux.1' as the initrd, and this breaks on my system. Also using typical RH-style kernel image names (vmlinuz-2.4.x-y) fails the same way.

I guess what I am missing is a simple how-to on the pxelinux part.

I humbly submit my own <MAC> file, which loads a kernel without a ramdisk, and hangs on a no-root-fs panic;

[root at leire linux]# cat /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/C0A80165
label linux
        kernel boot


...while the following (kernel properly renamed, of course) results in either a crash or a reboot, depending on how the kernel was built
[root at leire linux]# cat /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/C0A80165
label linux
        kernel boot.0


Please use these as examples as you wish.

I'll go off now to build a working initrd.

Thank you for great tools.

Yours,
-Simen Thoresen
--
Simen Thoresen, Beowulf-cleaner and random artist - close and personal.

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