[syslinux] pxelinux.cfg/default

John Poltorak jp at manninghammills.org
Mon Mar 3 07:07:29 PST 2003


On Fri, Feb 28, 2003 at 05:12:08PM +0100, Martijn Bakker wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 28, 2003 at 03:51:42PM +0000, John Poltorak wrote:
> 
> > I only want to get to the next step for now. Apparently all I need is a 
> > file called Linux. There must be something minimal and sufficiently 
> > generic that I can use without needing to know anything about building my 
> > own kernel...
> 
> Well, the file called "linux" (not "Linux") is in fact a kernel. This kernel
> needs to be able to support or an initrd or NFS-Root. initrd is pretty much
> a default in redhat-based distro's. NFS-Root however, is really not so
> default.
> 
> > > PXELINUX is a pretty advanced tool.  
> > 
> > I don't doubt that for a minute.
> 
> It is. Net-booting a linux-kernel + underlying "distribution" mostly requires
> being a linux-guru if you want to build it yourself. Next to that, I
> reccomend applying a lot of google, and a bit of mailinglist-digest.

I've just been looking at a Slackware CD, and I was wondering if you 
actually needed to be running Linux to be able to build your own kernel...

It looks to me as though this kernel building is done using shell scripts.
If that is the case, then should I be able to a build the correct kernel 
under an appropriate SHELL on any other OS, including OS/2?

 
> > > You probably want to get 
> > > familiar with a Linux distribution before doing anything else.  If you 
> > > really want a system which can boot off the network and have no files on 
> > > the actual client, the SuperRescue CD distribution of Linux can operate 
> > > in this mode.
> > 
> > My primary objective is to get PXE working. I don't want to get 
> > sidetracked into having to become a Linux expert first.
> 
> Maybe then pxelinux isn't the greatest step. If you see pxelinux printing
> stuff on your screen, I think you can concider your netboot-attempt as a
> success. It didn't boot a linux-kernel, but you got the image over the
> network.

I've seen output from pxelinux on the client screen but have problems due 
to a missing 'tsize' option on my TFTP Server, so I may not be able to get 
much further just at the moment, at least with pxelinux. I have got 
further using bpbatch, though. I did manage to get OS/2 to boot from the 
client's local hard disk using bpbatch commands.

 
> > I tried to get bpbatch working initially but didn't make much progress 
> > so I thought I'd give PXELINUX a try
> > all. 
> 
> If I may ask, what's the specific final goal you want to achieve?

I want to be able to boot a wide variety of OS's on a network computer 
without having to install them. I'm also interested in developing my 
knowledge of DHCP/PXE.


> 
> grtz, Tijn
> 
> -- 
>  4:59PM  up 54 days,  2:58, 5 users, load averages: 0.11, 0.12, 0.15


-- 
John






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