[syslinux] Re: Network Boot IP Configuration Dilemma

[James Courtier-Dutton]

H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Jon Nalley wrote:
> 
>>I mentioned the possibility of the mac=<mac address> append option to my
>>friend Stan Smith, and he had it added in no time.  So, here is a patch
>>to add the mac=<mac address> to the kernel append line in case you
>>decide to support it.
> 
> 
> Sorry, but thanks for playing.  Breaks on non-Ethernets.
> 
> There is a reason I try to talk about "hardware address" and not
> "Ethernet address" or "MAC address" (although I didn't really in this
> thread) -- PXELINUX is deliberately agnostic about the type of network
> it is talking to.  This is the reason the hardware address is formatted
> the way it is in the query, and that needs to be maintained.
> 
> 	-hpa
> 
I think the best solution to the problem is finding a way to tell the OS 
which NIC card it booted from. There is no harm in it sending DHCP 
requests twice, once for PXE, once for the OS.
I also agree that this feature would be useful.
So, I would suggest that the only way so far suggested to do this 
reliably, "passing the hardware address" is the best option.
It should be fairly easy for a script in the boot up scripts to convert 
the "hardware address" into a MAC address, if one is using ethernet, and 
therefore determin the boot up interface.
It might be a kind thing to supply with PXELINUX,  a suitable script to 
do this for linux.

Cheers
James