[syslinux] How to enable F12 key to start PXE boot?

Ardill, Robert (DTEI) robert.ardill at saugov.sa.gov.au
Wed Aug 30 17:23:43 PDT 2006


Ah yes I've used the XPe RBS. It's just bulky to install if that's all
you need.
 
The inf file I supplied basically does the same thing that link you
posted, but doesn't seem to explain how to use the extend
function/settings of the MS tftpd service.
 
What you've done is right. I suspect the PC your using implements the
PXE activation a little different.
 
 
What system is this running on... Under most BIOS's the defacto standard
to force PXE boot is F12.
 
So you turn on the PC, if you press nothing it boots from the defined
boot order (ie. A:, CDROM, C:)
 
If you press F12 during BIOS initialisation it will then change the boot
order to try PXE first. It the runs you specified DHCP bootfile. This
behaviour is typical with HP/Compaq/IBM and Dell. Some clones don't have
the F12 feature and require you to add PXE into the boot priority order.
I have one such system at home. (SiS900 NIC)
 
Oh. The above name brand PC's also display "Press F12 to Network Boot"
during BIOS initialisation. One some (HP Compaq) it can be hidden if
required.
 
Rob
 

________________________________

From: Greg_Chu at Wendys.com [mailto:Greg_Chu at Wendys.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, 29 August 2006 1:15 AM
To: Ardill, Robert (DTEI)
Cc: syslinux at zytor.com
Subject: RE: [syslinux] How to enable F12 key to start PXE boot?



Bob, 

I was using Microsoft Embedded Remote Boot Service, not RIS. 

Anyway I tried your suggestions: 

I used 
http://pxes.sourceforge.net/howtos/ms_only_environment/ 
to install the tftp service (did not use your tftpd.inf) 

and added option 043, 060, 066, 067 to DHCP server 
when booting system up, I do not see prompt saying "press F12 for
network boot", the system just boot into PXE . But the PXE boot menu
does show up fine. What I want is system will not see the PXE menu,
unless the user press F12.  I will try to use your inf file to install
TFTP and try it again. 

Do you see I miss anything?  Where is that F12? 

Thanks for help. 

Greg 

the default is shown below: 

DEFAULT menu.c32 
PROMPT 0 
TIMEOUT 500 
ONTIMEOUT local 
ALLOWOPTIONS 0 
MENU ROWS 4 
MENU WIDTH 80 
MENU MARGIN 15 
MENU PASSWORDMARGIN 20 
MENU TIMEOUTROW 20 

MENU TITLE Welcome to the Network boot menu 

LABEL local 
        MENU LABEL ^Local Boot (Windows) 
        LOCALBOOT 0 
        
LABEL winpe 
        MENU LABEL WinPE (ISO) 
            KERNEL 1/startrom.bs 
            
LABEL bartpe 
        MENU LABEL BartPE (SDI) 
            KERNEL 2/startrom.bs 

LABEL vendor 
        MENU LABEL Submenu 
;        MENU PASSWD soeinst 
        KERNEL menu.c32 
        APPEND pxelinux.cfg\submenu 
    
    
submen is shown below: 

MENU TITLE Systems Tools Menu 

MENU ROWS 14 
MENU WIDTH 80 
MENU MARGIN 18 
MENU ENDROW 24 
MENU PASSWORDMARGIN 20 
MENU PASSWORDROW 10 
MENU TABMSGROW 23 
MENU TIMEOUTROW 24 
    
LABEL ghost 
        MENU LABEL Ghost Disk 
            KERNEL 5/startrom.bs 

    
LABEL imgbu 
        MENU LABEL Winpe raw 
            KERNEL 6/startrom.bs 

LABEL mainmenu 
        MENU LABEL Exit - Main Menu 
        KERNEL menu.c32 






"Ardill, Robert (DTEI)" <robert.ardill at saugov.sa.gov.au> 

08/27/2006 08:55 PM 

To
<syslinux at zytor.com>, <Greg_Chu at wendys.com> 
cc
Subject
RE: [syslinux] How to enable F12 key to start PXE boot?	

		




Hi Greg,

Looks like your trying to get a simple disk image loaded under RIS. RIS
is not design to do this. The problem with RIS is that the "remote boot
service" (binlsrv) overides any DHCP options for PXE. This is just one
of the many traps you'll find when trying to run pxelinux in a RIS
environment. If you're not using RIS in the traditional sense, then
uninstall it and use the tftpd.inf file to just install the tftpd
service by itself. This will just install the tftpd service and not the
binl service.

To get PXE running up in an MS environment, follow the below guides.

1. Install a TFTPD server.

Download and right click to install. If it asks for files, point it at
your i386 install source dir.

http://users.on.net/~rardill/tftpd.inf

Before running the inf (right click -> Install) edit the directory reg
key, if you want to use a directory other than
%systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc

Note the directory reg key differences (type expand vs standard) if you
are using Win2000 else it won't work.

Then download http://users.on.net/~rardill/tftpboot2.zip to your
nominate directory above as a guide for setting up your imaging/recovery
environment.

Use the tftp.exe command to test that it works. 
ie. Tftp -I <IP address of server> GET pxelinux.0
A successful transfer mean it working.

2. Setup your DHCP scope for that site.

Add the necessary DHCP options to your server as per this link below
using netsh. 

http://pxes.sourceforge.net/howtos/ms_only_environment/

3. Turn on a PXE enable PC and press F12 to display the pxelinux menu
(menu.c32).

Hope that helps.

Regards
Rob




-----Original Message-----
From: syslinux-bounces at zytor.com [mailto:syslinux-bounces at zytor.com] On
Behalf Of Greg_Chu at Wendys.com
Sent: Saturday, 26 August 2006 6:05 AM
To: 
Subject: Re: [syslinux] How to enable F12 key to start PXE boot?

my pxelinux.cfg folder has one file called default show as below:


default boot
prompt 0
say booting....
label boot
kernet memdisk
append initrd=boot.imz

I am using MS remote boot service, and uses pxelinux.0 as the  boot
program, but I want to enable F12 so end user can skip PXE if no need to
boot from PXE, whenever needed just press F12 to boot into PXE to
restore images.

I posted earlier, and got confused by startrom.com and F12, if I use
pxelinux.0 then I do not see F12 prompt, if I use startrom.com then it
does show F12, but when press F12 it is looking for winnt.sif, ...

Anyway, some people replied, but I think if I use startrom.com them how
do I link startrom.com to start pxelinux.cfg default? put it into
winnt.sif?

Please help.

Greg
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