[syslinux] PXE booting Dell diagnostics

[J.H.]

Inline - JAH

On Fri, 2006-10-20 at 13:13 +0200, Berthold Cogel wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> I like to PXE boot the 'Dell 32 Bit Diagnostics' tool. I can create a 
> harddisk image with the linux download package. The README of the 
> Package gives an example how to create an memdisk entry for the pxelinux 
> menu system:
> 
> 
> <quote>
> 
> Create a Bootable HDD Image File
> 
> Use of the resulting image to perform a Preboot Execution Environment
> (PXE) boot into the diagnostics requires additional software and
> network infrastructure including a TFTP server, a DHCP server, and a
> bootloader capable of network booting. Specific instructions about how
> to how to do so on your network are beyond the scope of this readme file;
> however, a high-level overview of the steps to set this up using the
> pxelinux bootloader is described below. Consult your documentation or
> contact your local network administrator for additional
> information.
> 
> The "default" configuration file.
> 
> DEFAULT test
> 
> LABEL test
> 	kernel memdisk
> 	append initrd=ddtest.img
> 
> EXAMPLE output from a HD image build
> 
>    [user at localhost tmp]$ sudo ./DDDP.sh
> 
>    -------------------------------------------------------
>    ---------- Dell Diagnostic Delivery Package -----------
>    --------   Copyright (c) 2005-2006 Dell Inc.   --------
>    -------------------------------------------------------
> 
>    Creating temporary install directory /tmp/DDDP.
>      Directory /tmp/DDDP exists
>    View the README file? (y/n) n
>    Select device type to build (C=CD, U=USB Flash, H=Hard Drive, F=Floppy) h
>     ----> Build type selected is "HDD"
>    Enter image output filename [/tmp/diags.img]
>    Building image file /tmp/diags.img
>    Image file /tmp/diags.img for media type HDD, build complete
>    ======> Hard drive image in file "/tmp/diags.img"
>    [user at localhost tmp]$
> 
> 
> ######################################################################
> KNOWN ISSUES
> ######################################################################
> 
> Currently, root access is required to create the bootable HDD image
> files and to write the images to the devices.
> 
> </quote>
> 
> 
> I've copied the files to the appropriate positions and created this entry:
> 
> LABEL diag32
> 	MENU LABEL Dell Diagnostics
> 	KERNEL memdisk
> 	APPEND initrd=tests/diags.img
> 
> 
> But it doesn't work as expected. All I get during the boot is:
> 
> Loading memdisk...
> Could not find ramdisk image: tests/diags.img
> boot:

As far as memdisk & syslinux are concerned tests/diags.img doesn't
exsist.  Take a look at your tftpboot directory and make sure it's there
and readable.  If that doesn't solve your problem enable verbose output
for tftp (if your using tftp-hpa just add -v or -vv to it's
instantiation line, on a fedora based system edit /etc/xinetd.d/tftp and
add it to the 'server_args' line like:
server_args             = -vv -s /tftpboot)

- John

> 
> And then the menu executes the default entry after a timeout.
> 
> My suspicion is that I have to modify the image somehow, because I can 
> boot a DOS disk image and other tools (memdisk, ...) without a problem. 
> But I haven't found a clue in the mailinglist archive until now.
> 
> I'm using syslinux-3.31 from kernel.org.
> 
> Regards
> Berthold Cogel
> 
> _______________________________________________
> SYSLINUX mailing list
> Submissions to SYSLINUX at zytor.com
> Unsubscribe or set options at:
> http://www.zytor.com/mailman/listinfo/syslinux
> Please do not send private replies to mailing list traffic.