[syslinux] client hangs on pxelinux

H. Peter Anvin hpa at zytor.com
Sat Nov 10 12:23:32 PST 2007


Firas Swidan wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> my client pc hangs on pxelinux before starting to fetch the linux
> kernel. It hangs after printing the ip information row. No traffic is
> observed at this point on the network. The pxelinux is transferred to
> the client through a tftp server and with no problems.
> 
> What options do I have to proceed from this point and try to find out
> where the problem is?
> 

Looking at TFTP logs and/or running Wireshark (Ethereal) to sniff the 
traffic is potentially useful; however, most likely what you have is a 
phenomenon called the deaf PXE stack: it can transmit packets but not 
receive them through the UDP interface, which is the one used by 
PXELINUX.  This bug has been reported as being near universal on SiS900 
cards, but present on some other ones as well.

There is a workaround, which is to chain-load Etherboot 
(http://www.rom-o-matic.net/) as a secondary (working!) PXE stack before 
loading PXELINUX.

	-hpa




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