[syslinux] Default PXE boot timeout

[H. Peter Anvin]

a s p a s i a wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I have a NFSroot'ed a couple of OS platforms so that servers can have
> the option (web access) to:
> 
> a.  boot off a CentOS NFS root over the network
> b.  or LOCAL hardrive (FreeBSD).
> 
> A Simple script controls this so that if user selects NFS root -
> 
> - /etc/dhcpd.conf will be updated to include the filename "pxelinux.0"
> parameter and it will find its configuration file based on HW MAC
> 
> If selects Free BSD - /etc/dhcpd.conf file is updated so that we
> simply remove that line that contains filename "pxelinux.0"; it will
> just keep trying to look for the pxelinux.0 binary and will not find
> it and then it will timeout and boot into its second boot selection -
> HARD DRIVE.
> 
> Here is my question -
> 
> what is the default timeout value?  (or is this controlled by the
> BIOS? is this timeout somehow controlled by pxelinux or something
> else?
> 
> Apologize if the question is naive.
> 

The timeout to get a file from the server depends on the PXE firmware in 
the BIOS or on the network card.

It seems kind of complicated, though; you should be able to just do a 
localboot from PXELINUX instead of editing dhcpd.conf.

	-hpa