[syslinux] PXE boot hangs while transferring vmlinuz or initrd.img

[Michael Madore]

On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 11:11 AM, Erwan Velu <erwan at seanodes.com> wrote:
> Michael Madore wrote:
>> After loading pxelinux.0, the client will then start transferring
>> vmlinuz and initrd.img via tftp.  More than half the time, the
>> transfer will get stuck and then eventually print a timeout message.
>>
> Hello,
> I already saw bad PXE stacks behaving that way. Is there any bios update
> for that system ?
>
> It could sometimes solve that kind of problems.

This turned out to be a problem with the version of the e1000e driver
in the CentOS 5.2 kernel.  The kernel  shipping with CentOS 5.3
(2.6.18-128.el5) doesn't have the problem.  Loading the old driver
puts the adapter into a state where subsequent PXE boots fail.  When
that happens removing the power cord fixes the problem until the next
time.

Mike