[syslinux] mboot.c32, NUMA and tgz

[Jeffrey Hutzelman]

--On Tuesday, July 21, 2009 01:42:43 PM -0700 "H. Peter Anvin" 
<hpa at zytor.com> wrote:

> Hansen, Timbonicus wrote:
>> Sounds reasonable -- what do you mean by replacing the core? What
>> elements are required besides the mboot.c32? I must admit little
>> knowledge of syslinux, but I got the impression that VMware is not using
>> much of the package. Here are the files present that successfully get an
>> install going:
>>
>> boot.cat
>> cim.vgz
>> cimstg.tgz
>> ienviron.tgz
>> image.tgz
>> install.tgz
>> isolinux.bin
>> isolinux.cfg
>> mboot.c32
>> menu.c32
>> readme.txt
>> sys.vgz
>> vmkboot.gz
>> vmkernel.gz
>>
>> What parts are from syslinux that I would need to replace in order to
>> upgrade the mboot.c32? Or is impossible to tell without decompressing
>> and examining the files?
>>
>
> The core is isolinux.bin in this case.

Well, except that if he's trying to PXE boot, the core is pxelinux.0, which 
he must have added because VMWare doesn't ship it.  This should work, BTW; 
I've successfully booted ESXi this way.  All VMware should need from 
mboot.c32 is to load and decompress the "modules", just like any other 
multiboot kernel.  Part of their boot process involves extracting the 
tarballs into what is essentially a ramdisk.

-- Jeff