[syslinux] PXELINUX, pxechain.com and Etherboot

[Joyce Yu]

Michael,

When I used Etherboot 5.4, I never got any problem to load Solaris in my 
lab setup. But I got "Error 25, Disk read Error" when gPXE was used. the 
following is the output messages:
==========================
Boot 'Solaris No Jumpstart'

kernel /solaris/S11_112/platform/i86pc/kernel/unix -v -m  verbose install
-B install_mdeia=xx.xx.xx.xx:/images/solaris/S11_112/

Error 25: Disk read error
===========================
ps; xx.xx.xx.xx is the ip address of the lab PXE server

In the same setup, Etherboot has no problem to load the same image.

Thanks,
Joyce



On 05/13/09 03:26 PM, Michael Brown wrote:
> On Wednesday 13 May 2009 22:19:17 Joyce Yu wrote:
>   
>> I think that I told you earlier. gPXE doesn't work with Solaris. I need 
>> to use something that can load Solaris at least. I tried a few gPXE
>> supported NICs. None of them can load Solaris. Clay has done some
>> analysis. Attached his old email to you. If gPXE can load Solaris, I
>> will definitely use gPXE.
>>     
>
> I believe that the only two relevant issues mentioned in that e-mail are the 
> lack of native gunzip support and the command line stripping argv[0].  The 
> latter is on my current todo list, the former will probably never be included 
> (see recent discussion on etherboot-developers), but the really *important* 
> point is that *Etherboot* *5.4* *does* *not* *provide* *these* *features*.
>
> If you are managing to load a gzipped multiboot kernel using Etherboot, then 
> you *must* be using some additional software such as pxelinux.  This software 
> will work just as well or better with gPXE in place of Etherboot 5.4.
>
> There is, as far as I can tell from what you say, absolutely *no* technical 
> reason for you to be using Etherboot 5.4.
>
> For the record, you will probably get best results using gPXE with syslinux's 
> mboot.c32, which I believe supports gzipped multiboot kernels.
>
> Michael
>   


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