[syslinux] pxelinux 4.03 taking forever to find .../pxelinux.cfg/default

[Gene Cumm]

On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 20:51, H. Peter Anvin <hpa at zytor.com> wrote:
> On 11/17/2010 01:15 PM, Doug Scoular wrote:
>> Hi All,
>> It appears the NetApp OnTap tftp server we were using doesn't
>> implement the "OpCode: Error Code (5); Error Code: File not found (1)"
>> response." so we just moved the tftp service to RHEL boxes running HPA
>> tftpd.
>>
>> It's essential for our deployment system to locate the pxelinux config
>> specific to an installation request based on it's MAC address. If the
>> MAC based file is not present in the pxelinux.cfg directory we present
>> the default config file which contains an extensive menu system. It
>> all works wonderfully well.
>>
>> The limitation was, I fear, on the NetApp implementation of their tftp
>> server and unrelated to pxelinux.
>>
>
> Please do file a problem report with NetApp.

That explains it perfectly.  PXELINUX didn't get a negative response
so waited for timeout.  I'm glad you've found a solution.

I can understand if NetApp wanted to do this from a security
staindpoint but it should be a user-configurable attribute and not a
static compile-time attribute (even better: user configurable with an
IP address/list).  If it's not user-configurable, I'd definitely
consider it a bug on their part.

-- 
-Gene