[syslinux] ALTERNATE TFTP SERVERS

[Gene Cumm]

On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 07:56, Gene Cumm <gene.cumm at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 04:45,  <Kjetil.Mikkelborg at kongsberg.com> wrote:
>> I am also seeing this behavior;
>>
>> pxelinux 3.86 works nice with pxechain.o and sccm chainloaded, but replacing pxelinux.0 and pxechain.0 with 4.02 release, chainloading fails (or, actually it seems that it cannot pass ip::path right (:: gets omittet or something))
>>
>> Anyone else seen this behavior?
>>
>> --Kjetil
>
> I just did some testing from the "boot: " prompt with 4.02.  For
> reference, I used VMware Server 2.0.2 with a VM at VMHW-4 and another
> at VMHW-7 (virtual hardware versions).
>
> "pxechain.com sl401/pxelinux.0" attempts to fetch
> ::pxelinux.cfg/sl401/pxelinux.0 (for reference, version 4.01).
>
> "pxechain.com ::sl401/pxelinux.0" fetches the entire file and hangs
> with on a single line of output: "TFTP boot: 172.16.23.1 pxelinux.0"
> and does not respond to Ctrl-Alt-Del.
>
> "pxechain.com 172.16.23.130::pxelinux.0" (also 4.02) does the same
> except of course from another server.
>
> "::sl401/pxelinux.0" loads PXELINUX 4.01 successfully but does not
> reset anything else about the PXE environment (for example, current
> working directory or current server).  "::sl403p4/pxelinux.0"
> (4.03-pre4) and "172.16.23.130::pxelinux.0" do the same.
>
> From the VM at VMHW-4, I also tried PXELINUX 4.00 (loaded first to be
> consistent) with the same results.

Using 3.86, everything works.  Using PXELINUX-3.86 with pxechain.com
from 4.02 also works while PXELINUX-4.02 with pxechain.com from 3.86
does not (both as I expected).

--
-Gene

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: syslinux-bounces at zytor.com [mailto:syslinux-bounces at zytor.com] On Behalf Of Alexander
>> Sent: 9. september 2010 19:59
>> To: 'For discussion of Syslinux and tftp-hpa'
>> Subject: Re: [syslinux] ALTERNATE TFTP SERVERS
>>
>> I think I was able to closer to the error. After removing the IP I was able
>> to get some more lines on the screen.
>> So first of all, here the farest point, I got to.
>>
>> TFTP boot: 192.168.112.198 \Boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg\pxelinux.0
>>
>> PXELINUX 4.02 2010-07-21 [...]
>> !PXE entry point found (we hope) at 9E1C:0104 via plan A
>> UNDI code segment at 9E1c len 198C
>> UNDI data segment at 9C99 len 1830
>> Getting cached packet  01 02 03
>> My IP address seems to be C0A87038 192.168.112.56
>> Ip=192.168.112.56:192.168.112.198:0.0.0.0:255.255.255.0
>> BOOTIF=01-08-00-27-2d-f9-4d
>> SYSUUID=[...]
>> TFTP prefix: \Boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg\
>> Trying to load pxelinux.cfg/[SYSUUID]   _
>>
>>
>> How far I get here, seems to depend on a randomly short time window.
>> Once I even made it to the point, that he tried to load the vesamenu.c32 but
>> I didn't get any closer.
>> On bad luck I will just get to the first line (TFTP boot...)
>>
>> Nearly the same result I get when trying to point to WDS
>>
>> TFTP boot: 192.168.112.198 \Boot\x86\wdsnbp.com
>>
>> Press F12 for network service boot
>> _
>>
>> When I try to hit F12, the client is already freezed.
>>
>> So here is my default file:
>> DEFAULT vesamenu.c32
>> TIMEOUT 200
>> PROMPT 0
>> NOESCAPE 1
>>
>> MENU TITLE PXE Boot
>>
>> LABEL pxechangelinux
>> MENU LABEL PXE Chain Linux
>> COMBOOT pxechain.com
>> APPEND 192.168.112.198::\Boot\x86\pxelinux.0
>>
>> LABEL pxechangewds
>> MENU LABEL PXE Chain WDS
>> COMBOOT pxechain.com
>> APPEND 192.168.112.198::\Boot\x86\wdsnbp.com
>>
>>
>>
>> PXELinux and co are placed in %Systemroot%\Remoteinstall\Boot\x86
>> The WDS Server runs DHCP too.
>> WDS/DHCP/tftp-Server-ip: 192.168.112.198
>>
>> This is my test setup at home. At work I have the same setup but with a
>> second wds/tftp-server only running the wds/tftp-role.
>> At work it will even freeze earlier. There I'll just get to the first line
>> (TFTP boot...) after selecting one of the pxechain entries.
>> It doesn't matter if I point to the first or second server.
>>
>> I even turned off the windows server firewall completely with no effect.
>> Everything else is working fine with WDS and PXELinux.
>>
>> Alex
>>
>>
>> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
>> Von: syslinux-bounces at zytor.com [mailto:syslinux-bounces at zytor.com] Im
>> Auftrag von Jeffrey Hutzelman
>> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 9. September 2010 17:40
>> An: For discussion of Syslinux and tftp-hpa
>> Cc: jhutz at cmu.edu
>> Betreff: Re: [syslinux] ALTERNATE TFTP SERVERS
>>
>> --On Wednesday, September 08, 2010 11:38:15 PM +0200 Alexander
>> <erazoramg at freenet.de> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello there,
>>>
>>> I suceeded in setting up WDS with PXELinux.
>>> Now I'm trying to point the primary tftp server with pxechain.com to a
>>> second tftp server. Actually it will just load the specified kernel, which
>>> is given through APPEND. After that the tftp client just freezes.
>>> Do I need to start with another tftp? The actual used tftp (and DHCP)
>>> server comes from Win2008 R2 Server.
>>> (Using Syslinux 4.02 package)
>>>
>>> Any help would be appreciated.
>>
>> You haven't told us anything about the configuration that leads to the
>> problem.  Please send a copy of your PXELINUX config file along with a
>> description of which server is which, where the files are, and exactly what
>> happens when you try to chain to the second server (what output do you get?
>> especially, what are the last lines before it freezes?).
>>
>> -- Jeffrey T. Hutzelman (N3NHS) <jhutz+ at cmu.edu>
>>   Carnegie Mellon University - Pittsburgh, PA