[syslinux] Failing to get pxechain.com working, SYSLINUX 3.86.

[Gene Cumm]

On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 23:15, Andrew Stuart <andrew at shopcusa.com> wrote:
> On 7/26/2011 6:54 PM, Gene Cumm wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 21:15, Andrew Stuart<andrew at shopcusa.com>  wrote:
>>>
>>> To start, I know I need to upgrade SYSLINUX, but since we are using the
>>> CMenu's it's not that easy of an upgrade. I have been (slowly) working on
>>> a
>>> new iPXE/pxelinux 4.04 install that I am migrating to.
>>
>> cmenu rather than menu.c32/vesameu.c32?  Have you tried just
>> rebuilding it in the new version?
>>
> Correct, it's been around for a while, and at that time
> menu.c32/vesamenu.c32 had a bunch of issues (for us) with video lockups/etc.
> I tried straight copy/modify/compile and failed, haven't had a chance to
> figure out why.
>
>>> However, I have an interesting problem. Using any of the examples I have
>>> seen, I can not make pxechain.com work.
>>>
>>> "pxechain.com ::/path/pxelinux.0"
>>> "pxechain.com ::path/pxelinux.0"
>>> "pxechain.com 192.168.1.12::/path/pxelinux.0"
>>> "pxechain.com 192.168.1.12::path/pxelinux.0"
>>>
>>> Having seen a thread where it appears pxechain.com is interchangeable, I
>>> tried the one from 4.04, with no difference.
>>
>> The reason for this is that it only interprets the command line then
>> makes a PXE API call.
>>
>>> I escape from my CMenu to the boot prompt:
>>>
>>> boot: pxechain.com 192.168.1.12::path/pxelinux.0
>>>
>>> and it appeared nothing happened, assuming it was a vmware issue, I tried
>>> on
>>> a few hardware based systems with the same results.
>>
>> 1) Could you reference "a few hardware based systems" (including
>> applicable BIOS/firmware)?
>>
> Intel 945gtp, msi 915gm, acer H340, Dell Ins 1525. I'll need to get back to
> you on the bios but some machines have already left, so I'll need to try a
> few others
>
>
>> 2) Which VMware product?  Which NIC?
>
> Esxi v41u1 E1000, and default
> Workstation 7.1.4, same nics
>
>
>>
>> 3) Could you try without loading your CMenu system in case it's
>> corrupting something?
>>
>
> Sure, I'll have to try it tomorrow.
>
>>> Now, for the interesting part:  I got distracted, walked away for 15
>>> minutes, came back and found:
>>>
>>> boot: pxechain.com 192.168.1.12::path/pxelinux.0
>>> Could not find kernel image: 67.215.65.132::path/pxelinux.0
>>> boot:
>>> Booting from local disk ...
>>> (etc)
>>>
>>> I have repeated this with all the above examples, it takes roughly 10
>>> minutes before getting that response. in tftpd's xferlog nothing is
>>> logged
>>> until it gets the above, then it logs pxechain.com
>>>
>>> I'm running hpa's tftpd on FreeBSD 8.2 x86, this is an old working setup,
>>> all other apps working great, I just have one specific app that needs to
>>> be
>>> launched with it's own path, I have tested this specifically with
>>> pxelinux.0
>>> from 3.86/4.04 in path/ to verify it wasn't the programs fault. also
>>> server
>>> address is 192.168.1.12, and is not multihomed
>>>
>>> Now, 67.215.65.132 is opendns' landing page for all their redirects for
>>> invalid domains/etc. Anyone have any clues as to whats going wrong here?
>>> Why
>>> is opendns' landing page coming up? is pxechain attempting to do a dns
>>> lookup that is failing? I do have opendns' servers setup as
>>> forwarders for my local dns servers.
>>>
>>> I haven't tried to rebuild pxechain.com with debug support as I don't
>>> know
>>> anything about assembly, and I'm not sure compiling it under FreeBSD is
>>> going to work (assuming it should?!?!)..
>>>
>>> Besides sniffing/debug build of pxechain, any other suggestions? I will
>>> work
>>> on trying to get something setup to do this in case it's the only
>>> response.
>>
>> Another is pxechn.c32.  I've implemented basic functionality however I
>> haven't received any feedback.  By default, it manipulates the
>> parameters in memory and loads the new NBP without the PXE RESTART
>> call but with an extra parameter can be a larger replacement for
>> pxechain.com.
>>
>
> Yeah, Gene, that may be because it's hard to find?!?! I remember it, and
> went looking for it, but while I can find references to it, I can't find the
> file itself (or the source), I must be missing the git repo or something in
> my google searches. I'd gladly try it otherwise. Or blind?

A nice HTTP URL:
http://git.zytor.com/?p=users/genec/syslinux.git;a=tree;f=com32/modules;h=refs/heads/pxechain-com32-alpha;hb=refs/heads/pxechain-com32-alpha

The file is pxechn.c (of course).

-- 
-Gene