[syslinux] Nested PXELINUX configurations

[Giannis Roussos]

Can you please show again how the preffix is defined?

Thanks for the help
Giannis

On 25/3/2011 2:05 πμ, Gene Cumm wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 18:38, Giannis Roussos
> <morpheus at csl.mech.ntua.gr>  wrote:
>> I discovered di-netboot-assistant , which worked as advertised. The .cfg
>> files it produced all have absolute paths without ::.
>
> In PXELINUX, the only paths that are absolute contain a "::" (either
> as the first two character or as a separator between an IPv4 address
> at the beginning and the path) or are a URL.
>
> The only caveat with my solution is that you may end up with a path
> that contains "//" (one from the prefix, one from the path specified
> in the config).
>
>> On 24/3/2011 9:27 μμ, Gene Cumm wrote:
>>>
>>> On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 12:59, Giannis Roussos
>>> <morpheus at csl.mech.ntua.gr>    wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> Comments inline; solution near the bottom.
>>>
>>>> I have a boot server (running Debian Lenny x64) with a number of bootable
>>>> options already configured (freedos, memtest, sysresccd etc).
>>>>
>>>> What I am struggling to do now is add Ubuntu and Debian netinst images so
>>>> that I can boot from the network and have all the boot options available
>>>> as
>>>> if I was using a CD-ROM.
>>>>
>>>> The problem is that (as far as I can tell) the Ubuntu and Debian PXELINUX
>>>> assume that they are located in the tftp root folder. Since however
>>>> Debian
>>>> and Ubuntu use a similar file structure, I cant have both distros a the
>>>> same
>>>> time in the tftp root. (Not to mention the mess this would create in the
>>>> tftp root).
>>>
>>> The structure of the configs is an issue for everything but PXELINUX.
>>> PXELINUX actually uses "::" as the character to indicate a root
>>> directory.
>>>
>>>> Idealy I would like to place each distro in a separate folder inside tftp
>>>> root (see below) and "chainload" each pxelinux configuration from the
>>>> default config file.
>>>>
>>>> TFTP_root---pxelinux.cfg--->default
>>>>     |
>>>>     |-------debian------pxelinux.cfg----->default
>>>>     |
>>>>     |-------ubuntu------pxelinux.cfg----->default
>>>>
>>>> Since PXELINUX uses (AFAIK) absolute paths, there are two ways to achieve
>>>
>>> It never uses absolute paths as I mentioned in the post you linked below.
>>>
>>>> something like this:
>>>> 1) Edit all configuration files and add the correct path in all include
>>>> arguments. I have done it for Ubuntu and it works but is not practical at
>>>> all, requiring a lot of work for each new release.
>>>> 2) Find the correct kernel, initrd etc settings for the Ubuntu/Debian
>>>> options and add them to the main PXELinux config or a submenu. Again,
>>>> this
>>>> requires a lot of work to add all the options and the graphics/help of
>>>> each
>>>> distro wouldn't be available.
>>>>
>>>> None of the above options is nice and practical, nor allows me to easily
>>>> update to newer releases without a lot of work.
>>>> Thus, I was wondering if there is some way to chainload the COMPLETE
>>>> PXELINUX config of each distro from separate folders. Maybe some option
>>>> to
>>>> "chroot" pxelinux so that all files are automaticaly loaded from the
>>>> nested
>>>> folder?
>>>>
>>>> I have tried copying pxelinux.0 in each of the distros' folders and load
>>>> this as a new kernel, but the pxelinux cfg in the tftp root is loaded
>>>> still.
>>>> Directly loading the main cfg file does not work either since all the
>>>> included files are not in the tftp root.
>>>
>>> Don't use it as a kernel.  Try the following:
>>>
>>> LABEL debian
>>>    COMBOOT pxechain.com
>>>    APPEND ::debian/pxelinux.0
>>>
>>> Please note that if the first PXELINUX is version 4.xx, it must be at
>>> least version 4.04-pre1 as there is a bug that was resolved in
>>> 4.04-pre1.  I believe 4.04-pre14 is OK but I can't be certain at this
>>> time.  For a production environment, I'd advise waiting for 4.04.
>>> Otherwise, try 3.86 for now.
>>>
>>>> The same question has been asked here
>>>> http://web.archiveorange.com/archive/v/mwjwmJ0CIqkvn1V88yus but no
>>>> complete
>>>> answer has been given.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for all the help,
>>>> Giannis
>>>
>>> I thought that it was.  I also think that the above post is a little
>>> different.
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> -
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>   Giannis P. Roussos
>>   PhD Student
>>   Control Systems Lab, Mechanical Eng. Dept.
>>   National Technical University of Athens
>>   9 Heroon Polytechniou Str., Zografou
>>   Athens 15700, Greece
>>
>>   Tel : ++30-210-772-1726
>>   e-mail : jrous at mail.ntua.gr
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>>
>
>
>


-- 
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Giannis P. Roussos
  PhD Student
  Control Systems Lab, Mechanical Eng. Dept.
  National Technical University of Athens
  9 Heroon Polytechniou Str., Zografou
  Athens 15700, Greece

  Tel : ++30-210-772-1726
  e-mail : jrous at mail.ntua.gr
------------------------------------------------------------------------------