[syslinux] Using of pxelinux configfiles for both BIOS and UEFI boot

[Ady]

> > Hello everyone,
> >
> > I'm using a windows PXE server and I try to upgrade a existing PXELINUX menu structure with actually with BIOS/Legacy mode to work in UEFI mode too.
> >
> > Since I have to use ZENworks tftp on the windows server I have only one TFTP-root directory not 2 different tftp-root directories like on a standard windows
> > deployment server. ZENworks itself uses for Legacy mode a patched PXELINUX and for UEFI a patched grub boot manager to get both running.
> >
> > - Is there a standard approach to use different vesamenu.c32 (and other architecture depending ) files in the pxelinux.cfg/default file depending on the boot architecture - especially for BIOS/Legacy and EFI64?
> > - Is it e.g. possible to set and use variables depending on the boot architecture in the default menu  pxelinux.cfg/default to address different vesamenu.c32 files?
> >
> > I sniffed network traffic, googled and looked at the SYSLINUX wiki, but always get stuck with the problem that I can't address two different vesamenu.c32 (or menu.c32) modules depending on BIOS or UEFI boot.
> > Maybe I'm just missing just a little detail.
> >
> > I'm using SYSLINUX 6.03 for the existing PXE menu structure with a  large number of PXELINUX configuration files (>170), so building a second structure in grub syntax isn't a way I would like to follow up further.
> >
> > Using the tftp from the windows deployment could be an option, but would provoke other incompatibility of services of the MDT server and the ZENworks infrastructure services.
> >
> > Yours sincerely
> > Peter Leenders
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I guess a general use of  constants/variables is still not possible as described in the SYSLINUX wiki - is this correct?
>      -> http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/SYSLINUX#Is_There_A_Way_To_Define_Constants_Or_Variables.3F
> 
> Are the "system" flags to handle this or is there a version of vesamenu.c32 (and depending modules) that run with both UEFI and BIOS- I haven't found something like this?
> 
> Is it possible to define search paths for the modules so that it is possible to use both UEFI and BIOS in one TFTP root structure without depending on a special dhcp.conf (linux) or in my case using 2 different tftp root structures (windows)?
> 
> For belonging ldlinux module the extensions (*.c32, *.e32 and *.e64) allows to use UEFI and BIOS parallel. Unfortunately this concept is not working for the other modules like vesamenu and depending modules. Is there a plan to extent this concept to the other modules?
> 
> Peter Leenders
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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See the PATH directive:
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Config#PATH
and the links from that section.

For some general information:
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Library_modules

For a basic starting point for dhcp config for mixed BIOS/UEFI clients:
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX#UEFI

For multiple architectures / firmware variants, see basic clues:
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX-Multi-Arch

Note the usage of "::" as tftp root.

You should be aware that mixing versions of Syslinux should be avoided, 
and that part of the directives are not supported in older versions.

Regards,
Ady.