[syslinux] Gene, great documentation on PXELINUX-Multi-Arch

[Gene Cumm]

Thank you.  I appreciate your thanks and feedback.  Examples certainly
would round it out more.

Yes I've tested EFI64 after DHCP options successfully but failed on
pre-DHCP options.

--Gene
On Dec 9, 2014 1:28 PM, "Spike White" <spikewhitetx at gmail.com> wrote:

> Gene,
>
> First off, great documentation on
> http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX-Multi-Arch
>
> You clearly lay out the various techniques.
>
> Just last week, I presented a pxelinux talk to our local Linux meet-up
> group. (I've given
> this talk before.)
>
>
>
> http://2014.texaslinuxfest.org/content/creating-legacy-efi-pxe-server-using-pxelinux.html
>
> Apparently, I'm using the "distinct directory, symlink path" technique.
> Good to know.
>
> You might want to document example distinct directory examples.  To more
> fully explain
> each technique.
>
> Here's my example "distinct directory, symlink path" setup:
>
> .
> ├── bios
> │   ├─ boot
> │   │  ├── centos/
> │   │  │   └── 6.2/
> │   │  │       └── x86_64/
> │   │  │           ├── initrd.img
> │   │  │           └── vmlinuz
> │   │  └── fedora/
> │   │      ├── initrd.img
> │   │      └── vmlinuz
> │   ├── SplashP.png
> │   ├── graphics.conf
> │   ├── ldlinux.c32
> │   ├── libcom32.c32
> │   ├── libutil.c32
> │   ├── pxelinux.cfg
> │   │ └── default
> │   ├── pxelinux.0
> │   └── vesamenu.c32
> └── efi.x64
>     └── boot -> ../bios/boot
>     ├── SplashP.png -> ../bios/SplashP.png
>     ├── graphics.conf  -> ../bios/graphics.conf
>     ├── ldlinux.e64
>     ├── libcom32.c32
>     ├── libutil.c32
>     ├── pxelinux.cfg
>     │ └── default
>     ├── syslinux.efi
>     └── vesamenu.c32
>
>
> and here's an equivalent "distinct directory, common kernel path" example:
>
> .
> ├─ boot
> │  ├── centos/
> │  │   └── 6.2/
> │  │       └── x86_64/
> │  │           ├── initrd.img
> │  │           └── vmlinuz
> │  └── fedora/
> │      ├── initrd.img
> │      └── vmlinuz
> ├── SplashP.png
> ├── graphics.conf
> ├─  bios
> │   ├── ldlinux.c32
> │   ├── libcom32.c32
> │   ├── libutil.c32
> │   ├── pxelinux.cfg
> │   │ └── default
> │   ├── pxelinux.0
> │   └── vesamenu.c32
> └── efi.x64
>     ├── ldlinux.e64
>     ├── libcom32.c32
>     ├── libutil.c32
>     ├── pxelinux.cfg
>     │ └── default
>     ├── syslinux.efi
>     └── vesamenu.c32
>
> BTW, I'm a huge fan of the "distinct directory" techniques.  Why?  Because
> your DHCP server
> has to set up different bootfile-name options anyway, for the various
> clients.  That is:
>    - a BIOS client has to boot pxelinux.0,
>    - a UEFI/32 client has to boot (32-bit) syslinux.efi and
>    - a UEFI/64 client has to boot (64-bit) syslinux.efi.
>
> (In my talk, I document three different ISC syntaxes to configure your DHCP
> server to do this.)
>
> Since you have to do this effort anyway, it makes sense to provide a
> relative path.  For instance,
> "bios/pxelinux.0" and "efi64/syslinux.efi".  Then pxelinux is automatically
> using distinct dirs,
> since all paths are relative to where pxelinux's NBP is found.
>
> For my situation, in my pxelinux.cfg/default files my boot flags &
> kickstart files are slightly
> different between my BIOS & UEFI clients.  So striving towards a common
> config makes little sense.
> I can reference a common graphics.conf and SplashP.png, but very little
> else.
>
> However, I totally agree with your approach of documenting common
> config/common directory.  This
> technique may make sense for other scenarios.
>
> I'm reading your "common directory distinct config", about
> pxelinux-options. I see
> http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX has a (very short!)
> discussion of pxelinux-options
> under the "hardcoded options" section.
>
> Looked at the perl source code and makefile.  Running pxelinux-options -h
> make more sense as to what
> it does.  I see it patches pxelinux.0.  Will it correctly patch
> efi64/efi/syslinux.efi as well?  (I
> know it claims to).
>
> Spike
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