[syslinux] iPXE chain to lpxelinux.0 6.03-pre17 inconsistencies and failures

[Geert Stappers]

Op 2014-07-01 om 22:55 schreef Gene Cumm:
> On Jul 1, 2014 10:37 PM, "Alexander Perlis" wrote:
> >
> > I believe I'm seeing a bug in lpxelinux.0 6.03-pre17 but I need some
> > advice on how to isolate and troubleshoot this. (I can't try pre18
> > at the moment, but did try 4.07 and 5.10 and saw similar behavior,
> > also with pxelinux.0, so although I'll give pre18 a try soon, some
> > isolation/troubleshooting advice will be a good education no matter
> > what.)
> 
> Odd. 4.07 should be good but the 4.10/5.1*/6.0* revisions make sense.
> 
> > To get to our PXE-launched tools from hosts on a subnet without proper
> > DHCP support (e.g., on a NAT or in a different building), we're trying
> > to use small iPXE USB thumb drives and/or iPXE CD-ROMs, obtained from
> > rom-o-matic.eu, which then chainload to lpxelinux.0 off our actual
> > PXE server. (We used pxelinux-options to put a "-b pxe.ip.address"
> > into lpxelinux.0, so that it would know the server IP for grabbing
> > the subsequent libxxx and config files.)
> >
> > On some hosts we successfully get all the way to the graphical
> > vesamenu.c32 under lpxelinux.0, while on other hosts we reach the
> > initial lpxelinux.0 banner line but then the host hangs (and server
> > shows no attempt to grab libxxx or config files), while on other
> > hosts there is a reboot as soon as control is handed to lpxelinux.0
> > (and unclear whether the banner line is printed, as the reboot blanks
> > the screen too quickly).
> >
> >  Intel Macs: local-ipxe->lpxelinux.0->banner->vesamenu.c32->success
> >  Dell GX620: local-ipxe->lpxelinux.0->banner->hang
> >  Dell 780:   local-ipxe->lpxelinux.0->instant-reboot
> >
> > I'm not sure how to dig deeper. I'm using the precompiled binaries. Is
> > it easy to compile a debug version that spits out verbose progress
> > prior and after the banner and perhaps pauses for user input?
> >
> > I'm guessing ipxe is somehow setting the stage in a way that is caught
> > by something finicky in lpxelinux.0 on certain hardware, or perhaps
> > there's a bug in how ipxe sets the stage. Just to eliminate that latter
> > variable, any recommendations for a non-ipxe-way to boot off a CD or
> > USB to then PXE-boot to a specific server (not via DHCP)?
> 
> This is probably related to a bisect I did recently. I found the culprit
> commit in my case but a blind revert feels wrong.

Please post in this thread what was found with `git bisect`.
If it is in our mailinglist archive, then please reference to it.


Groeten
Geert Stappers
-- 
Leven en laten leven