[syslinux] pxelinux HTTP transport UEFI vmlinuz

[Geert Stappers]

Op 2014-07-23 om 17:57 schreef Gene Cumm:
> On Wed, Jul 23, 2014 at 10:32 AM, Geert Stappers <stappers op stappers.nl> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Since which version of pxelinux.0 is understood in pxelinux.cfg/default that
> >
> >   kernel http://host.lan/netboot/vmlinuz
> >
> > means vmlinuz should be transported over HTTP?
> 
> For non-EFI systems, this has meant use HTTP services if available
> (ie, iPXE/gPXE or lwIP as in lpxelinux.0) since somewhere in the 3.xx
> series when gpxelinux.0 was first introduced.
> 
> > Since which version of pxelinux.0 is it possible to boot on UEFI?
> 
> In UEFI, there is no pxelinux.0, only syslinux.efi.  Somewhere along
> the 6.0x chain after bugs were worked out.  I just did this with
> 6.03-pre18 loading everything before the kernel over TFTP and the
> kernel and initrd payloads via HTTP.

Okay, thanks for confirming that HTTP & UEFI netboot should work.
And telling that the trick is `syslinux.efi`.


> > Those questions elaborated:
> >
> > What I want is fast netboot UEFI servers.
> 
> cptime.c32 should be able to help coarsely estimate transfer speeds
> given a large enough file.

Acknowledge. FWIW, I'm after a faster transfer as plain TFTP.
HTTP does deliver the wanted speed advantage.


> > What I'm looking for is an advice which version of PXELINUX
> > between version 4.something and 6.03pre18.
> 
> I'd suggest 6.02 or the latest 6.03-pre release (currently 18).

With syslinux-6.03-pre18/bios/core/lpxelinux.0 I have the wanted HTTP transfers.
(With syslinux-6.03-pre18/bios/core/pxelinux.0 no succes yet on my (old) virtualbox
test environment )

> > If http transport only works with DHCP Option 210 (pxelinux.pathprefix),
> > please tell so.
> 
> No need.

Nope, no extra DHCP server configuration needed
(in my test environment with VirtualBox O.S.E.).


> > If pxelinux can't do  UEFI booting, please tell so.
> 
> See second statement.

What I read / understand is that for UEFI netboot request the DHCP server
should provide `syslinux.efi`, not the `pxelinux.0` I'm  used to.

To be continued ...


Groeten
Geert Stappers
-- 
Leven en laten leven