[syslinux] testing out 6.03 network booting...

[Ady]

> Hi all,
> 
> wasnt sure whether this was the best place to put this information; but something seems to have gone 'backwards' in the later pre-releases of 6.03 regarding network booting.
> 
> below are results of me testing - i did each a few times to make sure they are valid results.
> 
> hope it helps identify something that's gone awry ?
> so far, 6.03 pre11 and pre13 (excluding efi32) seem most stable for PXE/EFI Network booting....
> 
> Cheers
> Andrew
> ----------------
> all on VMWare Workstation 9 (Windows) - booting from DHCPD & TFTPD-hpa on Centos 6 x64
> all booting RHEL7 kernel/initrd over TFTP or HTTP, and then loading the install.img from HTTP....
> ----------------
> 6.03-pre11 BIOS: pxelinux.0: boota OK TFTP
> 6.03-pre12 BIOS: pxelinux.0: boots OK TFTP
> 6.03-pre13 BIOS: pxelinux.0: boots OK TFTP
> 6.03-pre14 BIOS: pxelinux.0: boots OK TFTP
> 6.03-pre15 BIOS: pxelinux.0: boots OK TFTP
> 6.03-pre16 BIOS: pxelinux.0: boots OK TFTP
> 6.03-pre17 BIOS: pxelinux.0: boots OK TFTP
> ----------------
> 6.03-pre11 BIOS: lpxelinux.0: boots OK TFTP & HTTP
> 6.03-pre12 BIOS: lpxelinux.0: very slow compared to pre11. boots TFTP & HTTP
> 6.03-pre13 BIOS: lpxelinux.0: boots OK TFTP & HTTP
> 6.03-pre14 BIOS: lpxelinux.0: very slow compared to pre13. some odd 'tftpd: read: connection refused' and 'tftpd: read(ack): connection refused'. never boots - normally sits downloading vmlinuz & does nothing further
> 6.03-pre15 BIOS: lpxelinux.0: as per pre14
> 6.03-pre16 BIOS: lpxelinux.0: as per pre14
> 6.03-pre17 BIOS: lpxelinux.0: boots OK TFTP & HTTP
> ----------------
> 6.03-pre11 EFI32: boots OK TFTP & HTTP
> 6.03-pre12 EFI32: fails - gets stuck in a loop downloading files - differs each boot
> 6.03-pre13 EFI32: fails - downloads /pxelinux.c32 & /ldlinux.c32 - then continually retries to download ldlinux.e32
> 6.03-pre14 EFI32: fails - downloads /pxelinux.c32 & /ldlinux.e32 - also then tries to download /syslinux/ldlinux.e32, /boot/isolinux/ldlinux.e32, and /syslinux/ldlinux.e32 - then boot fails
> 6.03-pre15 EFI32: fails as per pre14
> 6.03-pre16 EFI32: fails as per pre14
> 6.03-pre17 EFI32: fails as per pre14
> -----------------
> 6.03-pre11 EFI64: fails - gets stuck in a loop downloading files - differs each boot
> 6.03-pre12 EFI64: fails - downloads /pxelinux.e64 & /ldlinux.e64 - then continually retries to download ldlinux.e64
> 6.03-pre13 EFI64: boots OK TFTP & HTTP
> 6.03-pre14 EFI64: fails - downloads /pxelinux.e64 & /ldlinux.e64 - then continually retries to download ldlinux.e64
> 6.03-pre15 EFI64: fails as per pre14
> 6.03-pre16 EFI64: fails as per pre14
> 6.03-pre17 EFI64: fails - downloads /pxelinux.e64 & /ldlinux.e64, also then tries to download /syslinux/ldlinux.e64, /boot/isolinux/ldlinux.e64, and /syslinux/ldlinux.e64 - then boot fails
> -------------------
 
Please pardon my ignorance; what is "pxelinux.{c32,e64}"?

Are you testing pre-compiled official upstream binaries? Or are you 
compiling you own binaries (and from which source)?

I should guess you are also using (replacing) the c32/e32/e64 files 
each time, according to the Syslinux bootloader version too, right? 
(sorry to ask, but this is a too-common mistake, and very easy to 
miss / mess / get mixed, specially when testing several versions.)

I wonder if some difference in debugging options when compiling 
(whether your own binaries, or even the ones HPA made for official 
pre-release) could be part of the reasons for the different resulting 
behaviors.

Regards,
Ady.