[syslinux] Locally-loaded syslinux.efi with remote HTTP config?

Geert Stappers stappers at stappers.nl
Sat Jun 18 01:09:49 PDT 2016


On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 07:27:17PM -0500, Alexander Perlis via Syslinux wrote:
> Question:
>   If syslinux.efi is loaded locally off USB rather than via an EFI
> PXE option ROM boot, but on a client whose EFI firmware has TCP
> support, should that locally-booted syslinux.efi be able to process
> HTTP URLs? Initial experiments indicate "no", but why not?
> 
> Purpose:
>   My TCP-capable EFI client is on a subnetwork with broken DHCP not
> under my control, so I can't achieve a traditional network PXE boot
> to my PXE server;

How broken that DHCP server setup is, is unclear to me.

Question: Has Proxy-DHCP been considered?

At http://ipxe.org/gsoc#proxydhcp_server is good explainatin
of Proxy-DHCP 


> as a solution, I seek a simple USB-based shim that
> will boot locally and then chain me over to my PXE server. Attempts
> with ipxe snponly weren't immediately successful,

I still feel the need to hint
to http://www.syslinux.org/archives/2016-May/025198.html


Below the full text of the original poster. Nothing deleted
because I may not have understand what is wanted.


> meanwhile I
> started wondering whether I can just use syslinux.efi locally to
> achieve this? My syslinux.efi is configured thus:
> 
>   -a next-server ip.of.pxe.server
> 
>   -a config-file name.of.pxe.server.config
> 
>   -a path-prefix http://ip.of.pxe.server/
> 
> I would guess under local boot that next-server is ignored, but
> path-prefix should still come into play, no? When syslinux.efi sees
> an "http" URL after having been booted via an actual network EFI PXE
> option ROM, instead of trying to call an underlying PXE stack that
> would talk only TFTP, doesn't syslinux.efi bypass that and instead
> use the underlying EFI firmware's TCP capability to do an HTTP
> transfer? So then in principle couldn't it also do that whether or
> not an underlying unneeded PXE stack were even present in the first
> place? In other words, when syslinux.efi is booted locally, the EFI
> firmware still has TCP capability, so why can't syslinux.efi process
> the HTTP URL?
> 
> Thanks,
> Alex
> _______________________________________________
> Syslinux mailing list


Groeten
Geert Stappers
-- 
Leven en laten leven


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