pxelinux.0


PXELINUX is a SYSLINUX derivative, for booting Linux off a network

server, using a network ROM conforming to the Intel PXE (Pre-Execution

Environment) specification. PXELINUX is *not* a program that is

intended to be flashed or burned into a PROM on the network card; if

you want that, check out NILO (http://www.nilo.org/). NILO can also

be used to create a PXE-compliant boot PROM for most network cards

which have drivers for Linux or FreeBSD.

++++ HOW TO CONFIGURE PXELINUX ++++

PXELINUX operates in many ways like SYSLINUX. If you are not familiar

with SYSLINUX, read syslinux.doc first, since this documentation only

explains the differences.

On the TFTP server, create the directory "/tftpboot", and copy the

following files to it:

pxelinux.0 - from the SYSLINUX distribution

any kernel or initrd images you want to boot

Finally, create the directory "/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg". The

configuration file (equivalent of syslinux.cfg -- see syslinux.doc for

the options here) will live in this directory. Because more than one

system may be booted from the same server, the configuration file name

depends on the IP address of the booting machine. PXELINUX will

search for its config file on the boot server in the following way:

First, it will search for the config file using the hardware type

(using its ARP type code) and address, all in lower case hexadecimal

with dash separators; for example, for an Ethernet (ARP type 1)

with address 88:99:AA:BB:CC

D it would search for the filename

01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.

Next, it will search for the config file using its own IP address

in upper case hexadecimal, e.g. 192.0.2.91 -> C000025B

(you can use the included progam "gethostip" to compute the