[ipxe-devel] On using cached dhcp info with kkpxe image

[Jedrzej Kalinowski]

 Hi,

 I decided to get rid of redundant dhcp query that happened when 
 autobooting after fetching undionly.kkpxe image. And I'd like to share 
 some thoughts.

 1. I couldn't find the needed option on: http://ipxe.org/howto/dhcpd 
 (maybe this doc page concerns a stable version, not top of the git tree)

 I've found in dhcp.h that the needed option is DHCP_EB_USE_CACHED that 
 means 0xb2 or 178 decimal.
 So, it could be added to the doc page like this (together with 
 scriptlet option):
 option ipxe.cached-dhcp code 178 = unsigned integer 8;
 option ipxe.scriptlet code 81 = string;

 2. My plan was to download undionly.kkpxe using the legacy PXE client 
 and then after iPXE start - run the scriptlet with instruction to 
 chainload some image with http. Unfortunately I ran into infinite loop, 
 as cached dhcp data contained "filename" field - it caused iPXE to 
 download kkpxe image again and again and again..

 I coped with this the following way:
 I've compiled iPXE image with embedded script like this:
   #!ipxe
   dhcp
   chain ${scriptlet}

 and dhcpd configuration like:
 filename "iPXE/VER/undionly.kkpxe";
 option ipxe.cached-dhcp 1;
 option ipxe.scriptlet "http://bootserver/bootpath/pxeboot.cgi";

 I did work, but it's a kind of hack. Maybe dhcp command run from cached 
 dhcp settings should not fetch the filename? Or some adjustment in 
 main.c should be done?

 Best regards,
 Jedrzej Kalinowski

-- 
 JK