[ipxe-devel] [gPXE] gPXE help

[Michael Brown]

On Thursday 09 Feb 2012 15:28:18 Jonathan Smith wrote:
> I am using some etherboot code on an existing system with two NICs. One is
> a built in 10/100 on an ETX processor board, and the other is an
> additional 10/100 NIC connected to the same processor. Both NICs are used
> in an embedded system to talk to a host computer, offering redundancy if
> one link goes down. The etherboot code contains the driver for the two
> NICs and has been working very well.
> 
> The system is now upgrading to a 10/100/1000 NIC, so as a test, I have
> downloaded the relevant driver from ROM-o-matic, and this works fine.
> 
> What I am finding, though, is that if there is no connection on either NIC,
> the two NICs timeout and the processor stops with the "DISK BOOT FAILURE.
> INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER" message. With the old etherboot code
> the processor reboots if the NICs timeout, so someone connecting/fixing
> cabling to the NICs after power-on isn't a problem.
> 
> Is it possible for the boot code to reboot the processor, or retry booting
> if the NICs timeout? Also, in order to reduce boot time, is there a way to
> reduce the current timeout of 14s per NIC?

Upgrade to iPXE (http://ipxe.org) and use the "reboot" command in an embedded 
script:

  http://ipxe.org/cmd/reboot
  http://ipxe.org/scripting

Michael