[ipxe-devel] [gPXE] Problem using gPXE to load PXELINUX with HTTP server

[Michael Brown]

On 06/12/13 23:39, Allan Wu wrote:
> I got a problem of starting PXELINUX with gPXE using HTTP server. I am
> trying to setup a diskless system using gPXE. I intend for all the
> client machines to use static IP in the network, and our network already
> have a DHCP server which is difficult for me to modify. So I want to use
> gPXE to assign static IP for my client machine and obtain image from a
> HTTP server.
>
> In gPXE, I can successfully load the pxelinux.0 file and execute it.
> However, PXELINUX then reported an error saying "Unable to locate
> configuration file". I tried with several versions but got similar
> problems.
>
> In general, I want to set each client with static IP to get around the
> DHCP server, which seems to work for getting the images. I also tried to
> load the initrd image and vmlinuz kernel directly. But I got error
> saying the kernel cannot find ramdisk. I think I need to use the
> parameters such as 'initrd=' and 'root=' when booting the kernel. Is
> there a way to do that with gPXE along? I'm open to other alternatives,
> since my approach may be limited on my lack of knowledge.
>
> <snip>

Firstly, please upgrade to iPXE (http://ipxe.org).  gPXE is a dead 
project, and has not been maintained for several years.

You can load the RHEL6 kernel directly using an embedded script such as:

   #!ipxe
   ifopen net0
   set net0/ip       xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
   set net0/netmask  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
   set net0/gateway  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
   set net0/dns      xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
   kernel http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/xxx/centos6/vmlinuz \
          root=nfs:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:/diskless/x86_64/RHEL6/root/ rw
   initrd http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/xxx/centos6/diskless_initrd.img
   boot


You may wish to consider using the DHCP server to obtain the IP address, 
even though you ignore its ${next-server} and ${filename} settings.  For 
example:

   #!ipxe
   dhcp net0
   kernel http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/xxx/centos6/vmlinuz \
          root=nfs:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:/diskless/x86_64/RHEL6/root/ rw
   initrd http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/xxx/centos6/diskless_initrd.img
   boot


Hope that helps,

Michael