[ipxe-devel] using iPXE in a VM

[Michael Brown]

On Wednesday 22 May 2013 00:46:01 Gruher, Joseph R wrote:
> Even here on the VM, if I do not CTRL-B to the iPXE CLI and just let it
> execute the default iPXE behavior, it will bring up iPXE and look for PXE
> servers, and then fall through to the OS installer CD just fine, exactly
> as desired.  So my boot order seems to work.  It is only if I CTRL-B to
> the CLI and then try to exit that it hangs.  It just sits there after the
> exit command forever and never moves on in the VM BIOS boot order.

You are pressing Ctrl-B at the first prompt ("Press Ctrl-B to configure iPXE") 
rather than the second prompt ("Press Ctrl-B for the iPXE command line").

The first prompt executes during POST, when the BIOS has not yet completed 
initialisation.  It is intended to allow you to configure iPXE (using the 
"config" command, if your NIC supports non-volatile option storage), and to 
perform last-ditch emergency system recovery.  It is not intended to be used 
for general-purpose booting.

Try pressing Ctrl-B at the second prompt instead, and you should find that 
everything works as expected.

Michael