[ipxe-devel] IPXE and parallels on MAC

[Patel, Kalpesh]

Hey everyone,

I am eliciting help in solving an unusual problem.

I download the IPXE iso from http://boot.ipxe.org/ipxe.iso. Using that I
have been trying to get IPXE to boot into our PXE/TFTP menu system that we
have in MAC's Parallels system (as a side note, I've downloaded the source
and built the iso from it but it result in same behavior as well).
Unfortunately the boot process halts at random point after starting
download of gpxelinux.0 which is what the backend DHCP is setup to provide
to client and then the menu. DNSMASQ is providing the DNS, DHCP and TFTP
services for this entire setup. I've tested same system on VMWare's
Workstation on Windows, Fusion on MAC, VirtualBox on both platforms, MAC
and Windows, and on ESXi 5.x and works on all these systems flawlessly
except in Parallels on MAC.

I am suspecting that the NIC driver code (Intel 82545em which is Intel
e1000 family card) somewhere in IPXE is mis-behaving causing it to hiccup
and stop. The hiccup actually causes the Parallel VM to freeze hard
requiring power off and on. I've attached a screen shot of the VM's output
to get the conversation going.

On this particular VM, there are three NICs but two are disabled in the VM
so that it can bring only one of them up, which is where TFTP is running.

Just to try, I've given DHCP server the MTU option (DHCP option # 26) to
be of 1500 but no luck in changing the behavior. I am also forcing option
210 to have it switch to http protocol but it seems to ignore it as well.
This is not that much of importance at the moment.

I've also tried with gPXE 1.0.1 downloaded from rom-o-matic with which I
have had a little better luck but no cigar. That at least consistantly
loads menu but any subsequent loading related to selection of a menu item
also ends up freezing at random point.

I understand that you folks may not have MAC at your disposable so I am
making my rig available if there is momentum to continue to find the
culprit. 

Thanks.





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