[ipxe-devel] IPXE and parallels on MAC

[Michael Brown]

On 07/04/14 15:56, Patel, Kalpesh wrote:
> 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.

Your screenshot doesn't seem to match the behaviour that you describe. 
The screenshot shows iPXE running to completion and exiting back to the 
BIOS; the "No boot device is available" message is coming from your VM's 
BIOS, not from iPXE.

 From the screenshot, it appears as though the TFTP server is simply 
inaccessible from your VM, or is not responding to the TFTP requests.

Try breaking to the iPXE shell after the failed attempt to download 
gpxelinux.0, and use commands such as "ifstat", "route", and "ping" to 
diagnose the connectivity problem.

On a separate note, you really shouldn't use gpxelinux.0 for anything 
these days.  iPXE now has a native menuing capability (see e.g. 
http://ipxe.org/cmd/choose) and the ability to display background images 
(see e.g. http://ipxe.org/cmd/console).  I would strongly suggest using 
those instead.

Michael