[ipxe-devel] Difference between ipxe.kpxe and undionly.kpxe?

[Michael Brown]

On 28/08/17 13:54, Oliver Rath wrote:
> while searching for a solution of iscsi installation problems, i found a
> hint to use ipxe.kpxe instead of undionly.kpxe.
> 
> What is the difference between them? I didnt find any enlighting ..

Don't ever attempt to use ipxe.kpxe.

You can safely use ipxe.pxe or undionly.kpxe.

If you're interested in the details, then these names translate to:

- "ipxe.pxe" : unload original UNDI driver (".pxe") and then use a 
native iPXE driver

- "undionly.kpxe" : keep the original UNDI driver (".kpxe") and then use 
the undionly driver (which uses the original UNDI driver).

- "ipxe.kpxe" : keep the original UNDI driver (".pxe") and then use a 
native iPXE driver.  This will go badly wrong, since both drivers will 
believe that they have exclusive ownership of the hardware.  Expect 
random crashes and other strange behaviour.

The equivalent problem goes away on UEFI: you can safely use ipxe.efi. 
This will use a native driver if available, and will fall back to using 
an SNP or UNDI driver if no native driver exists.

Michael