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- PXELINUX
-
- A bootloader for Linux using the PXE network booting protocol
-
- Copyright (C) 1994-2004 H. Peter Anvin
-
- This program is provided under the terms of the GNU General Public
- License, version 2 or, at your option, any later version. There is no
- warranty, neither expressed nor implied, to the function of this
- program. Please see the included file COPYING for details.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- PXELINUX is a SYSLINUX derivative, for booting Linux off a network
- server, using a network ROM conforming to the Intel PXE (Pre-Execution
- Environment) specification. PXELINUX is *not* a program that is
- intended to be flashed or burned into a PROM on the network card; if
- you want that, check out NILO (http://www.nilo.org/). NILO can also
- be used to create a PXE-compliant boot PROM for most network cards
- which have drivers for Linux or FreeBSD.
-
-
- ++++ HOW TO CONFIGURE PXELINUX ++++
-
- PXELINUX operates in many ways like SYSLINUX. If you are not familiar
- with SYSLINUX, read syslinux.doc first, since this documentation only
- explains the differences.
-
- On the TFTP server, create the directory "/tftpboot", and copy the
- following files to it:
-
- pxelinux.0 - from the SYSLINUX distribution
-
- any kernel or initrd images you want to boot
-
- Finally, create the directory "/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg". The
- configuration file (equivalent of syslinux.cfg -- see syslinux.doc for
- the options here) will live in this directory. Because more than one
- system may be booted from the same server, the configuration file name
- depends on the IP address of the booting machine. PXELINUX will
- search for its config file on the boot server in the following way:
-
- First, it will search for the config file using the hardware type
- (using its ARP type code) and address, all in lower case hexadecimal
- with dash separators; for example, for an Ethernet (ARP type 1)
- with address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD it would search for the filename
- 01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
-
- Next, it will search for the config file using its own IP address
- in upper case hexadecimal, e.g. 192.0.2.91 -> C000025B
- (you can use the included progam "gethostip" to compute the
- hexadecimal IP address for any host.)
-
- If that file is not found, it will remove one hex digit and try
- again. Ultimately, it will try looking for a file named "default"
- (in lower case).
-
- As an example, if the boot file name is /mybootdir/pxelinux.0, the
- Ethernet MAC address is 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD and the IP address
- 192.0.2.91, it will try:
-
- /mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd
- /mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C000025B
- /mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C000025
- /mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C00002
- /mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C0000
- /mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C000
- /mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C00
- /mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C0
- /mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C
- /mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/default
-
- ... in that order.
-
- Note that all filename references are relative to the directory
- pxelinux.0 lives in. PXELINUX generally requires that filenames
- (including any relative path) are 127 characters or shorter in length.
-
- PXELINUX does not support MTFTP, and I have no immediate plans of
- doing so. It is of course possible to use MTFTP for the initial boot,
- if you have such a setup. MTFTP server setup is beyond the scope of
- this document.
-
-
- ++++ SETTING UP THE TFTP SERVER ++++
-
- PXELINUX currently requires that the boot server has a TFTP server
- which supports the "tsize" TFTP option (RFC 1784/RFC 2349). The
- "tftp-hpa" TFTP server, which support options, is available at:
-
- http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/network/tftp/
- ftp://www.kernel.org/pub/software/network/tftp/
-
- ... and on any kernel.org mirror (see http://www.kernel.org/mirrors/).
-
- Another TFTP server which supports this is atftp by Jean-Pierre
- Lefebvre:
-
- ftp://ftp.mamalinux.com/pub/atftp/
-
- If your boot server is running Windows (and you can't fix that), try
- tftpd32 by Philippe Jounin (you need version 2.11 or later; previous
- versions had a bug which made it incompatible with PXELINUX):
-
- http://tftpd32.jounin.net/
-
-
- ++++ SETTING UP THE DHCP SERVER ++++
-
- The PXE protocol uses a very complex set of extensions to DHCP or
- BOOTP. However, most PXE implementations -- this includes all Intel
- ones version 0.99n and later -- seem to be able to boot in a
- "conventional" DHCP/TFTP configuration. Assuming you don't have to
- support any very old or otherwise severely broken clients, this is
- probably the best configuration unless you already have a PXE boot
- server on your network.
-
- A sample DHCP setup, using the "conventional TFTP" configuration,
- would look something like the following, using ISC dhcp 2.0 dhcpd.conf
- syntax:
-
- allow booting;
- allow bootp;
-
- # Standard configuration directives...
-
- option domain-name "<domain name>";
- option subnet-mask <subnet mask>;
- option broadcast-address <broadcast address>;
- option domain-name-servers <dns servers>;
- option routers <default router>;
-
- # Group the PXE bootable hosts together
- group {
- # PXE-specific configuration directives...
- next-server <TFTP server address>;
- filename "/tftpboot/pxelinux.0";
-
- # You need an entry like this for every host
- # unless you're using dynamic addresses
- host <hostname> {
- hardware ethernet <ethernet address>;
- fixed-address <hostname>;
- }
- }
-
- Note that if your particular TFTP daemon runs under chroot (tftp-hpa
- will do this if you specify the -s (secure) option; this is highly
- recommended), you almost certainly should not include the /tftpboot
- prefix in the filename statement.
-
- If this does not work for your configuration, you probably should set
- up a "PXE boot server" on port 4011 of your TFTP server; a free PXE
- boot server is available at:
-
- http://www.kano.org.uk/projects/pxe/
-
- With such a boot server defined, your DHCP configuration should look
- the same except for an "option dhcp-class-identifier" ("option
- vendor-class-identifier" if you are using DHCP 3.0):
-
- allow booting;
- allow bootp;
-
- # Standard configuration directives...
-
- option domain-name "<domain name>";
- option subnet-mask <subnet mask>;
- option broadcast-address <broadcast address>;
- option domain-name-servers <dns servers>;
- option routers <default router>;
-
- # Group the PXE bootable hosts together
- group {
- # PXE-specific configuration directives...
- option dhcp-class-identifier "PXEClient";
- next-server <pxe boot server address>;
-
- # You need an entry like this for every host
- # unless you're using dynamic addresses
- host <hostname> {
- hardware ethernet <ethernet address>;
- fixed-address <hostname>;
- }
- }
-
- Here, the boot file name is obtained from the PXE server.
-
- If the "conventional TFTP" configuration doesn't work on your clients,
- and setting up a PXE boot server is not an option, you can attempt the
- following configuration. It has been known to boot some
- configurations correctly; however, there are no guarantees:
-
- allow booting;
- allow bootp;
-
- # Standard configuration directives...
-
- option domain-name "<domain name>";
- option subnet-mask <subnet mask>;
- option broadcast-address <broadcast address>;
- option domain-name-servers <dns servers>;
- option routers <default router>;
-
- # Group the PXE bootable hosts together
- group {
- # PXE-specific configuration directives...
- option dhcp-class-identifier "PXEClient";
- option vendor-encapsulated-options 09:0f:80:00:0c:4e:65:74:77:6f:72:6b:20:62:6f:6f:74:0a:07:00:50:72:6f:6d:70:74:06:01:02:08:03:80:00:00:47:04:80:00:00:00:ff;
- next-server <TFTP server>;
- filename "/tftpboot/pxelinux.0";
-
- # You need an entry like this for every host
- # unless you're using dynamic addresses
- host <hostname> {
- hardware ethernet <ethernet address>;
- fixed-address <hostname>;
- }
- }
-
- Note that this *will not* boot some clients that *will* boot with the
- "conventional TFTP" configuration; Intel Boot Client 3.0 and later are
- known to fall into this category.
-
-
- ++++ SPECIAL DHCP OPTIONS ++++
-
- PXELINUX (starting with version 1.62) supports the following
- nonstandard DHCP options, which depending on your DHCP server you may
- be able to use to customize the specific behaviour of PXELINUX:
-
- Option 208 pxelinux.magic
- - Must be set to F1:00:74:7E (241.0.116.126) for PXELINUX to
- recognize any special DHCP options whatsoever.
-
- Option 209 pxelinux.configfile
- - Specifies the PXELINUX configuration file name.
-
- Option 210 pxelinux.pathprefix
- - Specifies the PXELINUX common path prefix, instead of
- deriving it from the boot file name. This almost certainly
- needs to end in whatever character the TFTP server OS uses
- as a pathname separator, e.g. slash (/) for Unix.
-
- Option 211 pxelinux.reboottime
- - Specifies, in seconds, the time to wait before reboot in the
- event of TFTP failure. 0 means wait "forever" (in reality,
- it waits approximately 136 years.)
-
- ISC dhcp 3.0 supports a rather nice syntax for specifying custom
- options; you can use the following syntax in dhcpd.conf if you are
- running this version of dhcpd:
-
- option space pxelinux;
- option pxelinux.magic code 208 = string;
- option pxelinux.configfile code 209 = text;
- option pxelinux.pathprefix code 210 = text;
- option pxelinux.reboottime code 211 = unsigned integer 32;
-
- NOTE: In earlier versions of PXELINUX, this would only work as a
- "site-option-space". Since PXELINUX 2.07, this will work both as a
- "site-option-space" (unencapsulated) and as a "vendor-option-space"
- (type 43 encapsulated.) This may avoid messing with the
- dhcp-parameter-request-list, as detailed below.
-
- Then, inside your PXELINUX-booting group or class (whereever you have
- the PXELINUX-related options, such as the filename option), you can
- add, for example:
-
- # Always include the following lines for all PXELINUX clients
- site-option-space "pxelinux";
- option pxelinux.magic f1:00:74:7e;
- if exists dhcp-parameter-request-list {
- # Always send the PXELINUX options (specified in hexadecimal)
- option dhcp-parameter-request-list = concat(option dhcp-parameter-request-list,d0,d1,d2,d3);
- }
- # These lines should be customized to your setup
- option pxelinux.configfile "configs/common";
- option pxelinux.pathprefix "/tftpboot/pxelinux/files/";
- option pxelinux.reboottime 30;
- filename "/tftpboot/pxelinux/pxelinux.bin";
-
- Note that the configfile is relative to the pathprefix: this will look
- for a config file called /tftpboot/pxelinux/files/configs/common on
- the TFTP server.
-
- The "option dhcp-parameter-request-list" statement forces the DHCP
- server to send the PXELINUX-specific options, even though they are not
- explicitly requested. Since the DHCP request is done before PXELINUX
- is loaded, the PXE client won't know to request them.
-
- Using ISC dhcp 3.0 you can create a lot of these strings on the fly.
- For example, to use the hexadecimal form of the hardware address as
- the configuration file name, you could do something like:
-
- site-option-space "pxelinux";
- option pxelinux.magic f1:00:74:7e;
- if exists dhcp-parameter-request-list {
- # Always send the PXELINUX options (specified in hexadecimal)
- option dhcp-parameter-request-list = concat(option dhcp-parameter-request-list,d0,d1,d2,d3);
- }
- option pxelinux.configfile =
- concat("pxelinux.cfg/", binary-to-ascii(16, 8, ":", hardware));
- filename "/tftpboot/pxelinux.bin";
-
- If you used this from a client whose Ethernet address was
- 58:FA:84:CF:55:0E, this would look for a configuration file named
- "/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/1:58:fa:84:cf:55:e".
-
-
- ++++ ALTERNATE TFTP SERVERS ++++
-
- PXELINUX supports the following special pathname conventions:
-
- ::filename
-
- Suppresses the common filename prefix, i.e. passes the string
- "filename" unmodified to the server.
-
- IP address::filename (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename)
-
- Suppresses the common filename prefix, *and* sends a request
- to an alternate TFTP server. Instead of an IP address, a
- DNS name can be used. It will be assumed to be fully
- qualified if it contains dots; otherwise the local domain as
- reported by the DHCP server (option 15) will be added.
-
- :: was chosen because it is unlikely to conflict with operating system
- usage. However, if you happen to have an environment for which the
- special treatment of :: is a problem, please contact the SYSLINUX
- mailing list.
-
-
- ++++ SOME NOTES ++++
-
- If the boot fails, PXELINUX (unlike SYSLINUX) will not wait forever;
- rather, if it has not received any input for approximately five
- minutes after displaying an error message, it will reset the machine.
- This allows an unattended machine to recover in case it had bad enough
- luck of trying to boot at the same time the TFTP server goes down.
-
- Lots of PXE stacks, especially old ones, have various problems of
- varying degrees of severity. Please see:
-
- http://syslinux.zytor.com/hardware.php
-
- ... for a list of currently known hardware problems, with workarounds
- if known.
-
-
- ++++ KEEPING THE PXE STACK AROUND ++++
-
- Normally, PXELINUX will unload the PXE and UNDI stacks before invoking
- the kernel. In special circumstances (for example, when using MEMDISK
- to boot an operating system with an UNDI network driver) it might be
- desirable to keep the PXE stack in memory. If the option "keeppxe"
- is given on the kernel command line, PXELINUX will keep the PXE and
- UNDI stacks in memory. (If you don't know what this means, you
- probably don't need it.)
-
-
- ++++ CURRENTLY KNOWN PROBLEMS ++++
-
- The following problems are known with PXELINUX, so far:
-
- + Requires a TFTP server which supports the "tsize" option.
- + The error recovery routine doesn't work quite right. For right now,
- it just does a hard reset - seems good enough.
- + We should probably call the UDP receive function in the keyboard
- entry loop, so that we answer ARP requests.
- + Boot sectors/disk images are not supported yet.
-
- If you have additional problems, please contact the SYSLINUX mailing
- list (see syslinux.doc for the address.)
-