pxelinux.0



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:CCD 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