I'm looking for something more in depth.  Something like a RFC.  Only,
there is no RFC for PXE, and the links I've found to Intel's site
forward to a dead .org site...  I want to know enough about how PXE is
supposed to work to be able to watch a machine boot with Ethereal, and
see where the problem is.
-Erik

On 6/30/05, Kevin <plug-discuss@firstpacket.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-06-30 at 08:49 -0700, Erik Bixby wrote:
> > Does anyone know of a good explaination of how PXE works?
> 
> You should only see DHCP traffic followed by a TFTP download and
> optionally some NFS traffic for the root filesystem.
> 
> Take a look at this:
> http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT5834950453.html
> 
> Quoting...
> <SNIP>
> 
> How PXE Works
> 
> PXE defines a method for the BIOS or NIC ROM to fetch a booting code
> over the network. It does this via standard Internet protocols. When the
> appliance is powered on, the BIOS or ROM makes a DHCP request. The DHCP
> server, recognizing the appliance as a network-booting client, returns
> instructions on the location of a tftp server and the name of the name
> of the file that it should download from the server. [...]  It also, of
> course, assigns the appropriate IP information.
> 
> The appliance then makes a connection to the TFTP server and requests
> the [...] file. When the bootloader is downloaded, it executes. First,
> it checks it's configuration files (located on the tftp server) and then
> downloads the Linux kernel, passing it the necessary kernel arguments,
> including the IP information received from DHCP. When the kernel loads,
> it uses the IP information provided for it. The kernel can either
> download an initial ramdisk (initrd) and use that as a root filesystem,
> or it may just connect to an NFS server.
> 
> Once the kernel has gotten the root file system setup, the operating
> system can complete the boot process, and the system is ready for use.
> 
> </SNIP>
> 
> ...Kevin
> 
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change  you mail settings:
> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>
---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change  you mail settings:
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss