Anybody done gPXE / http with PClos?

[DennisBaker]

So I'm trying to get PCLinuxOS booting via gPXE and HTTP. 

From a gPXE I type:

dhcp net0
initrd http://10.10.100.100/pclinuxos-mini.iso
kernel http://10.10.100.100/memdisk raw
boot memdisk

It attempts to boot up I see the following errors:

MEMDISK: Image seems to have fractional end cylinder
INIT 13 08: Failure, assuming this is the only drive

Then it hangs on:
Loading boot sector... booting...


Any ideas or suggestions without resorting to NFS?

[nixer]

I have been wanting to do this for a while, so this morning I have been playing around with it.  I have not been able to successfully complete a boot, but I have got to the point where it fails to load the livecd.  See below:



What I did was to extract the contents of an iso file, I guess that any PCLOS release will do.  Then I copied the contents over into a folder, my folder is "PCLOS", on the pxe server.  The boot code in the .cfg file is as follows, but you may change yours to suit your needs and configuration:

label PCLOS-bonsai
kernel /PCLOS/isolinux/vmlinux
append initrd=/PCLOS/isolinux/initrd.gz vga=791 fetch=http://192.168.1.4/PCLOS/livecd.sqfs

I "hope" that I just don't have the correct code on the third line above.  I am at a dead-end on this, for now, until I google and try some cheat code stuff.  If you or somebody else can get the livecd to load then I will be grateful. 

[Just17]

I haven't tried it .......  but would expect that a specific initrd might have to be built with the required settings/packages to allow pxe booting.

[AS]

The following link can be of some help:
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/MEMDISK#MEMDISK_and_PXE_booting

notes:

How can I use MEMDISK?
MEMDISK is an auxiliary module used in conjunction with a boot loader that can load linux kernels (EXTLINUX/ISOLINUX/PXELINUX/SYSLINUX, grub, grub4dos grub2, ...). You need a disk image as well as the memdisk file itself. As far as the bootloader is concerned, MEMDISK is the "kernel" and disk image is the initial ramdisk (initrd).

ISO images

For ISO images, the parameter 'iso' must be passed to MEMDISK.

LABEL hdt_iso
   LINUX memdisk
   INITRD hdt.iso
   APPEND iso

Sometimes

   APPEND iso raw

Linux

The majority of Linux based CD images will also fail to work with MEMDISK ISO emulation. Linux distributions require kernel and initrd files to be specified, as soon as these files are loaded the protected mode kernel driver(s) take control and the virtual CD will no longer be accessible. If any other files are required from the CD/DVD they will be missing, resulting in boot error(s).

Linux distributions that only require kernel and initrd files function fully via ISO emulation, as no other data needs accessing from the virtual CD/DVD drive once they have been loaded. The boot loader has read all necessary files to memory by using INT 13h, before booting the kernel.

I know that my post is not a solution, but hope that some info may be useful.

AS

[MBantz]

I have built the entire drbl suite of programs for PCLinuxOS, enabling anyone to setup a pclinux pxe and/or drbl server,

just search for drbl in synaptics,

used it to use clonezilla clone 120 windows xp machines yesterday, took 20 mins. with the multicast feature - neat :-)

cheers,
MBantz