lcfg-pxeclient - An LCFG component for PXE client data
This documentation refers to lcfg-pxeclient version 1.0.0
This is an LCFG virtual component which is used to store per-host configuration requirements for a PXE boot service.
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
Many of these resources map directly to PXE configuration options. For more detail of the effects of different options you should read the syslinux documentation. That is available online at http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/SYSLINUX
This is a string containing the name of the host, it is not required for the PXE configuration. It is mainly available in case you want to use it in a template so that a boot-screen shows the hostname. It defaults to the value stored in the profile.node resource.
This is the MAC address of the machine, this is required as the PXE configuration filename for the machine is generated based on this string. It defaults to the value stored in the dhclient.mac resource.
This is a list of the platforms which you want to be made available in the PXE boot menu for this machine. Typically you want to set this to the value in the sysinfo.os_id% resource. Any strings in this resource which are not present in the pxeserver.labels resource will be ignored, a warning will appear in the pxeserver component logfile.
If you want the kernel to have a serial console you must specify the port (e.g. ttyS0). Turning on serial console support has a couple of implications, you will get two entries for each platform (one with a serial console and one without), you will also not get a "fancy" menu style as that does not work well over a serial console.
This allows you to control the baud-rate of the serial console. The default value is 9660 which is safe but rather slow.
This is the PXE boot option which will be selected by default. It might well be the same as the value of the sysinfo.os_id% resource. Typically, the PXE configuration has other options as well such as "reboot" and "localboot" which you might also want to select. The default value is "localboot" which avoids your machine getting inadvertently reinstalled. Note that localboot (i.e. from the current MBR) does not always work.
This is the timeout after which the default option will be selected. It is in units of tenths of a second, the default is 100 which is 10 seconds. A timeout of zero will disable the timeout completely.
This is a boolean value which controls whether or not to present a prompt to the user, the default value is true. Note that this option has no effect for configurations which do NOT have a serial console. They use a "fancy" menu style which conflicts with this option.
This is a boolean value which controls whether the user can modify boot options on the command line. The default value is true (i.e. a user can edit the boot options).
This is a boolean value which controls whether to ignore the PXE Shift/Alt/Caps Lock/Scroll Lock escapes. Using this makes it possible to enforce booting from the default option. The default value is false (i.e. allow the various escapes).
This is a boolean value which controls whether or not to send output to the normal video console. Some BIOSes try to forward this to the serial console and sometimes make a total mess thereof, so this option lets you disable the video console on these systems. The default value is true (i.e. send output to the video console).
This is the list of platforms on which we have tested this software. We expect this software to work on any Unix-like platform.
Scientific5
Stephen Quinney <squinney@inf.ed.ac.uk>
Copyright (C) 2008 University of Edinburgh. All rights reserved.This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GPL, version 2 or later.