PXELINUX的执行过程之1

通过PXE方式引导的服务器从网卡引导的第一步是获取一个ip地址，并获得nextserver 和pxelinux.0这个引导程序，pxelinux.0会以下列的方式寻找他的配置文件

PXELINUX operates in many ways like SYSLINUX. If you are not familiar with SYSLINUX, read the SYSLINUX FAQ first, since this documentation only explains the differences.

On the TFTP server, create the directory "/tftpboot", and copy pxelinux.0 (from the SYSLINUX distribution) and any kernel or initrd images that you want to boot.

Finally, create the directory "/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg". The configuration file (equivalent of syslinux.cfg -- see the SYSLINUX FAQ 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 following files (in that order):

  /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

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.