PXE boot an iso image

[Brian Platt]

I have a custom debian iso image which i'd like to be able to boot from using pxe. I've setup a pxe server on a debian machine using this guide http://wellsie.net/p/286/
and now end up with 'dnsmasq-tftp[2397]: sent /srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg/default to 192.168.15.119'
but the client then hangs. I've messaged the author but no reply and not sure of the next step to troubleshoot this issue.

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

Brian Platt wrote:
> http://wellsie.net/p/286/

"Do not try to serve something like an Ubuntu ISO using this method!
Most if not all Linux distributions have a separate PXE configuration
that does not require this workaround."

But for Debian i only find non-ISO stuff like
https://wiki.debian.org/PXEBootInstall

> but the client then hangs. I've messaged the author but no reply and not
> sure of the next step to troubleshoot this issue.

Reading
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/MEMDISK
especially
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/MEMDISK#ISO_images
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/MEMDISK#Set_memory_access_method_.28raw.2C_bigraw.2C_int_.2C_safeint.29
i get the impression that "append ... raw" is not appropriate for an
ISO with Debian on it. The guide you quote deals with MS-Windows
for which "raw" is recommend.

If your ISO boots from USB stick,then you may try to submit
it to MEMDISK without option "iso".
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/MEMDISK#ISOHYBRID_images

You need enough memory to load the whole ISO and to keep it
while booting unfolds.

> dnsmasq-tftp[2397]: sent /srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg/default
> to 192.168.15.119

Is 192.168.15.119 the IP address of the machine which shall boot ?

If so then this machine should interpret the configuration and
offer an opportunity to load the ISO.
I wonder about "root (hd0,0)" in the example. The MEMDISK wiki
mentions it only with GRUB-Legacy. So i'd leave it out with
a SYSLINUX configuration.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas