[Xen-users] PXE-booting Xen using PXELINUX

[Tim Deegan <Tim.Deegan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

A number of people have posted to the Xen lists recently wanting to
network-boot Xen on machines whose NICs are not supported by GRUB.  I've
been writing a module for PXELINUX that will allow it to boot Xen
directly over the network on PXE-enabled machines, without relying on
any hacks (mbootpack, &c.), or needing to write/port any device drivers.

I have a version of it which works for me [tm] and I'd be very
interested in feedback from other people who want to PXE-boot Xen.
Assuming you already have dhcp/tftp up and working at your site, it
should be easy to test:

1) Edit dhcpd.conf to boot pxelinux on your Xen machine 
   (see http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php ).

2) Download http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~tjd21/tmp/mboot.c32 and put it in your
   tftpboot directory.

3) Copy xen, xenlinux and initrd into your tftpboot directory.

4) Edit the appropriate pxelinux.cfg file to contain a line invoking
   mboot.c32, and then the xen and module command lines, separated by
   '---'. For example, this one works for me:

   DEFAULT mboot.c32 xen-2.0.5.gz dom0_mem=258048 --- vmlinuz-2.6.10-xen0 ro 
console=tty root=/dev/hda --- initrd-2.6.10-xen0

3) Let me know if it works!  A simple yes/no would be great; details of
   what hardware you're using and symptoms if it fails would be even
   better.

At some point in the next while I'll be submitting this code to the main
SYSLINUX tree, with proper documentation and such-like bells and
whistles.  In the meantime, feedback would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Tim.

-- 
Tim Deegan                           (My opinions, not the University's)
Systems Research Group
University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory

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