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Additions to the FAQ - robinsmidsrod - 2012-10-05 10:58

If you have anything you'd like added to the FAQ, please post a response here and we'll try to add it if it seems sensible.

Please try to keep the discussion in this thread about additions/deletions/changes to FAQ entries, and not about the questions themselves. Those kinds of discussions are best kept in their own threads.


RE: Additions to the FAQ - stefanlasiewski - 2013-07-04 04:12

Here is are two related questions for the FAQ:

What is the advantage of iPXE over pxelinux? What can I do with iPXE that I cannot already do with pxelinux?


RE: Additions to the FAQ - robinsmidsrod - 2013-07-04 18:29

(2013-07-04 04:12)stefanlasiewski Wrote:  Here is are two related questions for the FAQ:

What is the advantage of iPXE over pxelinux? What can I do with iPXE that I cannot already do with pxelinux?

For the first question I think the right answer must be scripting and the iSCSI/AoE/HTTP sanboot features. The first one I know pxelinux doesn't have, the sanboot features I'm unsure how well they work.

For the second, one of the features iPXE has is that you can do pretty fancy dynamic scripting without the need for a server-side HTTP scripting language. With pxelinux you'll have to generate menus on the server-side for each action you do. One benefit pxelinux has over iPXE is its .c32 modules which allow a good amount of extensibility. iPXE can only run the old 3.xx versions of those, not the newer ones.

As a programmer, I find I like the procedural way of iPXE more than the declarative way of pxelinux. I guess it's up to you and your use-case what works best.

There is also a decent overview of what iPXE brings to the table beyond regular PXE on http://networkboot.org/fundamentals.