2013-01-07, 03:57
Hi-
I've been using iPXE for a while by chain loading from a traditional boot ROM but lately have been trying to get it working by burning it directly onto a few Intel dual-port PRO/1000 PCIe NIC's (82571 based). I've tried both a completely stock image (8086105e.rom) and an image with a few options added (most notably serial console) . The host machines are Supermicro X7DCA-L - each with two quad-core 5400-series Xeon processors and
I have no problems actually burning the issue and it boots fine. Working from the shell I can open interfaces, pull DHCP addresses, etc. I am, however, unable to load pretty much any kernel or initrd of any realistic size. I can load a memdisk to bring up FreeDOS, but if I go beyond a few hundred kilobytes then I hit error #0x34012006 - "no space left on device." To verify that the request was being made (tried via both tftp and http) I monitored with a sniffer and noted that the specified image *is* being fully downloaded (i.e. a complete TCP session of corresponding volume).
I'm using the latest code from the git repository and have traditionally been able to chainload undionly.kpxe in these machines without a problem. Given the amount of RAM in the machines I'm assuming there's something strange going on with memory allocation but would greatly appreciate any tips/pointers anyone could provide.
I've been using iPXE for a while by chain loading from a traditional boot ROM but lately have been trying to get it working by burning it directly onto a few Intel dual-port PRO/1000 PCIe NIC's (82571 based). I've tried both a completely stock image (8086105e.rom) and an image with a few options added (most notably serial console) . The host machines are Supermicro X7DCA-L - each with two quad-core 5400-series Xeon processors and
I have no problems actually burning the issue and it boots fine. Working from the shell I can open interfaces, pull DHCP addresses, etc. I am, however, unable to load pretty much any kernel or initrd of any realistic size. I can load a memdisk to bring up FreeDOS, but if I go beyond a few hundred kilobytes then I hit error #0x34012006 - "no space left on device." To verify that the request was being made (tried via both tftp and http) I monitored with a sniffer and noted that the specified image *is* being fully downloaded (i.e. a complete TCP session of corresponding volume).
I'm using the latest code from the git repository and have traditionally been able to chainload undionly.kpxe in these machines without a problem. Given the amount of RAM in the machines I'm assuming there's something strange going on with memory allocation but would greatly appreciate any tips/pointers anyone could provide.