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+--- Thread: ipxe and imacs with Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57765 cards (/showthread.php?tid=6781)
ipxe and imacs with Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57765 cards - Kahoko - 2012-12-27 02:04
I can get the iMac to boot off of a iPXE cd, and it seems to load the network driver fine as it sees the card. However when it tries to do a DHCP request it will time out. I have tested the iMac and I know it will pull a IP in OSX without any problems. I have downloaded the latest git source and compiled the iso from that. Any ideas on where to go next? Seems like I'm so close to having this work, but just fails at one spot. The DHCP server is out of my control so I do not know what it is running other than it is not a MS DHCP server.
Kahoko
iPXE and iMac. - Kahoko - 2012-12-27 19:26
Booted my iMac off a complied iPXE cd and it found the Broadcom NetXtreme card fine. But when it tried to pull an IP via DHCP it timed out. I tried doing the dhcp pull from the command line and got the same result. I know this iMac will pull an IP when it is in OSX, so network and cables seem to be fine. I also tried the iPXE cd on a Dell workstation and it pulls an IP fine there (although different NIC). Any ideas on what to try next?
Kahoko
RE: ipxe and imacs with Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57765 cards - robinsmidsrod - 2012-12-31 14:21
If I'm not mistaken, the iMac uses the Broadcom bnx2-based card that is not well supported. You might have luck if you try the work-in-progress rewrite of the bnx2 driver from this year's gsoc project: http://ipxe.org/gsoc/bnx2/
This means you'll have to check out that specific branch, compile it and build the ipxe.iso as explained on the normal download page. As this is work-in-progress, it is highly likely that it will not work. If this seems too tricky for you, you have no other option than to wait for this driver to be reviewed and merged into the main release, or sponsor development of it to speed things up.