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+--- Thread: ipxe errors in ROM (/showthread.php?tid=6790)
ipxe errors in ROM - rnxrx - 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.
RE: ipxe errors in ROM - thomil - 2013-01-08 15:29
Are you loading the kernel from the command line? iPXE will display two different banners where it promts you to press CTRL+B. If you use the first one to enter the iPXE shell, the BIOS might not have initialized the memory map properly, making parts of your RAM unusable to iPXE. If that's the case it should work if you load the kernel after entering the iPXE shell, after the second iPXE banner.
RE: ipxe errors in ROM - MarcoDeBeule - 2013-01-18 21:30
Hi
I confirm the same error, it started with the malloc commits from 2012-07-09. The version of 2012-07-08 works perfect. My test system was Vmware server 2.0.2