iPXE Introduction

[AT-HE]

ipxe is a boot utility based on pxe standards, is the spirit successor of the gpxe/etherboot project

classic pxe makes a computer boots from lan, it works on top of 2 protocols: dhcp (with some extensions) and tftp.

when a computer is instructed to boot from lan it sends a dhcp discovery, then the dhcp server answers (if exists) pointing at the tftp server and the file to request from. that file is commonly a binary program that when it is loaded and runs, it may continue using tftp to requests more files needed to boot.

until very useful in some circumstances, i found some limitations in pxe like it runs only on a single lan segment through wired ethernet (and it is slow as hell a little slow).

ipxe can be flashed on most network card roms and system bioses, to add support to more protocols and media than pxe, like http, wifi, ftp, fibre chanel storages, iscsi and more. can be chained from pxe or ipxe itself. if not it can be booted from floppies, cdroms, usb sticks, hard disks partitions, storages, etc.. and it is scriptable !!!

more or less .. correct me if i am wrong

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i would like to use ipxe, i am new to all this stuff but i found it exciting .. i am trying to install win2k on my netbook from lan .. it comes with no dvd drive, i know i can do it from an external drive, but i am taking this as a challenge.

besides it is faster, you have no need to burn any media (a lot if you are testing something), and can be simultaneously used by many computers.

some years ago i worked on a large tech service, often i had to backup servers that didn't boot (due virus, system corruption, etc), in my job they give me a bunch of live cds and a couple external hard drives to backup. i dreamed to have a network boot system like (i)pxe and make backups by some faster and reliable method like usb file transfer, gigabit ethernet or fibre storages.

forgive my english, i am chilean .. cheers

please post your comments, and visit homepage at http://www.ipxe.org