Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 23:20:42 +0200 (EET) From: Kimmo Mustonen <kmustone@cc.hut.fi> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: PXE multiboot FreeBSD and other OSes? Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.61.0412142307210.1527@amenemhet.hut.fi>
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Hello! My goal is to be able to multiboot FreeBSD, Linux and some other OSes and different versions using PXE. I don't want to install boot loaders on hard disks because I want to boot several different machines to different OSes every now and then. I don't like the idea of using a boot floppy or boot CD either. I have Intel e100. Booting several versions of Linux works well using pxegrub. Booting FreeBSD works as well, when using pxeboot. However, I can only boot one version of FreeBSD and it has to be specified in dhcpd.conf (root path). I have no way of booting other OSes that way. I cannot "boot" pxegrub from preboot or vice versa. Pxegrub is able to load FreeBSD loader. However, it cannot find the drive where the system booted from (it is pxe) and thus does not work. Using lsdev command in the loader displays empty "pxe devices:" selection. Is there a way to enable this? Should something be done to pxegrub or loader? Is it possible to get loader to work after having been loaded by pxegrub? Pxegrub is also able to load FreeBSD kernel directly. Well, almost. It loads and starts it (the cursor becomes a block, the SCSI bus seems to be reset and everything, but the system reboots after 15 seconds without displaying anything on screen. I haven't yet checked the serial port, it might display something. Why is the video console not working this way? Is there a way to pass any parameters to FreeBSD kernel from pxegrub, like the root path? Pxegrub claims to conform to the Multiboot Specification, would it be sensible (and easy?) to make FreeBSD loader and/or kernel Multiboot compliant as well? Any other suggestions? Regards, Kimmo Mustonen
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