[et-mgmt-tools] PXE boot menus & older versions of pxelinux/syslinux

[Dhawal Doshy]

Dhawal Doshy wrote:
> Michael DeHaan wrote:
>> I've noticed that the pxelinux that ships with RHEL4 (test platform: 
>> RHEL4U4) does not work well at all with new PXE menus, though the 
>> version shipping with FC6 works great.   Basically it doesn't 
>> understand the menu label options.
>>
>> If you have RHEL4's version of syslinux installed, the fix here is to 
>> install a newer syslinux.   I'll file the bug for good measure (if 
>> this is even a bug?) and may bundle a known-good pxelinux.0 in the 
>> next release.    The workaround is pretty simple though.   If anyone 
>> still has questions, feel free to ask.
> 
> Finally got the time to try out the newer 0.4.2 version.. the default 
> menu gets created nicely and i am trying to use a local kickstart file 
> rather than a URL (to explore templating options)..
> 
> However, while trying to pxeboot a test server, it just stays at the 
> menu (tab works fine though).. looks like i need to upgrade syslinux OR 
> pxelinux.0 as you've mentioned. Now since syslinux needs an upgrade (the 
> latest being 3.36) do you have any recommendations for the version?

Upgraded to syslinux 3.36 and all is well.. though as you mention a 
simple change to a newer pxelinux.0 would have worked equally well.

wget 
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/syslinux-3.36.tar.gz
yum install netpbm-progs nasm
rpmbuild -ta syslinux-3.36.tar.gz
rpm -Fvh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/syslinux-3.36-1.i386.rpm # the other 
RPMs are not required.

Change in /var/lib/cobbler/settings this line:
standard: /usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0

to this:
standard: /usr/share/syslinux/pxelinux.0

A 'cobbler sync' makes the necessary changes..

Finally can anyone post some more examples of the ks templating??

cheers,
- dhawal