====== Get PXE Knife working with QEMU ======

If you dont know what is PXE Knife, better visit [[http://pxeknife.erebor.org/]] because I will be assuming you know all on that site.

===== Get PXE Knife working with QEMU with tftp =====
  - Downloaded [[http://pxeknife.erebor.org/releases/pxeknife-0.0.2.tar.gz]] at ///home/myname/pxeknife///
  - unpacked it in ///home/myname/pxeknife///
  - You will also need PXELinux [[http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX]]
<code>
$ mkdir /home/myname/for_pxe_knife/
$ wget http://pxeknife.erebor.org/releases/pxeknife-0.0.2.tar.gz
$ cd /home/myname/for_pxe_knife/
$ tar -xvf ../pxeknife-0.0.2.tar.gz
$ cp /usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 .
$ cp /usr/lib/syslinux/*.c32 .
$ cp /usr/lib/syslinux/memdisk .
$ mkdir pxelinux.cfg
$ vi pxelinux.cfg/default
</code>

Now, the content of my //pxelinux.cfg/default// file is 
<code>
DEFAULT menu.c32
    PROMPT 0
    TIMEOUT 100 #this is optional - will start the default after 10 seconds
    MENU TITLE --== Main Menu ==--

    #this allows you to exit the pxe stack and pass booting to the local system
    LABEL bootlocal
        MENU DEFAULT
        MENU LABEL Local Boot
        localboot 0


    #load pxe knife
    LABEL pxeknife
        MENU LABEL PXE Knife --->
        kernel menu.c32
        append pxeknife/pxeknife.conf
</code>

<code>
$ cd gpxe/bootables/
$ qemu-img create -f raw testing.img 10M
</code>

Here is the code which is working for 
<code>
$ qemu -net nic -net user -boot n -hda ./testing.img -bootp /pxelinux.0 -tftp /home/myname/for_pxe_knife/
$ qemu -net nic -net user -fda ./gpxe.dsk -bootp /pxelinux.0 -tftp /home/myname/for_pxe_knife/
</code>
for following version of qemu version qemu version 0.10.0
<code>
$ qemu
QEMU PC emulator version 0.10.0, Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Fabrice Bellard
</code>

==== Problems ====

As per me following command should have worked, but It did not worked

<code>
$ qemu -bootp tftp://10.0.2.2//pxelinux.0 -tftp /home/myname/for_pxe_knife/ -fda gpxe.dsk
</code>
at same time command
<code>
$ qemu -bootp /pxelinux.0 -tftp /home/myname/for_pxe_knife/ -fda gpxe.dsk
</code>
works.

Problem faced is,\\
it successfully downloads the //pxelinux.0// and executes it,
but it fails when it is downloading pxelinux.cfg/default\\
It gives an error saying
<code>
TFTP prefix: tftp://10.0.2.2//
Trying to load: pxelinux.cfg/default
Unable to locate configuration file

Boot failed: press a key to retry, or wait for reset...
</code>


Note : There are some versions of qemu for which network boot option did not worked.
<code>
$ qemu -net nic -net user -boot n -hda ./testing.img -bootp /pxelinux.0 -tftp /home/minix-pravin/Etherboot/v2/pxeknife/pxeknife/ 
No valid PXE rom found for network device
</code>
Above error came for qemu version 0.9.1
<code>
$ qemu
QEMU PC emulator version 0.9.1, Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Fabrice Bellard
</code>

But if you provide gpxe.dsk instead of ./testing.img it uses gpxe.dsk stack and boots properly.
<code>
$ qemu -net nic -net user -fda ./gpxe.dsk -bootp /pxelinux.0 -tftp /home/minix-pravin/Etherboot/v2/pxeknife/pxeknife/ 
</code>



==== Useful links ====
  - [[http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX]] About pxelinux
  - [[http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/Development/Testing]] for using qemu with pxelinux.