✎ romburning:vbox - Etherboot/gPXE Wiki

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===== VirtualBox LAN boot ROM =====
You can use gPXE as the LAN boot ROM in VirtualBox.  The boot ROM can be set per-VM or globally for all VMs.  Using gPXE instead of the default LAN boot ROM, VMs can be booted over HTTP, iSCSI, AoE, and gPXE's other advanced features are available.

=== Build the ROM image ===
Check which network adapter is configured for the VM.
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Here are the adapters supported by VirtualBox v3.1.2 [from a VirtualBox (non-GPL ed.) on Fedora 12 (i686) installation]:
^ VirtualBox Adapter 'type' ^ PCI Vendor ID   ^ PCI Device ID      ^ Mfr Name    ^  Device Name                         ^  Notes                                    ^
| Am79C970A                 |     1022h       |       2000h        |   AMD       | PCnet-PCI II (AM79C970A)             |                                           |
| Am79C973                  |     1022h       |       2000h        |   AMD       | PCnet-PCI III (AM79C973)             | **Default for Most Guest VM OS Choices**  |
| 82540EM                   |     8086h       |       100Eh        |   Intel     | Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM)  | Default for Windows Vista/Windows 7 VMs   |
| 82543GC                   |     8086h       |       1004h        |   Intel     | Intel PRO/1000 T Server (82543GC)    |                                           |
| 82545EM                   |     8086h       |       100Fh        |   Intel     | Intel PRO/1000 MT Server (82545EM)   |                                           |
| virtio                    |     1AF4h       |       1000h        |   Qumranet? | Paravirtualized Network (virtio-net) |                                           |





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Build the appropriate ROM image:

  cd gpxe/src
  make bin/10222000.rom  # for pcnet32 1022:2000

=== Fix up the ROM image ===
VirtualBox has the following requirements on ROM image size:
  - Size must be 4K aligned (i.e. a multiple of 4096)
  - Size must not be greater than 64K

Check that your image is not larger than 65536 bytes:

  $ ls -l bin/10222000.rom | awk '{print $5}'
  55296

Pad the image file to a 4K boundary:

  $ python
  >>> (55296 + 4095) & ~4095    # Round up to 4K aligned size
  57344
  >>> 57344 - 55296             # Calculate padding size
  2048
  >>> f = open('bin/10222000.rom', 'a')
  >>> f.write('\0' * 2048)      # Pad with zeroes

=== Configure the VM to use the LAN boot ROM ===
Use **vboxmanage** to set the **LanBootRom** path:

  vboxmanage setextradata $VM_NAME VBoxInternal/Devices/pcbios/0/Config/LanBootRom /path/to/10222000.rom

Replace **$VM_NAME** with your VM's name.  If you use "global" as **$VM_NAME** then all VMs will use the gPXE LAN boot ROM.

Now start the VM and press F12 to choose network booting:

  virtualbox -startvm $VM_NAME

To automatically boot gPXE, change the VM boot priorities to try booting from the network first.

=== Unconfiguring the VM ===
If you wish to stop using gPXE:

  vboxmanage setextradata $VM_NAME VBoxInternal/Devices/pcbios/0/Config/LanBootRom

Trace: • vbox • gentoo_iscsi • willem • lynusvaz • audit-the-shifts • socideas • e1000 • memsearch • journal • debian_and_ubuntu • acknowledgements • iscsi_install • journal • project_plan • tg3 • journal • start • journal