[gPXE] gPXE debugging

[Stefan Hajnoczi]

On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 5:35 PM, Gerry Reno <greno at verizon.net> wrote:
> On 05/03/2010 02:58 AM, Stefan Hajnoczi wrote:
>> Does the light on your network port blink during the time when you
>> suspect gPXE is running?
>>
> I do not see any lights blink on my network card.  I tried downloading
> an iso from rom-o-matic and it does the same thing.  What I see is that
> the CD drive light is blinking for around 20-30 seconds but the screen
> is blank, no lights on the network card, and then finally my regular
> linux boot menu shows up.

When you boot an ISO gPXE is loaded by the ISOLINUX (part of Syslinux)
bootloader.  You should see messages like the following before gPXE is
executed:

ISOLINUX 3.86 debian-20100418 ETCD Copyright (C) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al
Etherboot ISO boot image generated by geniso
Loading gpxe.krn.......ready.
gPXE initialising devices...

Do you get the ISOLINUX messages?  What is the last message you see on
the screen?

Do you have any BIOS options like console redirection/serial enabled?

Stefan