PXE-on-a-disk Intel EM64T reboot

Hello.  I've used Etherboot and SYSLINUX to create a "PXE-on-a-disk" 
implementation: a floppy and CD image that is self-booting.  It does 
what a PXE BIOS would do, and is useful for computers that don't have a 
built-in PXE BIOS.

The disk is full of compiled Etherboot packages, one build for each 
supported PCI driver.  Ethersel (part of SYSLINUX) autodetects the PCI 
network card, and selects the proper Etherboot package to load.  Works 
fine from there!

Here's a simple webpage I made about it, and a download link:

ftp://ftp.scyld.com/private/jlehan/pxe-on-a-disk.html

The only problem is on the Intel EM64T (Intel's clone of AMD's 64-bit 
architecture).  After the download of the Linux kernel succeeds, 
something goes wrong, and instead of starting the kernel, the machine 
reboots.  I'm guessing it's some kind of cleanup issue, or something 
early on in the transition from 16-bit BIOS to 64-bit kernel.

I've tested on 32-bit machines, and AMD Opteron 64-bit machines, and it 
works fine there.  It's also not related to any particular brand of 
network card.

On the Intel EM64T machines this problem happens on, I was able to PXE 
boot just fine from the on-board BIOS, and also from the local hard 
drive.  It worked fine from there, so know it's not a problem with 
PXELINUX, or the booting process in general, on that particular machine.

This is all probably a moot point, since it'd be a fair guess that all 
Intel EM64T machines ever made have a working PXE BIOS in them, making 
this "PXE-on-a-disk" unnecessary, but thought I'd mention it, in case 
anybody else has seen this.

Thanks!

Josh Lehan
[email protected]



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