Re: PXE-on-a-disk Intel EM64T reboot

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On Fri, Dec 30, 2005 at 08:16:40PM -0800, Josh Lehan wrote:
> 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

Nice!

> 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.

That reminds me that I have encountered an simular rebooting problem
on an AM5x86 [1].

The common part of the problem are, is that you can't see _where_ it fails. 

My question is:

Which debug methods has Etherboot?


I allready did search for 'DEBUG' in the source,
but didn't find something to continue with.

I hope that someone can tell how to add "debug print statements"
on a non-intrusive way to the source.

> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Josh Lehan
> [email protected]


Happy Newyear
Geert Stappers
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