✧✦Catherine✦✧Feb 27

I really hate dnsmasq. every once in a while I have a problem and some Linux guy tells me "just use PXE bro" and then I spend a hour configuring PXE that doesn't fucking work without displaying a single debug print and all of this is a complete waste of time.

the UI of dnsmasq is atrocious; if I wanted to be able to tweak every DHCP option I would use my TCP/IP stack to answer DHCP queries. just give me something that can boot a machine without four hours of twiddling with options that are required for correct operation yet nobody bothers to give them names better than "66"

Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Feb 27
I don't think there's been a single time in my life when I successfully PXE-booted something outside of a perfectly-controlled, utility-free environment with a crossover Ethernet cable
Show threadChris PetrilliFeb 27

@whitequark I did it once.

But I forgot how.

Show threadChris PetrilliFeb 27

@whitequark but seriously, though, it is doable, but man is it not fun.

Twitter's edge was PXE booted because everything that potentially handled clear-text traffic was not allowed to have any durable storage.

You get PXE and you get a TPM.

Show threadChris Petrilli
@whitequark while it was pretty stable, it didn't get there easily, and it still had some very... "curious" choices.
Feb 27 at 5:10pmWeb