✧✦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 thread✧✦Catherine✦✧
@petrillic yeah, I don't doubt that it is doable when you are on a salary for an enterprise deployment. when you have one (1) machine whose UEFI vendor you cannot go and berate until they fix things if something goes wrong, it is completely different
Feb 27 at 5:10pmWeb
Show threadChris PetrilliFeb 27

@whitequark absolutely. the chances of me ever bothering to try and do it at home are ... vanishingly small.

Even though the idea of a PoE powered PXE booting device is SUPER interesting.