✧✦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 thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Feb 27

this time I can't even get it to boot in a completely artificial environment. the PXE boot ROM doesn't log anything to the display and when it errors out it shows the error for like 100 milliseconds before switching to the next boot option

fucking useless technology

Show threadWill Glynn

@whitequark Can you replace the terrible NIC boot firmware with an iPXE build you control?

https://ipxe.org/howto/romburning

(Edit: presumably `make bin-x86_64-efi/[PCI ID].efirom`, per https://ipxe.org/appnote/buildtargets)

iPXE - open source boot firmware [howto:romburning]

Feb 27 at 7:17pmWeb
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Feb 27
@willglynn yes actually; it would be somewhat of a pain to actually do it (not sure if the flash is in-circuit-programmable and my guess is no)
Show threadWill GlynnFeb 27

@whitequark It has been Linux-flashable memory on all the NICs I've tried ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

iPXE gets you the ability to embed scripts as well as lots of optional extra functionality. More than once I've shipped a box with it configured to netboot by chainloading to a script in cloud object storage, at times even using static IPs with static VLANs. In your case, you might like syslog 🙂

The easiest way to test any of this is to build iPXE USB sticks, or if you have a BMC, iPXE floppy/CD images. https://netboot.xyz uses these targets (and embedded scripts) to netboot directly to their CDN, relying on DHCP for connectivity but not for boot directives.

Your favorite operating systems in one place! | netboot.xyz

netboot.xyz enables you to PXE boot many Operating System installers and utilities from a simple to use menu powered by the iPXE project.

Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Feb 27
@willglynn I am quite sure it's Linux-flashable but my problem up to this point was that I can't get any Linux image I've tried to boot (I have since done it which means I no longer have to fuss with PXE)