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PXEBOOT(8)		  BSD System Manager's Manual		    PXEBOOT(8)

NAME
     pxeboot --	Preboot	Execution Environment (PXE) bootloader

DESCRIPTION
     The pxeboot bootloader is a modified version of the system	third-stage
     bootstrap loader(8) configured to run under Intel's Preboot Execution En-
     vironment (PXE) system.  PXE is a form of smart boot ROM, built into In-
     tel EtherExpress Pro/100 and 3Com 3c905c Ethernet cards, and Ethernet-
     equipped Intel motherboards.  PXE supports	DHCP configuration and pro-
     vides low-level NIC access	services.  The pxeboot bootloader retrieves
     the kernel, modules, and other files either via NFS over UDP or by	TFTP,
     selectable	through	compile-time options.  In combination with a memory
     file system image or NFS-mounted root file	system,	pxeboot	allows for
     easy, EEPROM-burner free construction of diskless machines.

     The pxeboot binary	is loaded just like any	other boot file, by specifying
     it	in the DHCP server's configuration file.  Below	is a sample configura-
     tion for the ISC DHCP v2 server:

	   option domain-name "example.com";
	   option routers 10.0.0.1;
	   option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
	   option broadcast-address 10.0.0.255;
	   option domain-name-servers 10.0.0.1;
	   server-name "DHCPserver";
	   server-identifier 10.0.0.1;

	   default-lease-time 120;
	   max-lease-time 120;

	   subnet 10.0.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
		  filename "pxeboot";
		  range	10.0.0.10 10.0.0.254;
	   }

     pxeboot recognizes	next-server and	option root-path directives as the
     server and	path to	NFS mount for file requests, respectively, or the
     server to make TFTP requests to.  Note that pxeboot expects to fetch
     /boot/loader.rc from the specified	server before loading any other	files.

     In	all other respects, pxeboot acts just like loader(8).

     As	PXE is still in	its infancy, some firmware versions may	not work prop-
     erly.  The	pxeboot	bootloader has been extensively	tested on version 0.99
     of	Intel firmware;	pre-release versions of	the newer 2.0 firmware are
     known to have problems.  Check with the device's manufacturer for their
     latest stable release.

     For further information on	Intel's	PXE specifications and Wired for Man-
     agement (WfM) systems, see	http://www.intel.com/design/archives/wfm/.

SEE ALSO
     loader(8)

HISTORY
     The pxeboot bootloader first appeared in FreeBSD 4.1.

AUTHORS
     The pxeboot bootloader was	written	by John	Baldwin	<jhb@FreeBSD.org> and
     Paul Saab <ps@FreeBSD.org>.  This manual page was written by Doug White
     <dwhite@FreeBSD.org>.

BSD				  May 1, 2000				   BSD
NAME | DESCRIPTION | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS

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