Re: Using network informations from PXE as grub2 enviroment variables

[Seth Goldberg]

Hi,

  Solaris has adopted the following search path for configuration files:

 (1) DHCP Option 150
 (2) menu.lst.01<MACADDR> (i.e. menu.lst.01XXXXXXXXXXXX)
 (3) menu.lst.<BootFile> (where BootFile is the DHCP server-specified BootFile
     option)
 (4) menu.lst

 This has served use and our customers very well and it would be great if 
GRUB2 could adopt this scheme as well (I'm working on a patch).

 Thanks,
 --S

Quoting Brendan Trotter, who wrote the following on Tue, 20 Oct 2009:

> Hi,
>
> On Sat, Oct 17, 2009 at 4:42 AM, Pavel Pisa <address@hidden> wrote:
> > As for scalability, I agree, that use of single config file with checking
> > for each IP is horrible hack, but there is no problem to source
> > to another IP specific file (menu-xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.lst) with separate
> > menu configuration when own IP is known and if file is not found
> > switch do default one.
>
> > So I strongly vote for a way to be able to use server IP provided
> > by DHCP/PXE.
>
> I vote for using the ethernet card's MAC address (which never changes)
> instead of whatever IP address the DHCP server felt like *dynamically*
> assigning...
>
> GRUB could (should?) download a configuration file from the TFTP
> server that's called "123456789ABC.cfg" or "123456789ABC/grub.cfg"
> (where "123456789ABC" is the ethernet card's MAC address) ; and if
> that's not found it should try something like "default.cfg".
>
> Putting the ethernet card's MAC address and the current IP address
> into an environment variable (e.g. for use in command line parameters)
> might be fun too.
>
> Note 1: the easiest way to find the ethernet card's MAC address and
> the computer's IP address is to use the "GET_CACHED_INFO" function
> (opcode 7), with the Packet type field set to 2 (DHCP ACK from
> server); because you need to use this function to find the IP address
> of the TFTP server anyway.
>
> Note 2: the name "your_ip" probably came from the PXE specification.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Brendan
>
>
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