[klibc] ipconfig and boot filename option

[H. Peter Anvin]

Άλκης Γεωργόπουλος wrote:
> Peter,
> 
> thank you very much for this option, I wasn't aware of it. I don't
> have much experience on Linux and I'm straggling to get my school labs
> in order.
> 
> But I didn't understand how "ipappend 2" would help. It passes the mac
> address, but what we need is
> ip address, mask, gw, tftp root path
> Sounds more like "ipappend 1". So, new questions:
> 1) How can we retrieve these kernel parameters to do
> ipconfig addr:server:gateway:netmask:hostname:interface:proto

You can't.  There is no way you can get the interface information from 
the PXE stack, because the interface name is Linux-specific.

"ipappend 2" gives the MAC address of the booting interface, which you 
can match up with the appropriate interface (and then only bring up the 
relevant interface.)

> 2) How can we do something like this from a boot floppy / cd / disk?

You probably want to use gPXE on the boot floppy/cd/disk.  See 
http://www.etherboot.org/

> 3) Why in http://syslinux.zytor.com/faq.php you say that it's not recommended?

Because if you configure with "ipconfig 1" you don't respect DHCP lease 
times, and lack any additional information.

	-hpa