# pxeboot and grub?

## pgu

I'm trying to boot grub using pxegrub. I can see that the client grabs / grub/pxegrub from the server:

```
May 31 14:27:23 theserver atftpd[17880]: Serving /grub/pxegrub to 172.30.30.128:207
```

However I don't see any grub output on the client. It just keep re-booting without any output. It appears that pxegrub is corrupted somehow. The timeout 30 in the grub.conf should at least cause to to take a break before booting.

Do I need to do something special to create pxegrub other than having the netboot USE flag set when I emerge grub?

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## Hu

Do you specifically need pxegrub or would you be happy with any PXE boot capable bootloader?  I usually see more guides and more success stories using pxelinux, which is part of sys-boost/syslinux.  I have used pxelinux successfully when I built PXE boot environments.

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## pgu

I'm using pxeboot on some of my older systems. I would like to set up a set of diskless clients (or at least clients sharing the same root file system over NFS), but have some problems with grub. My impression is that pxelinux is more used for installation, is that right?

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## pgu

It seems like there are no modern network drivers in the legacy grub code. If I build grub from source I just see a bunch of old network cards, including the one that I have on my older working system, which can explain why I can't make the new system work like the old one.

So I'm now trying to chainload gpxe using pxe which seem to work fine. 

The next problem is to make a gpxe script to boot the kernel.

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## Hu

pxelinux loads a kernel image over the network.  What you do with that kernel image once it is loaded is not the concern of pxelinux, so you can use that image either to bootstrap a system or to operate it in normal mode.  I always used it to boot a root-over-NFS Linux to use as an alternative to a rescue CD.

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## pgu

Thank you for the explanation. I've managed to use gPXE rather than grub.

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