PXE Hanging on Dell Computer
Articles and Tips: qna
01 Mar 2003
Q.
I am booting a PXE boot disk (PXE is a Novell ZENworks feature that allows you to create a 1.44MB floppy diskette that contains all of the files needed to allow a PXE-compatible network adapter on a Windows workstation to communicate with a ZENworks v3.2 Pre-boot Services (PBS) server. When you boot a workstation with a PXE-on-disk diskette in the floppy drive, it is as if that workstation had a PXE-enabled network adapter.
PXE is a key component of the Wired for Management (WFM) specification. PXE-enabled hardware can boot from a PXE server before booting from a local disk. Using PXE, anyone can pre-configure PBS to install an image on a workstation immediately after power-on.
This image is delivered according to the ZENworks (police configured) for a Dell GX1 with a 3C905 LAN card. When I do this, the machine hangs. I completed the following steps to create the hang:
Create a disk using ConsoleOne option "Create PXE Disk"
Choose the 3C905 LAN card
Use the boot disk to boot the Dell GX1 computer
In my case I opened the menu and chose option 1, which is "Start Maintenance Mode Zen Imaging"
Just before the Linux Kernel is completely loaded, the Dell Computer will hang.
One interesting note is that if I use ZENworks for Desktops (ZfD) v3.2, PXE_ON_Disk works fine with the Dell machine and the 3C905 LAN card.
PXE Pete in Poltava
A.
Dear PXE Pete: For your configuration to work correctly, you will need to update the following files for ZENworks:
bootzen2.bin
bootzen5.bin
lparten.bin
lpartdis.bin
bindinic.sys
Make sure that all of these files are dated 12/11/2002 or newer.
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
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