PXE-boot

From Consultancy.EdVoncken.NET

The Intel Pre-boot eXecution Environment, or PXE, is a method of booting a computer from the network. Behind the scenes, it involves tftp and DHCP / BOOTP.

Tips and Tricks

Dell Optiplex GX110

Taken verbatim from the K12LTSP Wiki:

It IS possible to PXE boot the Dell GX110. But it's pretty well hidden. In the BIOS, under the 'Boot Sequence', it normally only shows three choices: CD, floppy, & hard drive. In the main BIOS screen, you must scroll down to 'Integrated Devices', and within that, you'll see, among others, 'Network Interface Controller', which is set to On by default. But this is not just a binary, on or off option; rather, it also contains the choice of 'On w/MBA'. Choose this, save the changes, reboot the box, go into the BIOS setup again, and now 'Boot Sequence' will list 'MBA UNDI(Bus1 Slot12)' which is the PXE boot option. Set that option to be the first choice, and voila! the box PXE boots.

Thanks to this tip, I can re-use a couple of old GX110 boxes for Cobbler testing.