iPXE is anopen-source implementation of thePreboot eXecution Environment (PXE) client software and bootloader, created in 2010 as afork ofgPXE (gPXE was named Etherboot until 2008).^[2] It can be used to enable computers without built-in PXE capability to boot from the network, or to provide additional features beyond what built-in PXE provides.

While standard PXE clients use onlyTFTP to load parameters and programs from the server, iPXE client software can use additional protocols, includingHTTP,iSCSI,ATA over Ethernet (AoE), andFibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). Also, on certain hardware, iPXE client software can use aWi-Fi link, as opposed to the wired connection required by the PXE standard.

The iPXE client is a superset of, and can replace or supplement, prior PXE implementations.

iPXE is the official replacement for gPXE. It has every feature of gPXE, and users can seamlessly upgrade from gPXE to iPXE.^[2]

iPXE can be booted by a computer either by replacing (re-flashing) the existing standard PXE ROM on a supportednetwork interface card (NIC), or by booting the NIC's standard PXE ROM and thenchainloading into the iPXE binary, thus obtaining its features without the need to re-flash a NIC. iPXE firmware embeds its configuration script into the firmware image, thus any changes to the configuration require a NIC to be re-flashed.

iPXE implements its own PXE stack either by using the network card driver provided by iPXE, or the standard PXEUNDI driver if iPXE is chainloaded from a standard PXE ROM. Implementing an independent PXE stack allows clients without the standard PXEROM on their NICs to use an alternative iPXE stack by loading it from an alternative medium.

Although its basic role was to implement a PXE stack, iPXE can be also used as a network boot manager with limited capabilities for menu-based interaction with end users. iPXE can fetch boot files using multiple network protocols, such asTFTP,NFS,HTTP orFTP.

iPXE can act as a boot loader for theLinux kernel, with support formultiboot. For other operating systems, for exampleWindows CE, iPXE chain-loads corresponding Microsoft boot loader. Additionally, iPXE is scriptable and can loadCOMBOOT and COM32SYSLINUX extensions, which, for example, allows SYSLINUX-based graphical menu capabilities to be available for network booting.

• PXE
• PXELINUX
• gPXE

• Official website andsource code repository
• Etherboot/gPXE wiki
• Introduction to Network Booting and Etherboot

• Network booting
• Free boot loaders
• Free network-related software

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia