iPXE is the leading open source network boot firmware. It provides a full PXE implementation enhanced with additional features such as:

• boot from a web server viaHTTP

• boot from an iSCSI SAN

• boot from a Fibre Channel SAN via FCoE

• boot from an AoE SAN

• boot from a wireless network

• boot from a wide-area network

• boot from an Infiniband network

• control the boot process with ascript

You can use iPXE toreplace the existing PXE ROM on your network card, or you canchainload into iPXE to obtain the features of iPXE without the hassle of reflashing.

iPXE is free, open-source softwarelicensed under the GNUGPL (with some portions underGPL-compatible licences), and is included in products from several network card manufacturers and OEMs.

The easiest way to start experimenting with iPXE is to use thebootable ISO image. Burn theISO image to a CD-ROM (or DVD-ROM) and boot from it. You should soon see a welcome banner such as:

  iPXE -- Open Source Network Boot Firmware -- http://ipxe.org  Features: HTTP iSCSI DNS TFTP AoE FCoE TFTP COMBOOT ELF PXE PXEXT    Press Ctrl-B for the iPXE command line...

PressCtrl-B at this point, and you should reach the iPXEcommand line:

  iPXE>

You can list the network devices that iPXE has detected using theifstat command:

  iPXE> ifstat  net0: 52:54:00:12:34:56 using rtl8139 on PCI00:03.0 (Ethernet) [closed]    [Link:up, TX:0 TXE:0 RX:0 RXE:0]

and acquire an IP address using thedhcp command:

  iPXE> dhcp  DHCP (net0 52:54:00:12:34:56).... ok

You can examine the IP configuration and otherDHCP options:

  iPXE> route  net0: 10.0.0.155/255.255.255.0 gw 10.0.0.1  iPXE> show dns  net0.dhcp/dns:ipv4 = 10.0.0.6

You can boot something over the network. Unlike a traditional PXE ROM, iPXE is able to boot over a wide area network such as the Internet. If the machine you are testing is connected to the Internet, you can boot the iPXEdemonstration script:

  iPXE> chain http://boot.ipxe.org/demo/boot.php