July 2007
A computer can be configured to boot from its NIC using PXE, as described in
Computer is powered up and boots into BIOS ROM
BIOS boots into PXE ROM
PXE does DHCP request
DHCP server responds with
IP number
TFTP server to contact
(possibly) directory to fetch from
and PXE executable to fetch there (i.c.pxelinux.0
)
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PXE boots into PXE executable
PXE executable determines from the configuration file
which kernel to fetch
which boot parameters to set (if any)
which RAMdisk to fetch (if any)
It fetches the kernel and the RAMdisk, and boots into them
The system has been booted.