FAQ

Mellanox CX3 Pro has limitations when performing chain loading from GRUB2 to PXELINUX.

Mellanox Fleboot device initiates the GRUB boot loader and waits for the GRUB configuration file, unable to locate the pxelinux configuration file which is chained to PXELINUX.

The procedure below is used to boot over PXE:

1. The host BIOS reads the configuration from nonvolatile memory to determine the boot device order. In order to boot over IB/EN using PXE, the first entry for the boot order should be PXE by default.
2. The host BIOS sends a DHCP request to a PXE-enabled DHCP server to obtain initial configuration and boot parameters, IP address, and boot loader filename.
3. The host BIOS loads the boot loader from TFTP server and starts it.
4. Boot loader reads its configuration file from TFTP server and parses it to get boot options, Linux kernel, and initrd filenames.
5. The boot loader loads the Linux kernel and executes it, passing some options from the configuration file.
6. The Linux kernel performs the initialization procedures and loads the initrd image from the TFTP server as a temporary root file system before mounting the root file system.
7. The initrd image startup script starts and loads the EN driver and IB stack and IPoIB driver. This process changes the root file system to an NFS volume.
8. The Linux initialization continues with the NFS root file system, using the IPoIB or Ethernet interface until it is up and running.