IPXE

A page for documenting investigations into iPXE boot discs to allow network booting in MacLand.

• In order to network boot in MacLand like we would a PC, connect the computer to a network cable and insert an iPXE disk into computer's optical drive. Power the machine on and press and hold the Option button to bring up the boot options menu. You should at least see an icon of a CD with the word Windows under it (There may be other options as well, you can ignore them for this). Select the Windows Disk either by highlighting it and pressing enter or by clicking on it. The screen will go to black and you'll see white text scroll across the screen. In a moment it should change to a black screen with blue and white writing, giving you options about what program you're working in so you can select specific tasks to perform. For disk testing (wiping hard drives) you can choose Laptop Build, or Hardware Testing and for imaging you can choose Desktop Build, Laptop Build, or Hardware Testing.

Have been using iPXE without trouble on Core Duo & Core 2 Duo iMacs, MacBooks, and MacBook Pros without trouble. I have successfully run disktests and successfully installed Xubuntu over the network on several computers using and iPXE disk.

Problem Machines

iMac 7,1 at latest firmware update Disc boots but hangs at

Trying to load: pxelinux.cfg/C0A802C0

Resources

Apple list of firmware updates