--== What Is PXE Knife? ==--

PXE Knife is a set of utilities modeled after Ultimate Boot CD. It is designed to work with the syslinux boot stacks and was specifically designed for use with PXE (although it's configuration is general enough that it could be used with isolinux or extlinux without issue).

The intention of this project is to create a good, general purpose, one stop shop of utilities that sysadmins find they are in need on a regular basis, with specific ephasis on self contained programs that typically require a floppy drive to make use of. It is intended for consumption via PXE Linux but since it makes extensive use of memdisk and it's configuration file is syslinux compatible it could easily be used with isolinux or extlinux.

--== Who's behind PXE Knife? ==--

PXE Knife is loosely based on Ultimate Boot CD, and in fact was inspired by it. It is the brain child of Brian De Smet and John 'Warthog9' Hawley, seeking a means to both give a good, live, working example of the menuing capabilities of pxelinux and seeking a way to eliminate the need for a multitude of floppies and other random utility software.

--== Why aren't there any 'free for personal use' software included in PXE Knife? ==--

While we know there will be a few individuals who have large enough home networks to make running pxe at home realistic, we also realize our primary consumer is going to be corporate entities who are not allowed to use the 'free for personal use' software. To this end we are only willing to include software that doesn't preclude corporations. Sadly this does eliminate a number of pieces of software we would like to include, including anti-virus software. We are constantly on the lookout for new or updated utilities to add to PXE Knife. If you know of a piece of software that we should investigate please let us know.

--== Software we are currently looking for, or would like feedback on how to deal with ==--

• Antivirus software
  We are specifically looking for an OSS or free solution that has a relatively small footprint, is useable by commercial entities, and is able to attempt cleaning once it has found a virus. We have considered things like ClamAV, however they do not attempt cleaning which makes it less useful for our purposes.
  We would love to find something like F-Prot's Antivirus products, and will be seeking F-Prot's permission to allow their anti-virus software as an addon to PXE Knife.

--== Downloading PXE Knife ==--

You can download the latest version of PXE Knife from http://pxeknife.erebor.org/releases/. (Currently: v0.0.1 - "We just made the project up")

--== How to Install ==--

1. Install the following packages for your system (if they aren't already installed)
   • tftp
   • tftp-server
   • syslinux
   • dhcp
   • nfs (optional)
2. Edit /etc/dhcpd.conf and add:
   
   

   	allow booting;
   	allow bootp;
   	next-server ;
   	filename "/pxelinux.0";
   				

   
   Note: Adding this to the top level options for DHCP is the normal default, for other more complex configurations you will need to see 'man 5 dhcp-options'
3. Reload dhcp (I.E. /etc/rc.d/init.d/dhcpd reload)
4. Edit the 'default' configuration for PXE. This can usually be found in /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default.
   Add:
   

   	DEFAULT menu.c32
   	PROMPT 0
   	TIMEOUT 100 #this is optional - will start the default after 10 seconds
   	MENU TITLE --== Main Menu ==--
   
   	#this allows you to exit the pxe stack and pass booting to the local system
   	LABEL bootlocal
   		MENU DEFAULT
   		MENU LABEL Local Boot
   		localboot 0
   
   	#load pxe knife
   	LABEL pxeknife
   		MENU LABEL PXE Knife --->
   		kernel menu.c32
   		append pxeknife/pxeknife.conf
   				

5. Untar pxeknife-<version>.tar.[gz|bz2] in /tftpboot

6. Find where syslinux was installed to and get the c32 files from it (I.E. /usr/lib/syslinux/) and put them in /tftpboot (I.E. cp /usr/lib/syslinux/*.c32 /tftpboot/;cp /usr/lib/syslinux/memdisk /tftpboot/)
   

   
   Note: make sure that memdisk, menu.c32 and mboot.c32 are copies to /tftpboot. If you don't have any *.c32 files installed with syslinux, download syslinux from Syslinux and copy the files from that.
7. Ensure that tftp is running, usually by editing /etc/xinetd.d/tftp and setting:
   
   disable = yes
   to
   
   disable = no
   
   Note: remember to restart inetd after this change
8. Symlink default to the tftpboot root. ln -s /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default /tftpboot/
9. Cross your fingers and see if it works

To get the optional KNOPPIX portion of pxeknife you will need to download the knoppix dvd and extract the entire ISO to a directory that is nfs accessible. Then change the information in pxeknife/knoppix/knoppix.conf to suit your location's setup. Further instructions on this are forthcoming, along with an explination of my knoppix initrd and how to create your own.

--== Known Problems ==--

These are all the absolutely known bugs with pxeknife that we can think of. It's quite likely there are more, we just haven't found them yet.

• There is a problem with syslinux or PXE when you change menus roughly 26 - 30 times. System will hang, only known fix is to reboot. NOTE: Syslinux 3.20-pre12 and higher have this bug fixed.
• g4u's multiboot structure is broken somehow and currently doesn't boot properly. The issue has been kicked upstream.

--== Contacting Us ==--

We really hate spam so we are going to force you to jump through hoops to e-mail us. If you have more pressing question you can /msg warthog9 on freenode, and I might get back to you, I make no garuntees.

J. 'Warthog9' H. (Primary developer): pxeknife |at| eaglescrag ~dot~ net

Brian De Smet: pxeknife |at| fief ~dot~ org

--== What Is Included in PXE Knife? ==--

Tool:	Version (in latest release)
Boot Managers:
Super Grub Disk	0.9450
Hard Drive Cloning:
g4u	2.2
Hard Drive Diagnosis (3rd party):
MHDD32	4.6
Salvation HDD Scan and Repair	3.0
Hard Drive Utilities (Manufacturer):
IBM/Hitachi - Disk Fitness Test	4.05
IBM/Hitachi - Feature Tool	2.00
Maxtor/Quantum - MaxBlast4	4.0
Maxtor/Quantum - PowerMax	4.22
Samsung - Disk Manager	10
Seagate - Disk Manager	9.56a
Seagate - Seatools	1.06.02/3.02.03en
Seagate - DiskWizard 2003	10.45.06
Western Digital - Data Lifeguard	11.0
Western Digital - Data Lifeguard Diagnostic	4.15/5.04c
Hard Drive Sector Editors
PTS DiskEditor	1.04
Hard Drive Wiping
Darik's Boot and Nuke	1.0.6
Linux Boot Disks
BasicLinux	3.2
Recovery Is Possible	3.1
Tom's Boot Disk	2.0.103
Trinux	0.89
Memory Testers
Memtest86	3.2
Memtest86+	1.65
DocMem RAM Diagnositc	1.45a / 2.1b
TestMem4	4
NTFS Tools
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor	cd060213
NTFS4DOS	n/a
Random Tools
MADBOOT	8.0
System Information
PCISniffer	1.4
NSSI	0.58.6
Additional Tools

--== PXE Knife History==--