I needed a way to boot the PLD rescue di ... / 2013-04-24

I needed a way to boot the PLD rescue disk on a system which decided PXE boot was not available (strange on a server grade system from 2009!). There are two howtos listed at the above page, the first one sounding the easiest (not needing an installation of DOS). But it was left non-booting, until I had a closer look why: I needed to copy /boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg from the cd (iso) to syslinux.cfg on the usb drive. Then it needed /custom/custom.cpi which also was not mentioned in the original howto. To be 100% correct, I'd also have to add boot.msg and help.msg from the iso to the root of the usb drive.

This system also has a downside: when it is on the main fan makes a noise like three vacuum cleaners combined. Not a problem in the average server room, bad idea at home.

Update 2013-04-25: The system can boot from PXE after I enable the 'option ROM' in the setup for the network cards, after which I can move PXE boot around in the boot order in the setup.