IPv6 PXE support

[danderson]

UEFI firmwares know how to netboot over IPv6. The process is similar to IPv4, but different. Some braindumped notes at https://github.com/google/netboot/blob/master/pixiecore/README.ipv6.md .

[dmitri-d]

Anyone working on this yet? I can offer some help with coding...

[dmitri-d]

I started on adding dhcpv6 support to netboot. It's very early stages, but I can do an ipv6-only httpboot + ipxe. You can take a look at the progress at https://github.com/witlessbird/netboot/tree/dhcpv6.

[mdlayher]

Just found this repo again and wanted to mention that I did some DHCPv6 experiments once.

https://github.com/mdlayher/dhcp6

Would love to help make this happen. PXE is awesome.

[dmitri-d]

I opened a PR that adds initial support for IPv6: #49

[andar1an]

I saw a readme in pixiecore related to pxe boot over IPV6, which lead me to this issue! haha

This is something I am also curious about and will be investigating as well.

I stumbled on pixiecore through my investigation of NixOS for my server host os. I am looking to create a deployment setup similar to what one may see with Canonical's MaaS, Equinix's Tinkerbell or Sidero metal, though IPV6 is a significant part of my plans.

Wondering if this is still something being investigated? Or if you have moved forward with any plans already?

The last comment appears to be from 2017. Have you found an alternate solution that you use?

[dmitri-d]

The last comment appears to be from 2017.

The PR was merged then; I haven't worked with it since, as the project i was doing this work (the Foreman) rejected my approach to bare-metal provisioning over IPv6. There's a video somewhere on youtube with my demo that uses netboot + IPv6.

[andar1an]

This is good information, thank you. I will search for the video, it may be a good learning exercise to try and code something simple to understand the process. The graph image is really helpful for the boot process, just need to understand nuance for v6 now.

The last comment appears to be from 2017.

The PR was merged then; I haven't worked with it since, as the project i was doing this work (the Foreman) rejected my approach to bare-metal provisioning over IPv6. There's a video somewhere on youtube with my demo that uses netboot + IPv6.

[dmitri-d]

I will search for the video

Here you are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KJne_Hyv5k

[danderson]

Also note from the repo's main readme:

This project is no longer actively developed. I'm glad if you find it useful, but don't expect any significant changes.

[andar1an]

Also note from the repo's main readme:

This project is no longer actively developed. I'm glad if you find it useful, but don't expect any significant changes.

No worries! Thank you for leaving this as a learning tool. It is wonderful. I am looking forward to trying my hand at writing something with Rust.

[danderson]

Have fun! With any luck, the state of UEFI bugs has improved since I wrote pixiecore, and some of the hacks may not be necessary any more. I can always dream...