Trouble PXE Boot After Kernel Starts Loading

[Hal Vaughan <hal@halblog.com>]

I have a Soekris Net5501 and I'm using tftp to boot pxelinux.0 and, ultimately, from there, I want to install Squeeze.

First, I have to thank Debian, since the PXE boot explanation (sorry, lost the link from earlier) was a very good explanation on how to set up PXE.  But since it was for Etch, I searched and also found an excellent one by Andy Smith here:

http://andys.org.uk/wiki/Guide:PXE_network_booting_Debian_install

that includes Squeeze.  I think it should be pointed out that there is excellent documentation out there for this.

Now, on to where I'm stuck, which is, I think, more a part of the normal boot process.  I have the directory tree like this:


tftpboot/debian/squeeze/i386/linux
tftpboot/debian/squeeze/i386/initrd.gz
tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/boot.txt

It boots the kernel, but then I get:

Probing EDD (edd=off to disable)... ok

And after that, it freezes and I get nothing.  The default config file, in full, is after my signature (it's longer, and I don't think it's the issue).  I added "edd=off" to each kernel line in that config file because it was freezing up with the same message and suspected it was because (as best I know), there is no Enhanced Disk Drive.  But then there's the "... ok" after it, which makes me think the edd issue isn't why it's freezing.

Is this due to the edd probe (in which case the "edd=off" isn't working for some reason)?

If not, what should I check next?

As best I know, while people have put all other versions of Debian on a Soekris Net5501, I haven't seen anything to tell me for sure people have yet successfully installed Squeeze on on.  I'd rather not have to step back, since that would mean re-doing a number of systems later for updates.  While that would not be for a while, of course, I'd like to be able to work from the latest version of Debian possible.

Thanks for any insight into this.




Hal
-------------------
tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default:
-------------------
DISPLAY boot.txt

DEFAULT squeeze_i386_install

LABEL squeeze_i386_install
       kernel debian/squeeze/i386/linux edd=off
       append vga=normal initrd=debian/squeeze/i386/initrd.gz  --
LABEL squeeze_i386_linux
       kernel debian/squeeze/i386/linux edd=off
       append vga=normal initrd=debian/squeeze/i386/initrd.gz  --

LABEL squeeze_i386_expert
       kernel debian/squeeze/i386/linux edd=off
       append priority=low vga=normal initrd=debian/squeeze/i386/initrd.gz  --

LABEL squeeze_i386_rescue
       kernel debian/squeeze/i386/linux edd=off
       append vga=normal initrd=debian/squeeze/i386/initrd.gz  rescue/enable=true --

PROMPT 1
TIMEOUT 0