> > > .../pxelinux.cfg/b8945908-d6a6-41a9-611d-74a6ab80b83d > > > .../pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd > > > .../pxelinux.cfg/C0A8025B > > > .../pxelinux.cfg/C0A8025 > > > .../pxelinux.cfg/C0A802 > > > .../pxelinux.cfg/C0A80 > > > .../pxelinux.cfg/C0A8 > > > .../pxelinux.cfg/C0A > > > .../pxelinux.cfg/C0 > > > .../pxelinux.cfg/C > > > .../pxelinux.cfg/default > > > > > > The first are MAC addresses, etc. > > It shouldn't time out on trying to retrieve a file if the TFTP server > > is responding - each attempted retrieval should return a "not found" > > rather than sitting there doing nothing. Trying symlinking the MAC > > address filename to 'default' so it retrieves it first before any > > timeout could have happened. > > You'd think. And as I said, this has been working for years, on three or > four OEM's hardware. Suddenly, there's this new box from Penguin that's > IBM-based, and it's using something called "openether.org" firmware, and > it takes minutes between timeouts, instead of seconds. Yeah, different hardware tickling different bugs ... > I'm talking to the > OEM, but trying to figure out what's going on. I haven't found a timeout > on the server side, though I suspect there is one, but I really *don't* > want to make it 20 min. I've also just been googling, trying to find out > if -mapfile for tftp will let me rename what it's looking for to > "default", but that search is going nowhere, fast. On the TFTP server can you not just do ln -s default b8945908-d6a6-41a9-611d-74a6ab80b83d or cp default b8945908-d6a6-41a9-611d-74a6ab80b83d rather than playing with mapping files - just for testing purposes. Have you tried pxelinux.0 instead of gpxelinux.0? Or possibly iPXE? > > > > Also, you might like to try tcpdump to see what is actually happening > > on the TFTP port. > > I'm under the impression I know - the client *tells* me what it's looking > for, in the order above, but it sits there, and sits there, before it > tries the next option. > I was more thinking of seeing if the server responds at all - the symptoms you see look like the server either ignoring the commands or just not seeing them. I would suggest that a firewall is in the way somewhere or wrong subnet or something like that, but as you say, it's working for other clients. P.