Allow Windows PE PXE boot from a Linux server

2011-04-04

There is a major problem in booting Windows via PXE from a Linux server: Linux’s is case sensitive but Window’s isn’t. So text.txt, Text.txt, test.TXT and tExt.txt are four different files in Linux whereas under Windows there can only be one file or folder in a location with the characters T-E-X-T-.-T-X-T. Additionally windows uses ‘\’ whereas Linux uses ‘/’. To compensate for this, TFTPD can be configured to translate between the two.

To allow windows to boot from a Linux TFTP server:

1. Create a file called tftp.map in the folder you have specified as the TFTP root (the default is /tftpboot)

2. Add the following lines to tftp.map using your favorite text editor:

   rg      \\      /
   r       bootmgr.exe     /Boot/bootmgr.exe
   r       /boot/          /Boot/
   

References

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/142879-need-help-troubleshooting-booting-winpe-30-with-pxe