Klinger: Category:Booting and link

2025-05-01T13:33:34Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:33, 1 May 2025
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	iPXE is an open-source network boot firmware.		[https://ipxe.org/ iPXE] is an open-source network boot firmware.

	== Customize Nix Package ==		== Customize Nix Package ==
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	}		}
	</syntaxhighlight>Given the flake above, you can build your additional target by running <code>nix build nixpkgs#ipxe</code>. Then the custom artifact should be available behind the <code>result</code> symlink, in this example as <code>result/ipxe-usbnet.efi</code>. This does also compile the default outputs, but this should not be a big problem as they share nearly all of their code and so the compiler can reuse most of its work for all targets.		</syntaxhighlight>Given the flake above, you can build your additional target by running <code>nix build nixpkgs#ipxe</code>. Then the custom artifact should be available behind the <code>result</code> symlink, in this example as <code>result/ipxe-usbnet.efi</code>. This does also compile the default outputs, but this should not be a big problem as they share nearly all of their code and so the compiler can reuse most of its work for all targets.

			[[Category:Booting]]

Zocker1999: added page about iPXE & how to customize the package easily

2025-04-12T23:02:41Z

added page about iPXE & how to customize the package easily

New page

iPXE is an open-source network boot firmware.

== Customize Nix Package ==
While common iPXE configurations are already built & cached centrally, building custom iPXE images can be useful to make it easier to use in different environments, e.g. equipped with otherwise unsupported hardware. All [https://ipxe.org/buildcfg build configuration options], [https://ipxe.org/appnote/hardware_drivers hardware drivers] & [https://ipxe.org/appnote/buildtargets pre-configured targets] are listed in the official iPXE documentation. This section should help you to “translate“ the instructions from the iPXE documentation to a working nix equivalent.

The iPXE [https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/by-name/ip/ipxe/package.nix package.nix] in [[Nixpkgs]] allows you to change the build configuration and/or to build targets with a specific set of drivers. For that the package defines attributes which can be easily overriden.

<code>additionalOptions</code> allows you to define [https://ipxe.org/buildcfg build configuration options]. Where iPXE requires you to add a <code>#define OPTION_NAME</code> to a C header file, you can do the same by adding <code>"OPTION_NAME"</code> to the option list. Be aware that the iPXE option does not list all available options by design, you can find others by examining the C header files in <code>src/config</code> in their [https://github.com/ipxe/ipxe.git GitHub repository].
<code>additionalTargets</code> allows you to build iPXE artifacts for use in different environments. It is an attribute set, mapping from a target name to the resulting name of the output file. For iPXE, the target name defines which drivers (or set of drivers from a pre-configured target) should be compiled into your additional artifact. The general syntax of the target name is <code>[platform]/[driver].[extension]</code>, where multiple drivers are separated with <code>--</code>.<ref>https://ipxe.org/appnote/buildtargets</ref> The syntax is further explained [https://ipxe.org/appnote/buildtargets here], where also a list of pre-configured targets (i.e. set of drivers) designed for common use cases is presented. A list of additional drivers is available [https://ipxe.org/appnote/hardware_drivers there].

=== Example as Standalone Flake ===
Following is a [[Flakes|flake]] as a full standalone example. Its intended use is to be able to quickly compile a custom iPXE artifact for use on outside systems.

<syntaxhighlight lang="nix">
{
description = "custom iPXE build for USB network cards";
inputs.nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/unstable";
outputs =
{ nixpkgs, ... }:
{
packages.x86_64-linux.ipxe = nixpkgs.legacyPackages.x86_64-linux.ipxe.override {
additionalOptions = [
"USB_HCD_USBIO"
];
additionalTargets = {
# build for platform: x86_64-efi
# with driver (sets): ipxe, ecm, ncm
# build a (normal) efi binary
"bin-x86_64-efi/ipxe--ecm--ncm.efi" = "ipxe-usbnet.efi";
};
};
};
}
</syntaxhighlight>Given the flake above, you can build your additional target by running <code>nix build nixpkgs#ipxe</code>. Then the custom artifact should be available behind the <code>result</code> symlink, in this example as <code>result/ipxe-usbnet.efi</code>. This does also compile the default outputs, but this should not be a big problem as they share nearly all of their code and so the compiler can reuse most of its work for all targets.

IPXE - Revision history

Klinger: Category:Booting and link

Zocker1999: added page about iPXE & how to customize the package easily