Command line

iPXE includes an interactive command line that can be used for manual booting and for diagnosing problems. Commands can also be used as part of an iPXE script.

When iPXE starts up, you will see a welcome banner message:

  iPXE -- Open Source Network Boot Firmware -- http://ipxe.org
  Features: HTTP iSCSI DNS TFTP AoE FCoE TFTP COMBOOT ELF PXE PXEXT
  
  Press Ctrl-B for the iPXE command line...

If you press Ctrl-B at this point, you should reach the iPXE command line:

  iPXE>

If your DHCP server is not configured to allow automatic booting, then you could use the iPXE command line to boot manually. For example, you could obtain an IP address using the dhcp command, then boot the iPXE demonstration image using the chain command:

  iPXE> dhcp
  DHCP (net0 52:54:00:12:34:56).... ok
  iPXE> chain http://boot.ipxe.org/demo/boot.php

You can use the iPXE command line to diagnose problems that are preventing you from booting successfully. For example, you could check the IP address configuration provided by your DHCP server using the route command:

  iPXE> dhcp
  DHCP (net0 52:54:00:12:34:56).... ok
  iPXE> route
  net0: 192.168.0.101/255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.0.1

You can use the help command to show a list of all available commands. Full documentation for each command is provided in the iPXE command reference.