pixiecore (with examples)

pixiecore is a command-line tool that allows you to manage the network booting of machines. It is commonly used in scenarios where you want to PXE boot machines without the need for configuring DHCP servers manually. This tool makes it easy to provide different boot images to machines on your network. In this article, we will explore three different use cases of the pixiecore command and demonstrate how they can be used in practice.

Use Case 1: Starting a PXE boot server with netboot.xyz boot image

To start a PXE boot server with the netboot.xyz boot image, you can use the following command:

pixiecore quick xyz --dhcp-no-bind

Motivation: Starting a PXE boot server with the netboot.xyz boot image allows you to provide a variety of operating systems and tools to boot from. netboot.xyz is a popular boot image that offers a selection of Linux distributions, Windows PE, network troubleshooting tools, and more.

Explanation:

• pixiecore is the command-line tool used to manage the network booting of machines.
• quick is the command that starts a new PXE boot server.
• xyz is an argument that specifies the boot image to be used, in this case, netboot.xyz.
• --dhcp-no-bind is an optional argument that specifies not to bind the DHCP server to the address space of the network interface.

Example Output: The PXE boot server will start, and you will be able to boot machines on your network using the netboot.xyz boot image.

Use Case 2: Starting a PXE boot server with Ubuntu boot image

To start a new PXE boot server with an Ubuntu boot image, you can use the following command:

pixiecore quick ubuntu --dhcp-no-bind

Motivation: Starting a PXE boot server with an Ubuntu boot image allows you to provide a specific Ubuntu installation for machines on your network. This can be useful for network installations, recovery scenarios, or testing purposes.

Explanation:

• pixiecore is the command-line tool used to manage the network booting of machines.
• quick is the command that starts a new PXE boot server.
• ubuntu is an argument that specifies the boot image to be used, in this case, the Ubuntu boot image.
• --dhcp-no-bind is an optional argument that specifies not to bind the DHCP server to the address space of the network interface.

Example Output: The PXE boot server will start, and you will be able to boot machines on your network using the Ubuntu boot image.

Use Case 3: Getting a list of available boot images for quick mode

To get a list of all available boot images for the quick mode, you can use the following command:

pixiecore quick --help

Motivation: Getting a list of available boot images is useful when you want to know what options you have for providing boot images to machines on your network. This command allows you to see the available options without having to navigate to the documentation or source code.

Explanation:

• pixiecore is the command-line tool used to manage the network booting of machines.
• quick is the command that provides quick options for starting a PXE boot server.
• --help is an argument that displays the available options and their usage.

Example Output: Running this command will display a list of available boot images for quick mode, along with their descriptions and example usages.