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, or to build a custom menu.
When iPXE starts up, you will see a welcome banner message:
iPXE 1.20.1+ (g18dc) -- Open Source Network Boot Firmware -- http://ipxe.org
Features: DNS HTTP HTTPS iSCSI TFTP AoE EFI Menu
If you press C at this point, you will reach the iPXE command line:
iPXE>
Below is how it looks on a Gen 2 virtual machine in Hyper-V
Useful Troubleshooting Commands
Here follows a list of commands you can use for verifying network configuration on the client you try to PXE boot.
Initialize (automatically configure the interface): ifconf
Sample output: Configuring (net0 00:15:5d:a1:02:02).... ok
Show your IP configuration (show command can also be used): route
Sample output: net0: 192.168.24.110/255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.24.1
Show you assigned DNS: show dns
Sample output: net0.dhcp/dns:ipv = 192.168.1.200
Verify name resolution for DNS Server (iPXE uses first assigned DNS entry):
nslookup myvar dp01.corp.viamonstra.com
show myvar
Sample output: myvar:ipv4 = 192.168.1.245
Show which DHCP Server that the client used: show 54
Sample output: net0.dhcp/dhcp-server: ipv4 = 192.168.1.200
Ping network resource: Ping <host>
Sample output: 64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: seq=1
Command reference
For all commands are supported by iPXE, see our documentation on the topic: https://docs.2pintsoftware.com/ipxe-anywhere/2pxe-server/ipxe-reference/ipxe-console-commands