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I have a TFTP server setup where I copied GPXE customized iso image. When I boot a machine using PXE boot - I get "NBP is too big to fit into free base memory". GPXE iso image is around 678 KB. Please help me how use PXE boot to boot gPXE too to get support for the richer protocols.

Thanks in advance

user74487
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Max size that you can load as first stage boot code is 640KB and that is if no space has already been used.

I think the issue here is that you try to boot the iso directly, instead you need the boot NBP part only. In the more modern iPXE (based on gPXE) the filename would be ipxe.pxe or undionly.kpxe depending on what NIC you have and what you want to have support for in your PXE environment.

NiKiZe
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  • Double post https://serverfault.com/questions/1055630/how-to-avoid-nbp-is-too-big-to-fit-into-free-base-memory-after-searching-for-b – djdomi Jul 14 '21 at 16:54
  • @djdomi rather, that question is very similar to this question (see dates for when created), however quite different in the details, even the message is the same. This question is about why the message appears on first boot, the one linked on the other hand is issue due to looping and the stack not clearing correctly after each try. – NiKiZe Jul 14 '21 at 20:14
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I'm afraid your network hardware doesn't support boot images of that size, try to reduce your boot image or make it a two steps loader.

There's a good guide on the gPXE wiki about chanining gPXE into a 2 steps boot, have a look here

lynxman
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    This is not really an issue of network hardware, but rather actual BIOS limitations, first bootcode is limited to the first 640KB (and that is if the space is actually free to use) – NiKiZe Jul 14 '21 at 15:00