Issue with using netboot.xyz from Equinix Metal when using Mellanox Connect-X 4 NIC

[nshalman]

Describe the bug

I have not tried to recompile netboot.xyz ipxe payloads with the revert noted in ipxe/ipxe#1091, but I have a strong feeling it is the culprit.

The symptom is that once we chainload into the netboot.xyz ipxe.efi we end up in a state where we are unable to download additional files over HTTP.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
Provision a server using Equinix Metal pointed at http://boot.netboot.xyz that has a Mellanox CX4 NIC

Expected behavior
netboot.xyz works as normal

Screenshots

Additional context

I'm happy to provide additional detail, though the correct place to fully diagnose this is in ipxe/ipxe#1091

[antonym]

It sounds like you potentially identified the patch that may be causing the problem upstream, so I'll continue monitoring if there are any changes. We can always generate a dev build that includes the iPXE revert patch too if we need to test that full stack to further validate.

[nshalman]

It sounds like you potentially identified the patch that may be causing the problem upstream, so I'll continue monitoring if there are any changes. We can always generate a dev build that includes the iPXE revert patch too if we need to test that full stack to further validate.

Thank you!

Alternately, is there a way to prevent the netboot.xyz menu system from switching to its own binary?

If a dev build with the revert patch applied is EASY for you, it might provide a great workaround for some of my customers.
Alternately if you want to point me at some instructions for how to do that myself I can try to do so.