gPXEEtherboot

gPXEEtherboot is a historical designation for a lineage of open-source network boot firmware derived from Etherboot and extended by the gPXE project. It refers to the family of software that replaces or chains with standard PXE ROMs to enable booting over networks beyond the original TFTP limitation, and to load operating systems, installers, or disk images from a remote server.

Key capabilities include support for booting over HTTP, FTP, NFS, SMB, and iSCSI, as well as the ability to load boot programs directly from URLs. It can run as a standalone ROM on many NICs or be chain-loaded from an existing PXE ROM, making it useful for environments that require flexible boot sources or automated deployments. The project also offered scripting and automated boot menus, which helped configure multi-OS or multi-image deployments without local storage.

In terms of history, gPXE originated as a fork and extension of Etherboot in the early 2000s, aimed at extending PXE with more network protocols. The development of gPXE eventually led to iPXE, which continues the same goals and adds broader hardware support, including UEFI-based network booting. As a result, the term gPXEEtherboot is largely historical and is less used in modern documentation, with iPXE being the active project.

Usage of this lineage has been common in data centers, high-performance clusters, and environments that require network-based deployment or diskless workstations. Administrators typically deploy a network boot server (TFTP or HTTP) and configure the boot menu to select the desired image.