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Using DisplayLink Ethernet for Network PXE boot

This article covers the support for network booting a host PC through the DisplayLink USB Ethernet port.

Some OEMs have added DisplayLink network boot support (PXE) to their host PC BIOS image, however if DisplayLink network boot support has not been added, it is still possible to network boot the PC through the dock Ethernet port. This can be done by using an iPXE image and booting the PC from a USB thumb drive.

Details on downloading and building iPXE can be found on the iPXE website. A UEFI or Legacy PXE boot image can be built.

To build for a legacy BIOS:
make bin/ncm.usb

To build for a UEFI BIOS:
make bin-x86_64-efi/ncm.usb

Note that the DisplayLink Ethernet driver will also need to be slipstreamed into your OS image, otherwise the Ethernet connection will be lost when the BIOS hands over Ethernet support to the OS. Details of how to find the DisplayLink Windows Ethernet driver are available in this article

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