docs: add Phase 6 recommendations punch-list
Three tiers (must-do / round-out / large lifts), plus a "what I'd skip" section calling out things from Tinkerbell and Bootimus that don't pull their weight at PXEForge's scale (custom DHCP server, pluggable backend abstraction, LLM-translated UI strings). The big-ticket Tier-1 item is the real-hardware validation matrix — everything currently passes CI tests but nothing has been booted by real firmware yet.
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Miles Ward
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# Phase 6 — recommendations
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The v0.2.0 cut leaves PXEForge in a state where the entire protocol stack
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and operator UI are exercised by 66 automated tests, the container is
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multi-arch buildable, and the image ships at ~97 MB. What's left before
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this looks and feels like a 1.0 product is mostly **real-hardware
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validation** plus a small batch of features that can only sensibly be
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designed once we've watched real machines image.
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This doc is a punch list, ordered by what I'd do first if I had a week.
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## Tier 1 — must-do before we call anything "stable"
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### 1. Real-hardware validation matrix
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We have CI tests for every protocol leg, but no end-to-end PXE on real
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firmware. Build a small matrix:
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| client | firmware | OS family | pass criteria |
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|-------------------------------------|-----------|------------|---------------------------|
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| any 10-y-old mini-PC | Legacy BIOS | Ubuntu Server 24.04 | gets to GRUB / installer |
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| Intel NUC / similar | UEFI x64 | Windows 11 | reaches "where do you want to install" |
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| Raspberry Pi 4 | UEFI ARM64 | Raspberry Pi OS | gets to login prompt |
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| Dell / HP business laptop | UEFI x64 | Fedora | one of: kernel boot or wimboot |
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Add a `docs/HARDWARE_VALIDATION.md` checklist that records what worked,
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firmware versions, and any quirks. Anything weird gets a regression
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test in the relevant crate.
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### 2. Boot menu hotkey + UI accessibility audit
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The iPXE menu has number-key + letter hotkeys but no documentation on
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what they map to. Generate a printable cheat-sheet from
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`crates/http-api/src/ipxe_script.rs` so operators don't have to read
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the source. Run a screen-reader pass over the web UI — most of it
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should be fine since we're mostly tables + form labels, but the
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Terminal pane and the SSE log output need explicit `aria-live`
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regions.
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### 3. Boot.wim re-patch detection
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Bootimus v0.1.62's "fingerprint of patched inputs + Save & Re-patch"
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pattern is a small but high-value feature: when an operator changes
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the SMB host override or upgrades wimboot, the existing patched
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boot.wim is silently stale. We should:
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- Hash the inputs (smb_host, smb_share, startnet.cmd content,
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wimboot binary digest) into the IsoMeta;
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- Surface a "needs re-patch" warning on the Storage tab when the
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hash drifts;
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- Add a "Re-patch SMB" button that re-runs the WimPatcher.
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## Tier 2 — features that round out pre-beta
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### 4. Auto-install file library
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iVentoy and Bootimus both support attaching `autounattend.xml` /
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`preseed.cfg` / `kickstart.cfg` to an image. The mechanics are
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straightforward: store files under `<work_dir>/autoinstall/<distro>/`,
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expose CRUD via `/api/autoinstall-files`, and modify the WimPatcher
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+ Linux kernel cmdline to fetch + apply the right file. Placeholders
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worth supporting (Bootimus pattern): `{{MAC}}`, `{{HOSTNAME}}`,
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`{{IP}}`, `{{SERVER_ADDR}}`, `{{IMAGE_FILENAME}}`, substituted
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serve-side per request.
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### 5. Wake-on-LAN trigger
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A natural pair with per-MAC host bindings: bind a MAC to an image,
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then click "Wake & Image" to send the magic packet and let PXEForge
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do the rest. Implementation is small (`udp/9` broadcast, magic packet
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construction) but it makes the bound-host workflow feel instant.
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### 6. Distro profile manifest
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Today, distro detection lives as Rust match arms in `introspect.rs`
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and the kernel cmdline templates live in `store.rs`. Bootimus extracts
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this into a JSON manifest that ships embedded in the binary AND is
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overridable by the operator at runtime — so a new distro can be added
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without rebuilding the container. Worth porting; it'd let community
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contributions land as PRs to a single JSON file.
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### 7. Syslog receiver
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`smee` ships one. The use case: WinPE / Linux installers can be
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configured to syslog over the network to the PXE server; if we have
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an endpoint and a place in the UI to view per-client diagnostics,
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post-mortem on a failed install gets dramatically easier.
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### 8. UEFI HTTP Boot validation
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Option 60 = `HTTPClient` is wired up in `decide()` already, but
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we've never tested it on real firmware. Some Dell + Lenovo UEFIs
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prefer it over PXE-via-TFTP. A quick check on a real machine
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(disable TFTP boot in firmware, force HTTP boot) and a regression
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test would be nice.
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## Tier 3 — bigger lifts, only if there's demand
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### 9. Pure-Rust SMB server
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`smbd` from Samba is ~80 MB of the runtime image. There are pure-Rust
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SMB2 server crates (`smbd-server`, `smb-rs`) of varying maturity.
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Replacing the dep would slim the image by ~40% and remove the
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`CAP_SYS_ADMIN` requirement for SMB. Worth a spike, not necessarily
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landable in Phase 6.
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### 10. IPv6 / DHCPv6
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PXE-over-IPv6 is real (RFC 5970). Some sites are v6-only. Worth
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implementing once we know we have one. Until then, IPv4-only is the
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right default — flipping the bit on v6 without v6 testing is asking
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for silent breakage.
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### 11. Multi-replica deployment
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The current design assumes one PXEForge per broadcast domain. Two
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proxies on the same L2 will race; the gate queue is in-memory, etc.
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For HA we'd need to:
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- Externalize the gate queue (Redis, etcd) or lean into "the menu is
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cheap to refetch if a replica dies";
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- Ensure DHCP proxy replies are deterministic so a client always
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gets the same answer regardless of which replica replied;
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- Document the L2 collision domain story.
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This is a large lift and should only happen if someone's actually
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asking for it.
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### 12. Pi 4 / SBC quirks
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Raspberry Pi netboot uses a specific DHCP option-43 vendor field +
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TFTP path layout that PXEForge doesn't currently special-case. There's
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a spec; the work is small once we have a Pi to test on.
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## What I'd skip
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- **A custom DHCP server (not proxy).** The proxy mode is the right
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abstraction; full DHCP would need raw sockets + a lot of corner-case
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handling for problems no operator wants us to solve.
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- **A pluggable backend abstraction à la Tinkerbell.** Tinkerbell does
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it because they integrate with k8s CRDs. PXEForge's "the file system
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IS the database" model is simpler and good enough for the target
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audience. Don't add a Backend trait until something asks for it.
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- **Multiple language UIs.** Bootimus added these in v0.1.62 and the
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translations are LLM-generated. Skip until we have real users
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asking for non-English.
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## Quick wins (could land in a single afternoon)
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- Add a Grafana dashboard JSON to `deploy/grafana/` driven off the
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new `/metrics` endpoint.
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- A `pxeforge bench` subcommand that runs a 10-second internal load
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test (synthetic gate joins) so an operator can sanity-check tuning.
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- Ship a basic `docker-compose.yml` for the Unraid path that demos
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the new themes / progress widget.
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- Generate a printable single-page operator runbook from the README
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+ architecture.md (e.g. `cargo xtask runbook`).
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