If you are like me, then you want to use network booting for everything, especially installs. PXE booting the VMware installer with pxelinux is much easier than I thought it would be. First, copy the entire contents of the installer CD to your tftp directory. I copied mine to /tftpboot/esx/3.5.
Now, open your pxelinux.cfg/default. Add this entry, changing the path to each of the components to coincide with where you placed the files within your tftp directory.
label esx
kernel esx/3.5/mboot.c32
append esx/3.5/vmkernel.gz --- esx/3.5/binmod.tgz --- esx/3.5/ienviron.tgz --- esx/3.5/cim.tgz --- esx/3.5/oem.tgz --- esx/3.5/license.tgz --- esx/3.5/install.tgz
That's all you have to do.