KPXE Exit to USB Boot
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@george1421 Would having 2GB of Ram allow you to run the OS via PXE?
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@sourceminer As in netboot? I don’t have have an answer for that. It shouldn’t be to hard to setup an environment and test it.
I know when we deal with memory constrained devices we would create a thinstation image and just boot it via usb using a sandisk ‘fit’ usb drive. We don’t use fog for deploying that, just create an iso image in the thinstation dev environment and then use rufus to ‘burn’ it to the usb drive.
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@george1421 said in KPXE Exit to USB Boot:
–config-file=“rootnoverify (hd0);chainloader +1”
Im not seeing this line in the boatmenu.class.php file Here is a screenshot of what I am seeing:
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@sourceminer I know I keep bouncing around to different topics, but this is another option: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/10944/using-fog-to-pxe-boot-into-your-favorite-installer-images
But to boot a live image. The ubuntu files would stay on the fog server and connected via nfs to the target computer. I think this would work. I might have time over the weekend to see if I can mock that up in my home lab. I have to see if I can find a unbuntu live image.as to your question I’m seeing the key values at line 244 in ipxemenu.class.php
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Im not seeing an ipxemenu.class.php
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Could really use help with this… I had this working last night with the other topic but now its not working… needing to image 30 machines. ;-(
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@sourceminer You know you really didn’t answer my questions (or at least the question in my mind I never asked).
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Outside of imaging these devices, why do you need FOG?
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Is there a reason you need to boot to the iPXE menu then on to the usb drive?
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Is the device not capable of booting directly off from the usb stick?
If imaging the usb stick is the only reason to use fog, I would go about it a bit different. Just use rufus to capture your reference image off of a usb stick, and then use rufus to deploy the image to the next usb stick. Its is quick simple and you’d be done by now.
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@george1421 I will answer again… I did answer George 2 times now.
I need Fog to deploy images to the USB Stick…
I need to boot to iPXE because we will need to reimage again later.
The Device does boot directly to the USB when you escape iPXE.I have other windows devices as well. I really just need you to help by answering my questions.
Where is that option you point out in the ipxemenu.class.php (I dont have this file). -
@sourceminer said in KPXE Exit to USB Boot:
Im not seeing an ipxemenu.class.php
Here are the exact path of these files on my FOG 1.4.4 server.
/var/www/html/fog/lib/fog/bootmenu.class.php
/var/www/html/fog/lib/pages/ipxemenu.class.phpThis is how I found the files.
cd /var/www/html/fog grep -R -e "rootnoverify (hd0);chainloader" * -
@george1421 said in KPXE Exit to USB Boot:
grep -R -e “rootnoverify (hd0);chainloader” *
there is no ipxemenu.class.php
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@sourceminer What version of FOG are you using?
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Running Version 1.5.0-RC-10
SVN Revision: 6080
Dec 08, 2017 1:53 am -
@sourceminer Whelp then the developers removed the file then. Just modify the other one, the bootmenu.class.php.
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OK so the file: /var/www/fog/lib/fog/bootmenu.class.php
I have changed line 134 to include hd1
Doesn’t seem to work.
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Well I guess for now I will just tell people to hit ESC when they see the PXE boot so that the units will boot up for now. Would like to see an EXIT option for alternate hard disk.
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@sourceminer said in KPXE Exit to USB Boot:
Would like to see an EXIT option for alternate hard disk.
Quite frankly… this is not a musical request programme! FOG is an open source project and its people (!) are doing all this just for the fun of it. George hast offered his ideas and quite some time over the last hours trying to open your mind to other solutions than booting off that USB stick as a second hard drive. If you wanna stick to it that’s fine. And we still try to give you a hand with that. But it’s got no priority on our list whatsoever! Hardly anyone is using FOG this way and doing that heavily depends on BIOS firmware playing nicely. So it might work but won’t promise it does.
That said, I have done booting off a second drive years ago and it worked for me on some machines but not all. So keep that in mind.
OK so the file: /var/www/fog/lib/fog/bootmenu.class.php
I have changed line 134 to include hd1
Doesn’t seem to work.Seems like you’re looking at the right spot. Can you please post a picture of the changed code as well as open the following URL in your browser - http://x.x.x.x/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php?mac=yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy (but substitute
x.x.x.xwith your FOG server IP andyy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yywith a MAC addresses of one of your clients) - and post the full text here. -
Totally understand the position of not being musical… I was simply asking if it was doable. I mean if you already have the option to set the option for primary disk wouldn’t you potentially want to add that disk as the exit boot to as well? Just a thought. Also I appreciate help from everyone especially @george1421 and love thinking out of the box, however as seen in my responses, i was answering questions but they seemed to have been disregarded. So I apologize if my annoyance offended others.
I had posted this as well due to someone suggesting posting again as I re-opened an older topic (as another person wanted to do this as well as yourself) the solution honestly fits perfect for this.
So with all that said. It was a long night. We we ended up placing the boot order to usb then pxe.
This allowed us to image then boot. However it will not allow us to remotely image again due to the issue of not booting to the usb after pxe.Interestingly there were 2 newer models of these Wyse terminals that when set to boot from usb after pxe in the bios they worked (as we would usually expect) also we had to change the primary disk back to /dev/sda. The older ones just didn’t work the same for whatever reason.
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@sourceminer As I said, we are more to happy to help you. So I’ll just ask my questions again: Can you please post a picture of the changed code as well as open the following URL in your browser - http://x.x.x.x/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php?mac=yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy (but substitute x.x.x.x with your FOG server IP and yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy with a MAC addresses of one of your clients) - and post the full text here.
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Thank you
Interesting that the file downloading from the server is different from the one I edited… (EDITED: Realized that I didnt register this test device yet, Registered and added to the same group as the other WYSE terminals). Since doing this still I see that the default boot will go to hd0. When does Exit to Grub_First_HDD take into effect?
Where is that file located to edit the first boot disk to hd1?As @george1421 suspected did the bootmenu.class file change location in RC10?
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OK so I have managed to find something that works, still however this requires manual intervention otherwise the machine will not boot unless you select the item from the menu. Im not familiar enough with GRUB to know if you can Attempt to boot to HD0 but if its unavailable go to HD1…
Here is what I have done:
Created a PXE Menu fog.usbboot
Parameters:
chain -ar http://${fog-ip}/${fog-webroot}/service/ipxe/grub.exe --config-file=“rootnoverify (hd1);map (hd1) (hd0);chainloader (hd1)+1” || MENU
It is not set as default and displays for all hosts.
This allows the PXE to see the disk as hd1
