Is there a way to make one's FOG server PXE boot native UEFI clients?

[Boyan Biandov]

Hi guys

Is there a way to make one’s FOG server PXE boot native UEFI clients?

I do have a UEFI ready client, it starts the PXE boot but it goes nowhere? I do have a functional FOG server and legacy BIOS clients boot up via PXE just fine. However the UEFI PXE client does not? It just times out. No errors, no nothing. This is an inspiron 2-in-1 with the properly UEFI-recognized USB-Ethernet dongle and after selecting IPv4 PXE boot from the F12 menu upon boot:

Thanks everyone
~B

[george1421]

Just for clarity from his other post he is running FOG 1.2.0.

For a uefi system to boot, you need to send it the uefi boot file name. For your bios (legacy) clients you would typically send undionly.kpxe to the target system through dhcp. The client would then pick that boot loader up and boot into the FOG iPXE boot menu.

For uefi systems you need to send the uefi boot loader name to the pxe booting client. In your case you will need to send ipxe.efi. The target will then request ipxe.efi from your fog server. I have not touched fog 1.2.0 in about 5 years, so I can say for absolute. But I don’t think fog 1.2.0 supports uefi systems, period. You should try of course, but you may be better off in the longer term to create a new fog server and migrate your clients and images over to the new FOG server to get better support for current hardware.

[Boyan Biandov]

@george1421 said in Is there a way to make one's FOG server PXE boot native UEFI clients?:

For uefi systems you need to send the uefi boot loader name to the pxe booting client

Thanks for the great answers george1421. I must ask for clarification. First forget 1.2.0 - it’s an old release and I get it, will bite the bullet and upgrade to the latest release.

However even then I’m confused; the file name is passed to the PXE client via DHCP option. Since legacy BIOS (undionly.kpxe) and UEFI (ipxe.efi) clients require different file name to boot how does that work? How would each client get the correct file name? The DHCP option can only pass one file name?

Thanks
~B

[george1421]

@boyan-biandov said in Is there a way to make one's FOG server PXE boot native UEFI clients?:

The DHCP option can only pass one file name?

Ah that’s the trick. Handing out the right file name to the proper client.

This is a dhcp server issue. Your dhcp server must support dyanmic boot file switching.

Windows 2012 dhcp service supports this.
For linux isc-dhcp service supports this.
DNSMasq v2.76 and later supports this.

https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=BIOS_and_UEFI_Co-Existence

[Boyan Biandov]

@george1421 Aha that explains it. Thank you very much for the clarification. Will figure out the DHCP thing and get going on the two machine types, with an upgrade planned for 1.5.x for sure! Thank you