Imaging with iso files with FOG 1.5.5

[GrandIQ]

Hello everyone, early apology if I come across as extremely novice, but I just started to pick up on Linux and iPXE. Currently I have been able to create a virtual machine, install windows 7 on it from an iso and back it up as an image with FOG, then successfully redeployed onto another virtual machine without any problems. My current objective is to edit the pxe menu boot (In which I did with the FOG Configuration Settings) and boot an .iso file that is stored on the server (http://${fog-ip}/fog/images/win7.iso). I have attempted to use different commands and watched several videos online but I can’t seem to get a grasp of what I am doing wrong or where to actually begin. Any help is appreciated,

Thank you!

[george1421]

I have a tutorial here that describes netbooting: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/10944/using-fog-to-pxe-boot-into-your-favorite-installer-images

What does your parameters field look like for this iso image in the Fog ipxe menu configuration. If you are using memdisk then that is only for bios computers. You can’t boot a uefi system using memdisk.

[GrandIQ]

Hello @george1421, this is what I currently have under parameters:

kernel http://${fog-ip}/fog/images/wimboot
initrd http://${fog-ip}/fog/images/win7/boot/bcd
initrd http://${fog-ip}/fog/images/win7/boot/boot.sdi
initrd http://${fog-ip}/fog/images/win7/sources/boot.wim
boot

When I run this, it says OK after each one but then I get a black screen with a blinking cursor.

[george1421]

@GrandIQ You need to add some modifiers in your initrd lines. This is what I have from my tutorial.

set tftp-path tftp://${fog-ip}
set pe-path ${tftp-path}/os/winpe
kernel ${tftp-path}/wimboot gui
imgfetch --name BCD ${pe-path}/BCD BCD
imgfetch --name boot.sdi ${pe-path}/boot.sdi boot.sdi
imgfetch --name boot.wim ${pe-path}/boot.wim boot.wim
boot || goto MENU

You can use imgfetch and initrd interchangeably.

You need the -name BCD for uefi systems and the suffix like BCD for bios systems. My example uses tftp but you can use http or nfs protocols. They all work, you just need to be aware of the protocol base path.

I can also give you a recommendation to move your boot images out of the FOG code directory. Make a new directory under /var/www/html called images or img and place your pxe boot files there.

[Sebastian Roth]

@george1421 Mixing up TFTP and HTTP URL here? Might be confusing.

@GrandIQ said:

... http://${fog-ip}/fog/images/...

Please make sure those URLs really work! Simply open them in your web browser and see if it would start the download. I fear it doesn’t because we have some URL rewriting in FOG active for the API backend to work. You probably need to move your images to a different folder further up, like /var/www/html/images/win7/... (URLs: http://${fog-ip}/images/win7/...).