How to PXE boot to a Windows PE ISO

[zaboxmaster]

Hi Guys

I am stuck. I have a Windows10 PE bootable ISO that I have created and it I have followed the following tutorial to create a bootable menu entry :

https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/10944/using-fog-to-pxe-boot-into-your-favorite-installer-images/7

But everytime I boot to the ISO I get taken to the Grub4DOS.

I am new to this so please be gentle

Here is my menu item command below:

initrd nfs://192.168.100.160:/images/Windows/WIN10.ISO
chain memdisk iso raw
boot || goto MENU

[george1421]

Understand that memdisk only works for BIOS based computers. There isn’t a memdisk equivalent for uefi.

I’m not sure how you are ending in G4D because grub is not used to boot this iso image. Where are you seeing that error message. Is it transferring over the winpe iso image to the target computer?

[zaboxmaster]

Thank you George for replying,

So the image is transferred over then it boots straight into G4D.

What I did is use Winpe Builder to create my ISO and from there I used the ISO it created to boot in to.

What I am trying to achieve is create my own bootable image with certain apps running on it and boot directly into a live image of it.

[george1421]

@zaboxmaster So in my mind it not clear if your fog configuration is at fault or the iso image. If you have a VM environment, does that iso image boot correctly on a VM configured for BIOS mode?

I could potentially see if the iso failed to boot, fog may select a default boot loader to try to continue to boot. But lets first start with the understanding if the iso image is good or bad.

[zaboxmaster]

@george1421 Okay so I figured it out … The problem was the ISO, to a degree.

The ISO was made through WINPE10 builder and used G4D.

I then found a couple examples online with iPXE and followed the instructions. I downloaded wimboot , copied the BCD and BOOT.SDI file to the root http: directory.

I then ran the following and it works:

kernel http://192.168.100.160/windows/10Pro-x64/wimboot/wimboot
initrd http://192.168.100.160/windows/10Pro-x64/Boot/bcd BCD
initrd http://192.168.100.160/windows/10Pro-x64/Boot/boot.sdi boot.sdi
initrd http://192.168.100.160/windows/10Pro-x64/sources/boot.wim boot.wim
initrd http://192.168.100.160/windows/10Pro-x64/bootmgr.exe bootmgr.exe
imgstat
boot

Thank you again for your help

[george1421]

@zaboxmaster Ah ok that is how G4D got into the picture. You didn’t use my steps exactly. That is ok you go there.

The iPXE menu that you have will only work for BIOS systems and not uefi. There are additional parameters that are needed for UEFI.

I thought I had the answers hidden in that thread, but I must have removed them. This will be from memory (I have it in a config file at home) In your line like initrd http://192.168.100.160/windows/10Pro-x64/Boot/bcd BCD you need to use the -n switch to make the line look similar to this for uefi.
initrd -n BCD http://192.168.100.160/windows/10Pro-x64/Boot/bcd BCD

Also you will need to change out the bootmgr.exe for the uefi equivalent.
initrd -n bootmgr.efihttp://192.168.100.160/windows/10Pro-x64/bootmgr.efi bootmgr.efi

Again this is posted from a rusty old memory, so it should be close but not exact.

Edit1: While this isn’t where I started from look a the uefi section here ref: http://mistyrebootfiles.altervista.org/documents/TinyPXEServer/files/winpe_wimboot.htm

[Boyan Biandov]

Has there been any development on the ability to boot into one’s custom WinPE ISO on a UEFI system?

Thank you
Boyan

[george1421]

@boyan-biandov said in How to PXE boot to a Windows PE ISO:

Has there been any development on the ability to boot into one’s custom WinPE ISO on a UEFI system?

Not booting the ISO directly but if you pull apart the ISO you can pxe boot the wim file with FOG.