Lenovo 300e ipxe boots ok but ipxe.efi can't resolve the system

Sebastian Roth

@mjaskowski This is great news! We know it made it to load and execute the kernel. We will need to add more debugging output to see where exactly it locks up. We have done this several times with different hardware and I am fairly sure we will figure this one out as well. I won’t get to connect to my compile system until later on at night. So you will need to be patient or start learning how to compile your own kernel. It’s not that hard really.

git clone https://github.com/FOGProject/fos
cd fos
export KERNEL_VERSION=4.19.48
./build.sh -k -a x64
...

When this runs through without an issue you should see a message at the end telling you the kernel bzImage is ready.

Now what you want to do is edit .config file, search for “EARLY_PRINTK” and enable this line (remove # at the beginning and add =y at the end just as you see with other lines.

As well edit arch/x86/boot/compressed/eboot.c and search for the function called efi_main. Add print statements like efi_printk(sys_table, "Text output\n"); at various places in that function to find out where exactly it locks up.

mjaskowski

[root@MCS-FOG fos]# export KERNEL_VERSION=4.19.48
[root@MCS-FOG fos]# ./build.sh -k -a x64
Checking packages needed for building

Package meld missing!
Package ncurses-devel missing!
Package bison missing!
Package flex missing!
Package gcc-arm-linux-gnu missing!
Package gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu missing!
Package(s) missing, can’t build, exiting now.

mjaskowski

Okay. Installed all missing packages and tried again, at the end was prompted “We are ready to build. Would you like to edit the config file [y|n]?y”, which put me in .config - Linux/x86 4.19.48 Kernel Configuration in a blue bordered editor.
In this editor I only have options to do the following:
lqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq Linux/x86 4.19.48 Kernel Configuration qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqk
x Arrow keys navigate the menu. <Enter> selects submenus —> (or empty x
x submenus ----). Highlighted letters are hotkeys. Pressing <Y> includes, x
x <N> excludes, <M> modularizes features. Press <Esc><Esc> to exit, <?> x
x for Help, </> for Search. Legend: [*] built-in [ ] excluded <M> module x

I searched for “EARLY_PRINTK”
Search Results
x Symbol: EARLY_PRINTK [=n] x
x Type : bool x
x Prompt: Early printk x
x Location: x
x (1) -> Kernel hacking x
x Defined at arch/x86/Kconfig.debug:17 x
x x
x x
x Symbol: EARLY_PRINTK_DBGP [=n] x
x Type : bool x
x Prompt: Early printk via EHCI debug port x
x Location: x
x -> Kernel hacking x
x (2) -> Early printk (EARLY_PRINTK [=n]) x
x Defined at arch/x86/Kconfig.debug:30 x
x Depends on: EARLY_PRINTK [=n] && PCI [=y] x
x Selects: EARLY_PRINTK_USB [=n] x
x x
x x
x Symbol: EARLY_PRINTK_EFI [=n] x
x Type : bool x
x Prompt: Early printk via the EFI framebuffer x
x Location: x
x -> Kernel hacking x
x (3) -> Early printk (EARLY_PRINTK [=n]) x
x Defined at arch/x86/Kconfig.debug:43 x
x Depends on: EFI [=y] && EARLY_PRINTK [=n] x
x Selects: FONT_SUPPORT [=y] x
x x
x x
x Symbol: EARLY_PRINTK_USB [=n] x
x Type : bool x
x Defined at arch/x86/Kconfig.debug:6 x
x Selected by [n]: x
x - EARLY_PRINTK_DBGP [=n] && EARLY_PRINTK [=n] && PCI [=y] x
x - EARLY_PRINTK_USB_XDBC [=n] && EARLY_PRINTK [=n] && PCI [=y] x
x x
x x
x Symbol: EARLY_PRINTK_USB_XDBC [=n] x
x Type : bool x
x Prompt: Early printk via the xHCI debug port x
x Location: x
x -> Kernel hacking x
x (4) -> Early printk (EARLY_PRINTK [=n]) x
x Defined at arch/x86/Kconfig.debug:53 x
x Depends on: EARLY_PRINTK [=n] && PCI [=y] x
x Selects: EARLY_PRINTK_USB [=n] x

So not sure how to proceed.

mjaskowski

In this editor I navigated to Kernel hacking and set [*] Early printk and saved. When searched again I find:
x Symbol: EARLY_PRINTK [=y] x
x Type : bool x
x Prompt: Early printk x
x Location: x
x (1) -> Kernel hacking x
x Defined at arch/x86/Kconfig.debug:17 x

All the rest still [=n] I hope that’s what you mean and the only one you mean. I’ll try to edit eboot.c now.

mjaskowski

In eboot.c using vi I don’t see a function called efi_main
/* -----------------------------------------------------------------------
*

Copyright 2011 Intel Corporation; author Matt Fleming
This file is part of the Linux kernel, and is made available under
the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- */

#include <linux/efi.h>
#include <linux/pci.h>

#include <asm/efi.h>
#include <asm/e820/types.h>
#include <asm/setup.h>
#include <asm/desc.h>

#include “…/string.h”
#include “eboot.h”

static efi_system_table_t *sys_table;

static struct efi_config *efi_early;

__pure const struct efi_config *__efi_early(void)
{
return efi_early;
}

#define BOOT_SERVICES(bits)
static void setup_boot_services##bits(struct efi_config *c)
{
efi_system_table_##bits##_t *table;

table = (typeof(table))sys_table;

c->runtime_services = table->runtime;
c->boot_services = table->boottime; \

mjaskowski

Okay. I believe I misunderstood when to edit the files, you mean after a successful build. In the build I hit one more error: Missing elfutils-libelf-devel so I installed that and started again and it’s building for a while now.

Sebastian Roth

@mjaskowski Sorry, didn’t get to answer until now. Great to see you are making good progress on this!!

Not sure exactly why but turns out I missed to to EARLY_PRINTK_EFI in the kernel I provided earlier and it still seemed to work for you. So not sure if this is needed or not. In case you don’t get the test output as expected you might want to add the EARLY_PRINTK_EFI as well and try again.

In eboot.c using vi I don’t see a function called efi_main

Do you know how to search in VI? Make sure you are not in edit mode (hit ESC a couple of times) and type /efi_main then ENTER. It should jump to the first occurrence. If you want to step to the next hit n or shift+n to jump back. If this doesn’t work, just use page down to go to line 740. Should look like this: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/arch/x86/boot/compressed/eboot.c#L740

Okay. I believe I misunderstood when to edit the files, you mean after a successful build.

Nope, before building. But it’s no big deal! One important thing I should mention is that build.sh is preparing a lot of things for you to make the build work. But as soon as you have called it once you can also go the manual route. This is quite often better.

So to change the config in GUI mode do:

cd fos/kernelsourcex64/
make menuconfig

And to build the kernel just do:

cd fos/kernelsourcex64/
make bzImage

You can repeat the make bzImage over and over every time you make a change to the eboot.c code to get a new bzImage binary that has the code changes in it.

Sebastian Roth

@mjaskowski And when the kernel build fine you just need to copy it over to your FOG server in /var/www/html/fog/service/ipxe/. And I’d still name it bzImage-earlyprintk so you don’t overwrite the original kernel binary.

mjaskowski

the last build failed with MK_FW firmware/bnx2x/bnx2x-e1h-7.13.1.0.fw.gen.S
make[1]: *** No rule to make target linux-firmware/bnx2x/bnx2x-e1h-7.13.1.0.fw', needed by firmware/bnx2x/bnx2x-e1h-7.13.1.0.fw.gen.o'. Stop.
make: *** [firmware] Error 2
Since I’m starting it over I’ll edit those files prebuild but what about this error, how do I prevent a repeat?

george1421

@mjaskowski said in Lenovo 300e ipxe boots ok but ipxe.efi can't resolve the system:

make[1]: *** No rule to make target linux-firmware/bnx2x/bnx2x-e1h-7.13.1.0.fw’, needed by firmware/bnx2x/bnx2x-e1h-7.13.1.0.fw.gen.o’. Stop.

I’ve done my share of linux kernel building (watch that statement come back and bit me in the backside). What this is saying is that you don’'t have the linux kernel firmware downloaded and saved into the root of the directory where the .config file is.

git this: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git

Sebastian Roth

@mjaskowski That’s kind of strange as the firmware should be downloaded by the build.sh script for you - see here. Please run ls -al fos/kernelsourcex64/linux-firmware and post output here. If you get no such file or directory run as suggested by George:

cd fos/kernelsourcex64/
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git

mjaskowski

running ls -al fos/kernelsourcex64/linux-firmware resulted in ls: cannot access fos/kernelsourcex64/linux-firmware: No such file or directory there is however a fos/kernelsourcex64/firmware directory

Sebastian Roth

@mjaskowski said in Lenovo 300e ipxe boots ok but ipxe.efi can't resolve the system:

there is however a fos/kernelsourcex64/firmware directory

This is not the same as fos/kernelsourcex64/linux-firmware. You need both!

Sebastian Roth

@mjaskowski Did you get to compile the kernel yet?

mjaskowski

I got pulled off this project and just back to it now. So I just updated to Kernel to bzImage Version: 4.19.48 and when I pxe boot to it I only get as far as rEFInd - Booting OS in a blue bar at the top of the screen and below prints:

Starting bootmgfw.efi
Using load options ’ ’

and that’s all folks. What next?

Sebastian Roth

@mjaskowski Great to see you back. When you see rEFInd that means your client chainloaded to boot from disk. Make sure it is registered and a task is scheduled for it.

mjaskowski

I’m looking at https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/Building_a_Custom_Kernel and it’s not clear to me where I’m to perform step 1:
Build Process

Install [WHERE?] the required packages to build the kernel with:
RHEL/Fedora/CentOS/.rpm other: (need confirmation that this is all the packages required?!?, may also need qt-devel and a few others)
yum groupinstall “Development Tools”
Ubuntu/Debian/.deb other:
sudo apt-get install qt3-dev-tools libqt3-mt-dev

Sebastian Roth

@mjaskowski From the things you wrote weeks ago I though you where way beyond that point already. The development tools are needed to compile the kernel from source code. You install those on a machine you want to use for playing with the kernel build. You can use your FOG server for this but any other Linux machine will do just as well. Doesn’t really matter.

mjaskowski

@Sebastian-Roth said in Lenovo 300e ipxe boots ok but ipxe.efi can't resolve the system:

@mjaskowski Great to see you back. When you see rEFInd that means your client chainloaded to boot from disk. Make sure it is registered and a task is scheduled for it.

That’s the thing, I never get to the FOG menu options including the Quick Registration and all. I’ve previously tried to manually register and perform a task to no avail but I’ll try that again.

mjaskowski

@mjaskowski said in Lenovo 300e ipxe boots ok but ipxe.efi can't resolve the system:

@Sebastian-Roth said in Lenovo 300e ipxe boots ok but ipxe.efi can't resolve the system:

@mjaskowski Great to see you back. When you see rEFInd that means your client chainloaded to boot from disk. Make sure it is registered and a task is scheduled for it.

That’s the thing, I never get to the FOG menu options including the Quick Registration and all. I’ve previously tried to manually register and perform a task to no avail but I’ll try that again.

So I get the following:
Succeed to download NBP file.
iPXE initialising devices…ok

iPXE 1.0.0+ (9907f) – Open Source Network Boot Firmware – http://ipxe.org
Features: DNS FTP HTTP HTTPS iSCSI NFS TFTP SRP VLAN AoE EFI Menu
Configuring (net0 3c:18:a0:11:dc:62)… ok
Received DHCP answer on interface net0
tftp://xx.xx.x.xx/default.ipxe… ok
http://xx.xx.x.xx/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php… ok
bzImage-earlyprintk… ok
init.xz… ok
Text output
Text output
Text output
Text output
Text output
Text output
Text output
Text output
Text output
Text output
Text output
Text output
Text output
Text output
Text output
Text output
Text output

to the end of the visible screen.

Lenovo 300e ipxe boots ok but ipxe.efi can't resolve the system

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