iPXE open command line

[Oleg60]

Good day to all! I tried to find any clues to open iPXE command line during booting but alas i failed. Can anybody help me with the issue. (Sorry if i made any mistakes, english is’t my native language).

[george1421]

I’m sorry I don’t understand where/what your error is. Can you provide a screen shot of the error (so I can read it) taken with a mobile phone?

[Oleg60]

I have Fog server installed in my environment. Client gets dhcp configuration from dhcp server and then loads file from tftp server. File name is ipxe.efi. As I understand it is bootloader and it has command line where i can change some parameters. But cannot guess how can i open it. For example to chain to different source.

[george1421]

@Oleg60 You only get the command line if there is an error. Please explain what you are trying to solve. There may be a different way to go about what you want.

[Oleg60]

have Fog server installed in my environment. Client gets dhcp configuration from dhcp server and then loads file from tftp server. File name is ipxe.efi. As I understand it is bootloader and it has command line where i can change some parameters. But cannot guess how can i open it. For example to chain to different source.

[george1421]

@Oleg60 said in iPXE open command line:

For example to chain to different source.

I’ll ask the question again, but in a different form. What do you want to chainload? There may be a different way to go about it. With the fog iPXE boot loaders the command shell is only presented when an error is detected. If you really want to generate an error then pull the network cable after iPXE loads but before the iPXE menu is displayed.

[Sebastian Roth]

@Oleg60 Beside forcing an error like George said there are other ways to get to the shell. Either you edit /tftpboot/default.ipxe and make the first two lines read like this:

#!ipxe
shell

The rest of the original script can stay as is. If you exit the shell it will execute the rest of the commands. Be aware that all your PXE booting machines will run into the shell no matter what!

The other simple way is to create a new iPXE menu entry (web UI -> FOG Settings) and use the shell command with that. This way you have a new menu entry that you can choose to get to the iPXE shell on PXE boot up.

[Oleg60]

After downloading NBP file and booting it I want to stop executing script and entering command line interface to point for example to other source. OR enter command line interface on Fog Project greetings image.

[Oleg60]

@Sebastian-Roth
Thank you very much. I really confused everything. Your advice helped my and now everything became clear. default.ipxe script file is what I need.

[george1421]

@Oleg60 So do I understand you are not using the FOG server for computer imaging. That is fine, you just need to say so to set our understand correctly. What you are asking is not something that people (ever) have asked for.

So if you want to reuse FOG for something else that is OK. To get the iPXE command prompt do as Sebastian has posted. There is a text file in /tftpboot on the FOG server. That file is called default.ipxe (you can see it load in your screen shot). rename that file and make a new one. In that new text file add the following lines.

#!ipxe
shell

Now pxe boot the target computer. The computer will load your new default.ipxe file and drop to a iPXE command shell.

[Oleg60]

@george1421 Thanks, I really appreciate your help!