Lenovo ThinkPad 11e Yoga Gen 6 hangs after init.xz

[Olsen]

I am trying to deploy an image to a Lenovo ThinkPad 11e Yoga Gen 6 (type number 20SE) with a Lenovo USB-C to Ethernet Adapter (part number 4X90S91831, USB VID 17EF PID 720C). This laptop does not have integrated LAN, hence the adapter. MAC address pass-through is enabled in firmware settings, secure boot is disabled. Boot mode is UEFI native.

I am running FOG 1.5.9. The laptop boots to the FOG menu, using it’s own MAC address. But this is as far as I get. It hangs when trying quick registration or full registration. The last line on screen is http://[server IP]/fog/service/ipxe/init.xz… ok. Then an empty line, then it hangs. The same thing happens when I create the host manually, create a deploy task for it, and boot the laptop from the network.

I have tried:
Checking laptop firmware version, it is the newest, 1.08.
Adding the has_usb_nic=1 kernel argument
Kernel versions 4.19.143 and 5.6.18 from FOG settings, kernel update.
Fiddling with various BIOS settings

No change, it still hangs after init.xz.
I would be very grateful for any help or pointers in the right direction.

[george1421]

@olsen It sounds like its hanging on the uefi startup code. After bzImage and init.xz are transmitted the next step is to boot. That is where its hanging. Its the transition between the ipxe.efi boot loader and the FOS Linux kernel. The in between problem is usually flaky uefi (firmware) on the target computer. The proper fix is a firmware update on the computer.

Since ipxe is not handing off things properly we can have you create a FOS Linux boot drive. There are some drawbacks to this approach but I’m pretty sure we can get you imaging until Lenovo provides a fix.

[Olsen]

@george1421 Thanks, that makes a lot of sense.
Yes, please, I would like to make a USB boot drive to try to get this working. How do I do that? I found an older thread of yours about it, https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7727/building-usb-booting-fos-image
Is this still the best way to do it?

[george1421]

@olsen Yes that is what I was thinking of. Read over that document and understand the caveats. Look at the fog forum chat bubble for a few more hints to get you a jump start.