Which USB 3.0 ethernet adapter?

[Bristow 0]

Most laptops come without an RJ45 port. But we need a PXE compatible ethernet port to deploy our images.

Do you know a compatible adapter?

LDLC (a French shop) refers us to this Microsoft model, but 50€ is too much for schools…

Do you have any cheaper references that would be recognized at boot time (our laptops are without OS).

Thanks

[george1421]

@bristow-0 The issue/trick is to get a usb network adapter that is supported by your laptop/tablets firmware. The uefi firmware is very much like a small linux operating system in that it has a limited set of drivers built in to support pxe booting. So the firmware needs to know about the network adapter. You can’t just use any generic network adapter to pxe boot. In this case you will only need the usb 3 ethernet adapter when you image the computer. Once the target computer has the windows OS on it then it can use wifi.

What model computers are we talking about.

As an alternate If you ignore pxe booting on the target computer, but instead usb boot into iPXE then you can use any generic USB to ethernet adapter supported by iPXE. So for this idea you will need a usb ethernet adapter supported by both iPXE and FOS Linux as well as a usb flash drive with iPXE loaded on it. You will boot iPXE from the flash drive, it will see the generic ethernet adapter and jump into the fog iPXE menu.

[Bristow 0]

@george1421 said in Which USB 3.0 ethernet adapter?:

@bristow-0 The issue/trick is to get a usb network adapter that is supported by your laptop/tablets firmware. The uefi firmware is very much like a small linux operating system in that it has a limited set of drivers built in to support pxe booting. So the firmware needs to know about the network adapter. You can’t just use any generic network adapter to pxe boot. In this case you will only need the usb 3 ethernet adapter when you image the computer. Once the target computer has the windows OS on it then it can use wifi.

Thanks. OS will be Gnu/Linux

What model computers are we talking about.

This one : https://www.ldlc-pro.com/fiche/PB00424400.html
and they are based on clevo models : https://www.pcw.fr/93-15-6-pouces

As an alternate If you ignore pxe booting on the target computer, but instead usb boot into iPXE then you can use any generic USB to ethernet adapter supported by iPXE. So for this idea you will need a usb ethernet adapter supported by both iPXE and FOS Linux as well as a usb flash drive with iPXE loaded on it. You will boot iPXE from the flash drive, it will see the generic ethernet adapter and jump into the fog iPXE menu.

Ok, but I don’t understand what iPXE is, is it a Linux system? How do you install it on the USB key? I must have missed a step

Thanks for your reply !

[george1421]

@bristow-0 OK I can say I’ve never heard of an “LDLC Aurore” computer before. It must be a local French brand. If you want to pxe boot then you will need to get a usb network adapter that LDLC computer’s support.

iPXE is what FOG uses for the first stage of network booting. In a normal situation you will pxe boot your computer and your computer will ask the network for the next-server (dhcp option 66) and boot-file (dhcp option 67). In a normal FOG configuration the next-server will be the IP address of your FOG server and the boot-file will be undionly.kpxe for bios or ipxe.efi for uefi systems. That boot-file is the iPXE boot loader.

Now for a uefi computer making the computer boot iPXE from the flash usb drive is pretty easy. https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/6350/usb-boot-uefi-client-into-fog-menu-easy-way Understand that “trick” only works for uefi based computers. BIOS computer’s can’t boot using this method.

[Bristow 0]

@george1421 said in Which USB 3.0 ethernet adapter?:

@bristow-0 OK I can say I’ve never heard of an “LDLC Aurore” computer before. It must be a local French brand. If you want to pxe boot then you will need to get a usb network adapter that LDLC computer’s support.

This is Clevo. The good thing is that they provide PCs without OS.

Now for a uefi computer making the computer boot iPXE from the flash usb drive is pretty easy. https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/6350/usb-boot-uefi-client-into-fog-menu-easy-way Understand that “trick” only works for uefi based computers. BIOS computer’s can’t boot using this method.

Cool, thanks a lot !!