UEFI PXE Boot - Pain

[george1421]

@rogerbrowntdl With this setup the dnsmasq server only provides pxe boot information using the proxydhcp protocol. It does not manage ip address with this configuration. Its intended to augment your existing dhcp server.

[george1421]

@rogerbrowntdl We would typically use this if your dhcp server is managed by an outside party, or your dhcp server settings can’t be changed or your dhcp server does not support dynamic pxe booting (pfsense router does by the way so dnsmasq on the fog server isn’t needed here).

[RogerBrownTDL]

This post is deleted!

[RogerBrownTDL]

@george1421 So in effect, I just leave the Watchguard as a DHCP server, set option 66 and 150 to point to my FOG box, remove option 67 and then install DNSMasq? Or do I remove ALL options from my Watchguard and install DNSMasq?

Forgive my lack of knowledge on the subject lol. How does the PXE request then get to the FOG server? Does the client, send a DHCP request to the Watchguard and then a broadcast for PXE or do I need to leave something in the Watchguard to tell the client to go to FOG?

[DBCountMan]

@rogerbrowntdl dnsmasq runs on the FOG server to detect architecture and boot type then serve the boot files over tftp. This is my understanding of how it all works:
PC sends DHCP server a request for an IP address with a pxe packet.
DHCP assigns an IP address then directs (relays) the PC to the FOG server.
FOG Server handles this request by sending either undionly.kpxe or ipxe.efi depending on the architecture of the PC (dnsmasq tftp service).
PC downloads and executes the correct file.
After that FOG loads the boot menus.

[RogerBrownTDL]

@brakcounty Thats my question really, do I need to leave a setting in (66 67 or 150) to tell the Watchguard to send the PXE request to FOG? I presume I need to put a setting in somewhere or the client wont know where to go for it’s PXE boot

[george1421]

@rogerbrowntdl said in UEFI PXE Boot - Pain:

do I need to leave a setting in (66 67 or 150)

For clarity I would remove them from watchguard dhcp. Actually dhcp option 150 is not a thing at least for pxe booting. From a functional standpoint proxydhcp will override the values provided in the dhcp packet. The advantage of running dnsmasq on the FOG server is that when the fog server is not running, no pxe boot information will be handed out. All clients will boot normally, but this is also the issue with leaving unmanaged settings in dhcp where sometime down the road if the fog server isn’t running things might behave a bit unexpected if the old dhcp settings are found by the client computers.

[george1421]

@rogerbrowntdl said in UEFI PXE Boot - Pain:

I presume I need to put a setting in somewhere or the client wont know where to go for it’s PXE boot

With the proxy dhcp response that tells the target computer once you have an ip address speak to this server (the fog server’s dnsmasq) to get the pxe boot information. Other than setting up dnsmasq there is nothing else that needs to be touched (as long as the fog server and pxe booting clients are on the same subnet)

[RogerBrownTDL]

@brakcounty You mention you had to disable tftpd.service and yet your line in that code says “enable-tftp” Are they different things? (Yes I’m a noob to all this but up until recently FOG was a mint replacement to the shitty MDT box we had - Just damn manufacturers now stopping legacy option in bios means i’m forced to change this to UEFI)

[DBCountMan]

@rogerbrowntdl Yes they are two different services. tftpd is what FOG uses by default. The TFTP protocol listens on TCP port 69, so two services cannot listen on the same port at the same time.

[RogerBrownTDL]

@brakcounty Okay makes sense… dnsmasq was already installed and configured… Weird that it wouldnt boot before (hence we had to go the legacy option I believe) however now when I try and start dnsmasq it tells me to piss off because 69 is already in use?

"[1]: Starting dnsmasq - A lightweight DHCP and caching DNS server…
[624]: dnsmasq: syntax check OK.
[678]: dnsmasq: failed to create listening socket for port 69: Address already >
[678]: failed to create listening socket for port 69: Address already in use
[678]: FAILED to start up
[1]: dnsmasq.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGU>
[1]: dnsmasq.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
[1]: Failed to start dnsmasq - A lightweight DHCP and caching DNS server.

[george1421]

@rogerbrowntdl said in UEFI PXE Boot - Pain:

[678]: dnsmasq: failed to create listening socket for port 69: Address already >

This kind of indicates you did not follow the config file exactly. Since dnsmasq should not attempt to use tftp port with this configuraiton. Please post your complete ltsp.conf file here for review.

[DBCountMan]

@rogerbrowntdl Ok so it seems that tftpd might still be running.
First stop and disable the tftpd service

sudo systemctl stop tftpd.service && sudo systemctl disable tftpd.service

Make sure dnsmasq isn’t running

sudo systemctl stop dnsmasq.service

Edit/Create a file called ltsp.conf in the /etc/dnsmasq.d directory

sudo nano /etc/dnsmasq.d/ltsp.conf

Paste the following code and replace <fog_server_IP> with your FOG server’s IP address

# Don't function as a DNS server:
port=0

# Log lots of extra information about DHCP transactions.
log-dhcp

# Enable TFTP
enable-tftp

# Set the root directory for files available via FTP.
tftp-root=/tftpboot

# The boot filename, Server name, Server Ip Address
dhcp-boot=undionly.kpxe,,<fog_server_IP>

# Disable re-use of the DHCP servername and filename fields as extra
# option space. That's to avoid confusing some old or broken DHCP clients.
dhcp-no-override

# inspect the vendor class string and match the text to set the tag
dhcp-vendorclass=BIOS,PXEClient:Arch:00000

Then start dnsmasq

sudo systemctl start dnsmasq.service

Let me know how that works out for you.

[RogerBrownTDL]

@george1421 My ltsp file:

# Don't function as a DNS server:
port=0

# Log lots of extra information about DHCP transactions.
log-dhcp

# Enable TFTP 
enable-tftp <<<<<<I added this bit as per @brakcounty suggested from his config

# Set the root directory for files available via FTP.
tftp-root=/tftpboot

# The boot filename, Server name, Server Ip Address
dhcp-boot=undionly.kpxe,,192.168.15.251

# Disable re-use of the DHCP servername and filename fields as extra
# option space. That's to avoid confusing some old or broken DHCP clients.
dhcp-no-override

# inspect the vendor class string and match the text to set the tag
dhcp-vendorclass=BIOS,PXEClient:Arch:00000
dhcp-vendorclass=UEFI32,PXEClient:Arch:00006
dhcp-vendorclass=UEFI,PXEClient:Arch:00007
dhcp-vendorclass=UEFI64,PXEClient:Arch:00009

# Set the boot file name based on the matching tag from the vendor class (above)
dhcp-boot=net:UEFI32,i386-efi/ipxe.efi,,192.168.15.251
dhcp-boot=net:UEFI,ipxe.efi,,192.168.15.251
dhcp-boot=net:UEFI64,ipxe.efi,,192.168.15.251

# PXE menu.  The first part is the text displayed to the user.  The second is the timeout, in seconds.
pxe-prompt="Booting FOG Client", 1

# The known types are x86PC, PC98, IA64_EFI, Alpha, Arc_x86,
# Intel_Lean_Client, IA32_EFI, BC_EFI, Xscale_EFI and X86-64_EFI
# This option is first and will be the default if there is no input from the user.
pxe-service=X86PC, "Boot to FOG", undionly.kpxe
pxe-service=X86-64_EFI, "Boot to FOG UEFI", ipxe.efi
pxe-service=BC_EFI, "Boot to FOG UEFI PXE-BC", ipxe.efi

dhcp-range=192.168.15.251,proxy

[george1421]

@rogerbrowntdl said in UEFI PXE Boot - Pain:

 # Enable TFTP 
enable-tftp <<<<<<I added this bit as per @brakcounty suggested from his config

Yeah, lets go and take that out of your config file. FOG installs a tftp service where this setting will conflict. Go ahead and restart dnsmasq after that.

[DBCountMan]

@george1421 I had to disable tftpd and add that line to get it to serve ipxe.efi properly.

[george1421]

@brakcounty said in UEFI PXE Boot - Pain:

I had to disable tftpd and add that line to get it to serve ipxe.efi properly.

You shouldn’t need to. The built in tftp server does everything you need. There is one additional ltsp.conf setting that is used in rare instances that might have worked over using dnsmasq’s tftp server.

[RogerBrownTDL]

@george1421 bingo it’s started fine now

[DBCountMan]

@rogerbrowntdl Welp, sorry for misdirecting you!

[RogerBrownTDL]

@brakcounty Chill man, it’s all good… Not everyones setup is gonna be the same. Unfortunately i’ve inherited this network from someone who was far more technical than me but why he set the Watchguard as the DHCP server rather than… oh IDK… an actual DHCP server is beyond me. Meh, it is what it is (I hate that saying but it’s true I guess)

Will try PXE tomorrow and see what happens… It is strange though that dnsmasq was already there and configured but when we first set this up it just fell on its face and wouldn’t PXE any machine hence the need to add the options 66 and 67 to at least get it to PXE so I could put an image out. Fucking manufacturers removing the option for legacy boot is fine and I guess the nature of the IT beast is that nothing stands still for long but it is a proper pain in the arse unpicking stuff to make it work based on them.