no viable mac - new server - 1.5.10

[C.Franklin]

After successfully setting up and configuring iPXE and FOG, we encountered an issue while attempting to register hosts using either the “full” or “quick” registration methods. The error message “no viable mac” was generated in both cases. However, when we utilized the “Check compatibility” option on the PXE menu and selected option 6 to display the MAC address, it correctly showed the only MAC address available. Additionally, selecting option 2 for “Network Information” displayed “eno2” with the correct DHCP-assigned address.

Here are the specifications of the server:

• Operating System: Debian 11.7 (fresh installation)
• FOG Version: 1.5.10 (fresh installation)

We tested the registration issue on the following client devices:

• Dell laptops (models: 5570, 5580, and 5591) when undocked
• Proxmox virtual machine with ethernet types: Intel e1000, VMware, Realtek, and Vitro
• VMware virtual machines with both ethernet types: VMware and Intel e1000

[Sebastian Roth]

@C-Franklin Not sure I have ever seen this error message. Can you post a picture?

Would you be able to test with more different computer models?

[C.Franklin]

@Sebastian-Roth

And along those lines, we have tired other hardware Lenovo Legions, Think pads, other dells. All with the same error message.

PS. Here is a video showing the boot sequence : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRHff9wiWNc

[C.Franklin]

Any thoughts on this ? Or where we should look next ?

[Tom Elliott]

@C-Franklin Do you know if the machine is using UEFI or MBR style boot process?

Is the BIOS configured to pass the NIC appropriately? (Legacy Enabled?)

This being a VM makes things a little difficult to troubleshoot off the getgo, but we normally don’t see too many issues, so this information would be useful.

[C.Franklin]

@Sebastian-Roth
Any thoughts ?

[george1421]

@C-Franklin Manually register this target computer. You will need the mac address of the target computer then add a new host with that mac address. Now schedule a deployment, but before you hit the submit button tick the debug check box then submit the job.

Now pxe boot the target computer, it should go into imaging right away (I want to see if iPXE is detecting the mac address). If it goes into imaging after several screens of text tat you need to clear with the enter key you will be dropped the FOS Linux command prompt you may still see the no viable mac address error, but that’s OK for now.

Once at the FOS linux command prompt I want you to key in the following commands. After the last command it keyed in take a clear picture of the screen and post the results to this thread.

uname -a
lspci -nn | grep -i net
grep -i firmware /var/log/syslog

I can never remember of its /var/log/syslog or /var/log/messages so YMMV.

On this target computer find one of the same model that has windows installed. In the device manager check this nic and collect the hardware ID of the nic. We will need the vendor and device IDs in case the lspci command doesn’t return anything usable.

[C.Franklin]

@Tom-Elliott

It’s not just virtual machines, it’s every device listed above or that we’ve tried using fog with.

[C.Franklin]

@Tom-Elliott

It’s every device we’ve tired. We’ve tired both UEFI and MBR. iPXE booting is working with everything else we have and is able to utilize the NIC just fine.

Dropping down to the CLI, the OS can see and list the mac addresses just fine. It appears that it’s just however FOGs init/boot is looking at or for the MAC address is the issue.