local GRUB booting fails from FOG-Menu (PXE-UEFI)

[medchemii]

Hi,
I’m trying to setup FOG for a 30 PC computer pool. I installed Ubuntu 22.04 and captured and deployed it successfully. Everything is working except for the automatic boot of the deployed System from the PXE-FOG-Menu (3 seconds timeout). It starts refind and GRUB comes up (like when directly starting from UEFI-BIOS). But then it panics with “Initramfs unpacking failed: Invalid magic at start of compressed archive” (see pictures). I can start the system directly (by changing Boot-order) but this is not what I want (because this would mean pressing F12 on each PC when deploying an image ;-( ).
It is a recent UEFI-system (Dell Optiplex 5090). UEFI-Boot ist the only option (no CSM-Boot available anymore).
It seems that it can’t find any harddisk at all, when coming from PXE (is the NVME not initialized from BIOS?)

Any hint ?

[thomGee]

@medchemii Just to make feel better - You are not alone !
I‘ve got the same problem. I do start an computerpool of 30 PC‘s for dualboot per refind in fog with pxe
This worked like a charm until maybe 3 weeks ago, after an update.

Exactly as you say: Booting via UEFI-Menu direkt from disk is no problem. From refind (I even tried several versions) via PXE - no way.
I am sure it comes from the update, as i restored an old image and everything is fine. After the update - my adrenaline rises… !

Also, the recommended solution for this Error (w/o PXE-boot) to rebuild the initramfs and update-grub has no result in our case

I think it must have to do something with GRUB.
Therfore I‘ve been looking to boot in refind directly from disk without grub. But no luck yet. Maybe I‘ve just not found the right way to set the
Menuentry and how to get an appropriate efi without grub
But if someone has an idea, I‘d be thankfull too!!!

Meanwhile I explore and tell whatever is usefull…

[george1421]

@thomGee Instead of rEFUnd lets try mode EXIT.

Prior to version 1.5.10 there was a bug in exit. I hope it was fixed in 1.5.10 (I don’t remember the change log at the moment).

I am a bit confused because FOG 1.5.10 and 1.5.9 are basically the same in this area with maybe the exception that refind was updated to the latest release.

If there is still is still a bug in EXIT, I’ll look up the patch and we will recompile ipxe with the patch.

In regards to FOG and UEFI. FOG and iPXE chain calls refind to manage booting to the hard drive. We (you) might need to make some adjustments to the refind.conf file on the fog server to correct this behavior, I don’t know what might need to be changed at the moment.

One last bit, don’t use FOG’s grub exit modes, those are only for bios based computers and will fall flat if you try to use them with uefi.

[medchemii]

@george1421
Thanks for your answer. I tried EXIT (I’m running version 1.5.10 of FOG) and got into a “Boot-Fail-Menu”: F1 - Retry Boot; F2 Enter Setup; F3 … or the System Check right after deploying the image.

But … on the second Boot it worked and from thereon without problems !
Thank you very much - that helped a lot ! Step by step I’m getting closer to my new computerpool management system

[medchemii]

@thomGee I was thinking about exchanging refind too - but as I’m new to this whole overcomplex UEFI-rubbish (I was running my computerpool with legacy-PXE for 15 years without any problems but now manufacturer dropped this completely in favor of UEFI) I didn’t dare to open a new construction site on this place.

[thomGee]

@george1421 i‘ll try this tomorrow, but I hope, that I still may use the configs in refind, as i used the option to boot different OS on different hours after reboot (ex. win on daytime linux at night, or for course 1 (Linux) 08:00-12:00 and course 2 (Windows) 12:15 to 16:00)

And this managed centralised on the fog-server

[thomGee]

Unfortunately, it is not working!
I am not sure where to look at for further errors.
Any ideas! But for now - happy easter!

@george1421 said in local GRUB booting fails from FOG-Menu (PXE-UEFI):

@thomGee Instead of rEFUnd lets try mode EXIT.
Prior to version 1.5.10 there was a bug in exit. I hope it was fixed in 1.5.10 (I don’t remember the change log at the moment).
I am a bit confused because FOG 1.5.10 and 1.5.9 are basically the same in this area with maybe the exception that refind was updated to the latest release.
If there is still is still a bug in EXIT, I’ll look up the patch and we will recompile ipxe with the patch.
In regards to FOG and UEFI. FOG and iPXE chain calls refind to manage booting to the hard drive. We (you) might need to make some adjustments to the refind.conf file on the fog server to correct this behavior, I don’t know what might need to be changed at the moment.
One last bit, don’t use FOG’s grub exit modes, those are only for bios based computers and will fall flat if you try to use them with uefi.

[fhwedel-hoe]

Hi all

@thomGee said:

But if someone has an idea, I‘d be thankfull too!

We encountered exactly the same issue at my place of work. A colleague of mine found out that local boot works with GRUB Version 2.06-13 as supplied by Debian “bookworm”. We were able to insert those packages into our Ubuntu. So far, it works without issues.

Hope this helps
Hermann