FOG 33b - installation - HP Elite 8300 SFF

[Tom Elliott]

Probably still necessary. I don’t have a definitive answer because this varies per system.

[Alistair]

I have also tried one of the new HP clients. It does not find the pxe file either.

[Wolfbane8653]

Please make sure you listen to Tom FIRST!

Sometimes after a restart you need to restart the tftp service.

[CODE]sudo restart tftpd-hpa[/CODE]

Edit:
Also, use the ip address of the fogserver for option 66.

[Alistair]

Thanks Junkhacker, I forgot to put in a DNS reference to fogserver.
Now PXE is working on the old HP
The registration works.
But now when the PC is rebooted, and I don’t touch anything, when it defaults past the FOG options, whilst the FOG pxe page is still visible, I see:

“Booting from SAN device 0x80”

and it freezes there. Nothing I press takes me further …

I have not set an imaging task or anything like that.

I’ll try the new HP and get back to you.

[Junkhacker]

SAN device 0x80 is the local hard disk. is there a valid OS on the drive?

[Alistair]

Ubuntu 12.04.4

[Junkhacker]

i mean on the client that is pxe booting, not the server

[Wolfbane8653]

This post is deleted!

[Alistair]

I have just changed the boot order on the client with Ubuntu 12, to boot straight to the HD and Ubuntu booted as expected.
The harddisk is not corrupt.

It’s definitely the fog pxe file creating the problem.

[Alistair]

Just to explain, I want to put Ubuntu 12 on all the old HP PCs as a way of both erasing the hard drives and also making it possible for the parents in the school to have a free linux PC if they want, instead of throwing them away.

But the real priority is getting the new Windows 8.1 HP clients deployed.

[Wolfbane8653]

:eek: side stepped us there lol. so [U]Client is Ubuntu 12.04.4[/U]

[Junkhacker]

i’m not sure why it is failing to boot to the hard drive of the computer after ipxe loads, but fog appears to be working properly. I would actually be willing to bet that if you took an image of the computer, then imaged it again with fog, it would work fine when not pxe booting. fog is typically used on windows clients, but many people have it working on linux as well.

[Tom Elliott]

sanboot --no-describe --drive 0x80 is the line in BootMenu.class.php that deals with how to pass to the harddrive. That said, not all systems like this method. If your systems are freezing. Try changing those lines to just say: exit.

Thank you,

[Junkhacker]

a bit of research says that this is likely a hardware/firmware specific bug that occurs a lot on HP machines

[Junkhacker]

Tom, do you think it would be a good idea to change that line from [CODE]sanboot --no-describe --drive 0x80 || goto MENU[/CODE] to [CODE]sanboot --no-describe --drive 0x80 || exit[/CODE] or would that not work, since it sounds like it may lock up on the first bit

[Alistair]

Interesting comments and advice.

But to the real priority now: All the new PCs are HP Elite 8300.
Most are USDT (ultra slim) and some are SFF (Small form format).

The BIOS in the SFF model allows the use of legacy network boot.
As I had hoped, it worked almost perfectly and I registered the client.
But note that the FOG pxe option window went past in a split second.
I had to reboot to catch it again. It was VERY fast. How can I slow that down?

The USDT did not work. I have already had a long back and forth with Experts Exchange on how to get the network boot to work.
There are 2 ways.

1 - UEFI boot options: IP4 Network boot at the top of the list.
I never saw any sign of the FOG page. It waited for the pxe file for a short time and then booted to windows.

[Junkhacker]

the PXE boot menu configuration page allows you to choose how long the menu shows up

[Alistair]

2 - Deactivate UEFI and then legacy pxe boot works but then after the timeout period (when fogserver is offline) it tries to boot further to the internal harddisk and gives an error message “GPT-formatted disk. Legacy boot not supported”.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Here is the the description I sent to Experts Exchange:

One group are USDT (ultra slim desktop). The other are SFF (small form factor).
All have the same latest BIOS. I have installed Win 8.1 Enterprise on one of each model in the same way. Before I installed Win 8.1 I deleted all partitions and allowed Win 8.1 to create its own 3 partitions:
300MB Recovery,
100MB EFI-system,

PXE Boot works on the SFF, but not on the USDT. I should say that the FOG imaging server which provides the PXE boot file is turned off. What I see on the 2 clients is that the SFF is clearly trying to find the PXE boot file for a while before booting further to the internal harddisk. The USDT makes no attempt to locate the PXE file. It just boots straight into the internal harddisk.

They have a slightly different BIOS Boot Order list. Here is the USDT:

UEFI Boot Sources

• Windows Boot Manager
• Atapi CD/DVD
• USB HD
• USB floppy/CD

Legacy Boot Sources
-Network Controller
-Hard drive
—Sata0
—USB Hard Drive

• USB floppy/cd

This list is identical on the SFF except for “Windows Boot Manager”
“Windows Boot Manager” is missing on the SFF which has no problem PXE-booting.

If I disable “Windows Boot Manager” on the USDT, then it attempts to PXE boot (fantastic), but then after a while it tries to boot further to the internal harddisk and gives an error message “GPT-formatted disk. Legacy boot not supported”. I have no idea what this means or how to get PXE working without getting this GPT problem.

Both BIOSes have:
SATA emulation: AHCI
Network boot: enabled
Secure Boot configuration: Legacy support:“enabled”, Secure boot:“disabled”
Remote wakeup boot source: Remote Server
NIC PXE option ROM download: PXE
Option ROM launch Policy - PXE Option ROMS: “Legacy Only” (can be UEFI Only)

[Alistair]

PXE timeout is now 10 seconds which gives plenty of time on the legacy network boot on the SFF, but makes no difference for the UEFI network boot on the USDT.

[Junkhacker]

it sounds to me like it would work if you wiped the drive and installed windows under legacy boot options.