IPXE Menus for Booting Live OS

[Junkhacker]

just a random stab at this, but try this:
[CODE]:TRK
kernel ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/trk/kernel.trk
initrd ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/trk/initrd.trk
imgargs ramdisk_size=99700 root=/dev/ram0 vga=788 trknfs=192.168.10.86:/trk ip=::::::dhcp splash=verbose pci=conf1 trkmenu
boot ||
goto MENU[/CODE]

[need2]

Sadly no change. Let’s widen the scope then. I created the folder ‘trk’ and stuck the entire contents of the disk in there, just like I had done before. I then made sure the owner and permissions matched the rest of the folders and files that were already present in ‘ipxe’. I also then started an NFS mount for ‘/trk’. Did I miss anything there?

[Tom Elliott]

Remove imgargs and put the imgargs info on the same line as your kernel so it will look like:
[code]:TRK
kernel ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/trk/kernel.trkramdisk_size=99700 root=/dev/ram0 vga=788 trknfs=192.168.10.86:/trk ip=::::::dhcp splash=verbose pci=conf1 trkmenu
initrd ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/trk/initrd.trk
boot ||
goto MENU
[/code]

[need2]

Sadly still the same result. I have tried putting some options in for it to fail out to a shell, but iPXE never goes to the shell. If for some reason iPXE could not see the kernel or initrd, would it just crash out to the previous menu?

[Tom Elliott]

can you provide your full advanced config?

[need2]

menu
item --gap – ---------------- iPXE boot menu ----------------
item SEATOOLS Seatools for DOS
item TRK Trinity Rescue Kit
item hostinfo Computer Details
item shell ipxe shell
item return return to previous menu
choose --default return --timeout 5000 target && goto ${target}

:SEATOOLS
initrd ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/seatoolsdos223all.iso
chain ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/memdisk iso raw ||
goto MENU

:TRK
kernel ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/trk/kernel.trk ramdisk_size=99700 root=/dev/ram0 vga=788 trknfs=192.168.10.86:/trk ip=::::::dhcp splash=verbose pci=conf1 trkmenu
initrd ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/trk/initrd.trk
boot ||
goto MENU

:hostinfo
echo This computer : ||
echo MAC address…${net0/mac} ||
echo IP address…${ip} ||
echo Netmask…${netmask} ||
echo Serial…${serial} ||
echo Asset number…${asset} ||
echo Manufacturer…${manufacturer} ||
echo Product…${product} ||
echo BIOS platform…${platform} ||
echo ||
echo press any key to return to Menu ||
prompt
goto MENU

:shell
shell ||
goto MENU

:return
chain http://${fog-ip}/${fog-webroot}/service/ipxe/boot.php?mac=${net0/mac} ||
prompt
goto MENU

autoboot[/CODE]

[Tom Elliott]

I think it’s the placement of your prompt in the :return stanzas. Also, which version of FOG are you running, SVN, 1.0.1, 1.1.0?

[need2]

FOG 1.1.0 SVN 1800
Debian 7.5

And as per the prompt, I can believe I did something wrong, but what is the correct placement?

[Tom Elliott]

I’d think:
[code]:return
chain http://${fog-ip}/${fog-webroot}/service/ipxe/boot.php?mac=${net0/mac} || prompt && goto MENU
[/code]

[Junkhacker]

the prompt placement doesn’t look wrong to me
the prompt command just waits to proceed to the next line until a key has been pressed.

[need2]

Alright, progress. I got it to go to shell and give me the following error when trying to access the kernel:

[url]http://ipxe.org/err/410c61[/url]

Which means its a 403, or forbidden. Apparently I didn’t get the permissions correct. I will have to give it another run. What permissions would you suggest for this?

[Junkhacker]

[quote=“need2, post: 29941, member: 21891”]Sadly still the same result. I have tried putting some options in for it to fail out to a shell, but iPXE never goes to the shell. If for some reason iPXE could not see the kernel or initrd, would it just crash out to the previous menu?[/quote]

that depends on what you mean by “previous menu”
the
[CODE]<attempt a boot command> ||
goto MENU[/CODE]
is there specifically to make it go back to the top of the advanced menu

[need2]

By previous menu, I meant the default FOG menu. It would step me back out of the Advanced Menu and back to the Default FOG Menu. I think that part is fixed now, and it looks like my problems are all permissions now. I’m still a bit linux-tarded, so that might take me a bit to get right.

[Tom Elliott]

Probably try:
[code]chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/fog/service/ipxe[/code]

[Junkhacker]

a troubleshooting techniquie that i’ve used for ipxe menus is going line-by-line in this format
[CODE]:SEATOOLS
initrd ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/seatoolsdos223all.iso || prompt
chain ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/memdisk iso raw || prompt
boot || prompt
other command that might fail || prompt
goto MENU[/CODE]

this will prompt you to hit a key on any line that it fails

[Junkhacker]

i mention this, because that would have shown you why it was failing to the previous menu
one of your lines was failing, and crashing to previous menu, due to a failure to execute a line, because of a permissions problem

[need2]

I needed to do:

[CODE]chmod -R 755 /var/www/fog/service/ipxe/trk[/CODE]

I’m getting an access issue now within the TRK kernel. That is probable an issue with my NFS share… either I didn’t mount it right or there are some other places that permissions reside for NFS shares. Doing some digging of my own, but I always appreciate freebies.

[Tom Elliott]

[S]Are you sure it’s not just a ramdisk size limitation? Right now it’s set to 127MB, maybe up the value if you have spare ram and all have the same amount?[/S]

Nevermind, I’m an idiot…

[need2]

Just touching base on this one. I continued to have difficulties with the NFS share, so I just cheated and used the Windows Server NFS share I used way back when I was using a hijacked WDS server for my PXE server. Its working like that, but I would like to be able to stop relying on that server before it goes end-of-life. So any suggestions on what permissions and such I should have on the NFS share for the TRK boot folder would be appreciated.

[Tom Elliott]

is /trk (or the location referring to it) on the exports file? Just a thought.