Debian 8, Fog trunk, PXELinux on MS Server and MS DHCP help

FlowLive

Thanks everyone for the input, though it’s kind of heading in all sorts of direction and I am not quite there yet.

Anyone could elaborate on why PXELinux could not chain to iPXE?
Is it because of a broken chainload in syslinux? Simply not doable…?
It’s almost working for me with chainload but using ipxe.krn from Fog is not getting the address as opposed to ipxe.krn from the ipxe.iso, so I can’t help but think that it’s getting so close, at this point if I had ipxe.krn knowing the address of the fog server all would be needed is the imaging working and I would be set… i think…
What does Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(1,0) Kernel Offset: disabled... mean when trying to image?

Other unanswered questions;

Is there some changelog we can refer to for svn changes or we have to see every single commits in Git to see what has been changed?
Also when I do a pull from Git, the installer asks to go to the management page to update the database but I never see this happening, is it needed?
Finally, after an update, is there a need to restart services or the computer?

Sebastian Roth

@george1421 You should be able to use ${next-server} (set by iPXE when requesting this information via DHCP). See my post here: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/5754/storageip-parameter-in-pxe-menu/8

Wayne Workman

@FlowLive said:

Is there some changelog we can refer to for svn changes or we have to see every single commits in Git to see what has been changed?

Best place to look in my opinion is the SourceForge page on the project:
http://sourceforge.net/p/freeghost/code/HEAD/tree/
There is also a history area:
http://sourceforge.net/p/freeghost/code/4380/log/?path=/trunk
and a commit browser:
http://sourceforge.net/p/freeghost/code/commit_browser

Also when I do a pull from Git, the installer asks to go to the management page to update the database but I never see this happening, is it needed?

Sometimes. On newer trunk revisions you can use the -y argument for the installer to automatically update the DB for you like this: ./installfog.sh -y

Finally, after an update, is there a need to restart services or the computer?

Normally, no. The installer does this for you.

FlowLive

Thanks Wayne!

So I am back at testing, so I put ipxe.krn from the Fog server in my PXELinux and it asks for the ipaddress.
Then I get to the Fog menu and see my pc is already registered, choose Quick Image and I get a message ;

http://x.x.x.x/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php... ok
No Images on server found

Then it brings me back to the Fog menu and if I choose boot to hard drive I get a whole bunch of text output mainly saying about MEMDISK: bootstrap too large to load…

george1421

@FlowLive First let me apologize for hijacking this thread a bit. But in the end I think I have a workable solution for your environment to allow you to run FOG along side MDT. I understand what you are trying to do by chaining FOG and MDT/WDS. Wayne has provided a way for you to mesh WDS and FOG into a pxelinux boot menu here.
http://www.vcritical.com/2011/06/peaceful-coexistence-wds-and-linux-pxe-servers/

And in my case I have worked out a way to launch a MDT install from the FOG pxe boot menu. This would allow you to launch and install MDT as you do today, but though FOG. It would provide a smooth transition path from MDT deployment to eventually a FOG deployment.

I’m going to say this with the most sincerity. The path you are on is kind of a waste of time to building your own kernel. You can do it that way if you want, but there are now documented ways to get it done without having to mess with syslinux. One of the issues with PXELinux (at least the last time I looked at it) was it only supports tftp booting and all the restrictions round that. Where iPXE can use other boot methods like http. Now if you use ipxe for your boot loader then chaining would work better. Then you could chain to fog using something like a call to

kernel ipxe.krn dhcp && chain http://<fog_ip_address>/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php?mac=${net0/mac}

(stolen from the fog pxe default configuration)

FlowLive

Yes I have seen the vcritical.com article but this is for launching pxelinux and not ipxe(fog) or am i just really confused?
I don’t quite understand why some of you see what I am trying to do as being building my own kernel… I use what’s provided without compiling anything.

I have just asked to have permissions given to me to play in the DHCP sevrer and will certainly try this, but it sorta sucks being so close!

FYI syslinux 6.03 supports tftp, http and ftp!

When I use kernel ipxe.krn dhcp && chain http://<fog_ip_address>/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php?mac=${net0/mac} from my PXELinux (syslinux 6.03) i get to the Fog server but I have to input the ip address of it to get there and imaging does not work with “No Images found on server” message. If i use ipxe.krn from the ipxe.iso on ipxe.org It chains properly to the Fog server but the layout seems more TUI without the white Fog background. This makes me think the problem might be with the ipxe.krn file alone… The other possible problem is that I have read that being on windows I should be using escaped slahes instead in my ipxe chain call… confused, confused

You think this will be resolved by having my DHCP using undionly pointing to Fog instead?
Because I cannot remove from the equation yet that I am using Debian 8.2 with trunk release…
If I am able to get to Fog, shoudnt I be able to Image just fine and be able to boot to local drive?

FlowLive

@george1421 So is there no way of simple have Fog ipxe chain to WDS pxe?

I’m scratching my head as this seems possible… how did you do it?

I will be starting to play around and change the DHCP options 66 and 67 now…

Should I bother with iphelper at all?

george1421

As I mentioned before, I haven’t use WDS. Can you answer what do you need to enter in options 66 and 67 to make WDS work?

Can we make fog chain to WDS probably.

Can I make FOG boot the MDT lighttouch image (which your deploying with WDS), yes.

george1421

I’m going to take a SWAG at it.

If you go into FOG settings and add a new PXE Menu item, and enter these settings.

Menu Item: wds.BootIt
Description: Launch WDS Boot x86
Parameters:
set wdsserver:ipv4 <ip_addr_wds_server>
set next-server ${wdsserver}
chain tftp://${wdsserver}/Boot\x86\wdsnbp.com

In the example above replace <ip_addr_wds_server> with the real IP address of your wds server. Then PXE boot your client and see if it chains correctly.

FlowLive

@george1421 Great I will try this as soon as my image capture is done!
One problem I find so far is 1st option set to boot 1st hdd is actually booting memtest!?
If I choose memtest it also boots memtest.

I have read anything yet for image creation but I was under the impression that doing quick image from the menu would launch an image creation process but insstead tells me theres no image on the server and comes back to the menu.
Is this because I had no image yet or that pc was in no group?

FlowLive

Menu Item: wds.BootIt
Description: Launch WDS Boot x86
Parameters:
set wdsserver:ipv4 <ip_addr_wds_server>
set next-server ${wdsserver}
chain tftp://${wdsserver}/Boot\x86\wdsnbp.com

No boot options?

Sebastian Roth

Quick image means pushing an image to the client. If there is no image on the server it cannot be deployed to the client.

george1421

@FlowLive No boot option: ?? I said it was a guess.

But that should build the FOG PXE menu correctly for chaining. Since the documentation for the new fog pxe menu management is not written yet, I could only try to reverse engineer what the fields are and what they do to the pxe menu. It should work, but no promises.

george1421

The typical workflow for a fully configured but blank FOG server is this

Before you build your reference image, pxe boot your reference image computer (VM) into the FOG pxe menu and select full registration. Enter the computer name and any other parameters necessary and submit the registration to the FOG server.
Reboot the reference image computer and then build your reference image.
Once your reference image is built then sysprep and power off your reference image.
From the FOG menu locate the reference image computer that you registered before and setup a upload task to capture the image from the reference computer. Don’t forget to check the box to power off the reference computer after the capture is done.
PXE boot the reference computer and the upload will begin automatically. Once the upload is done the reference computer will power off. Set this aside for now.
PXE boot your first target computer into the FOG menu and register it. Once it is registered you can select quick image to download the captured image to the first target computer.
Fine tune and repeat.

FlowLive

Took longer than expected, had the FOGFTP error and had to fix that.

Now I try the option in the menu but unfortunately all I got is a blinking cursor

george1421

@FlowLive said:

Took longer than expected, had the FOGFTP error and had to fix that.

Now I try the option in the menu but unfortunately all I got is a blinking cursor

crud, I just noticed that the forum ate some of my command line. Lets try it as code. You have to pay attention to the double forward and back slashes.

Menu Item: wds.BootIt
Description: Launch WDS Boot x86
Parameters:
set wdsserver:ipv4 192.168.1.88
set next-server ${wdsserver}
chain tftp://${wdsserver}/Boot\\x86\\wdsnbp.com

The slowness in the forum is driving me a bit nuts today. Its taking me almost 12 minutes to post this.

FlowLive

Yeah for some reason it seems this is the only site where I experience slowliness to a point that I have to close my browser and reopen…
After it’s all back to normal !

FlowLive

@george1421 So I was able to get something with this code, took the steps first as per
http://ipxe.org/appnote/chainload_wds to add different
boot/*
boot*
/boot/*
\boot*
/boot*
parameters in the WDS server’s registry…

I now get this;

Downloaded WDSNBP...

Architecture: x64
WDSNBP started using DHCP Referral.
Contacting Server: x.x.x.x (Gateway: 0.0.0.0)..
No response from Windows Deployment Services server.
Launching pxeboot.com...
TFTP download failed

Getting close! Any idea? I did restart WDS service after changing the registry, as per http://ipxe.org/appnote/chainload_wds
The contact server ip is valid but I wonder about the gateway being all 0.0.0.0

george1421

@FlowLive

Looking and the chain load link that you sent. I did see this reference

  set netX/next-server ip.of.wds.server
  imgexec tftp://${netX/next-server}/boot/x86/wdsnbp.com

What I think I might have missed is in my guess is setting the network adapter 0:

set wdsserver:ipv4 192.168.1.88
set net0/next-server ${wdsserver}

Its interesting that the chain does work (kind of) that it does gram the wdsnnp.com file, but there is something in the referral that its missing to continue.

FlowLive

@george1421 Well with this one you just sent I still get a blinking cursor (I added /boot/x86/wdsnbp.com)

This is what worked:

set wdsserver:ipv4 <ip_addr_wds_server>
set next-server ${wdsserver}
chain tftp://${wdsserver}/Boot\x86\wdsnbp.com

Funny thing is just changing to forward slashes after Boot and x86 brings back the blinking cursor… thought the changes to the registry was especially for that…

Anyhow, now I tried;

set wdsserver:ipv4 x.x.x.x
set net0/next-server ${wdsserver}
chain tftp://${wdsserver}/Boot\x86\wdsnbp.com

It Works!!!

Got my PXE Menu showing, got to WDS, booted the wim file!

This is great! Thanks a bunch!

Debian 8, Fog trunk, PXELinux on MS Server and MS DHCP help

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