Boot Dell XPS 12 to USB to Network card

[Psycholiquid]

OK trying to network boot a Dell XPS 12. This Laptop have no network cards aside from internal wireless and the docking station. Here is a list of the hardware in play for this:

Dell XPS 2
Dell D3000 Docking station
StarTech USB31000SPTB USB to Network Adapter

I have the laptop setup with Legacy Boot Mode: Secure Boot Off" as per Dell’s suggestions.

USB network still does not show in options to boot.

So my plan was to make a USB flash boot device that could see the USB to Network device and then talk to the FOG server an image that way. Using the site suggested from another post https://rom-o-matic.eu/

After setting all options form UEFI the Hardway. I tried and get a flash of the pic below and then it starts into windows:

In short just trying to get a USB boot that will pickup on the USB network card and then boot into FOG. Not sure if this is a non starter or not. I have tried with a few docking stations like Targus and StarTech and no dice so far.

[Wayne Workman]

@Psycholiquid Is what is pictured in the photo exactly where it hangs?

Also, does the network adapter show up if you put the laptop into UEFI mode ?

[Psycholiquid]

@Wayne-Workman Doesn’t hang there at all, goes past it really fast. I had to take the 50 picture in fast mode to get that.

And the network never shows up in the UEFI at all in the dell.

[Wayne Workman]

@Psycholiquid Ok. Can you take a video then, and upload it to youtube and post here? I’m curious what else shows up on the display. I often take videos to capture errors that blow by really fast.

[Psycholiquid]

I can, these are the only two things that post to the screen though. After this it tries going into the image of windows that is already installed.

[Wayne Workman]

@Psycholiquid Ok. What boot file are you using? This is option 067 on your DHCP server. What is running DHCP ?

[Tom Elliott]

So, this looks like it is indeed pxe booting.

However, it’s not getting to the point where it loads the drivers.

Maybe try the other efi labeled files?

[Psycholiquid]

@Wayne-Workman I was using the ipxe.efi file made by the other forum post replacing the IP. DHCP is coming from Windows DHCP server. Which is all working for all other functions of FOG.

[Psycholiquid]

@Tom-Elliott Directly from the FOG tftpboot folder?

[Psycholiquid]

@Wayne-Workman Heres the video:

https://youtu.be/xhgy31MCo3E

[Psycholiquid]

@Tom-Elliott So here is the USB and FOG server side by side. I tried moving the ipxe.efi file on the server to the flash drive and renaming. I got the same results as the website created one.

[Wayne Workman]

@Psycholiquid said:

@Tom-Elliott Directly from the FOG tftpboot folder?

Yes. But you don’t need to bother the files. Just change your DHCP Server’s option 067 and try others. Make sure you fully power off the laptop and then turn it back on before each test.

[Psycholiquid]

@Wayne-Workman Why would I change my DHCP options? Wouldnt that break the boot for all other machines?

[george1421]

I’m suspecting that since that nic is not showing up in the bios that it is not uefi compatible and uefi bootable.

It would be interesting to know if you inserted that usb ethernet adapter into a desktop computer that is in uefi mode and see if it shows up. Right now (in my mind) its not clear if the issue is the ipxe kernel, network adapter, or the xps 12 that is at fault. So if it was me I’d start changing one item at a time until you get to a working model.

I would first eliminate the xps 12. Take the usb ethernet adapter and the usb flash drive with the ipxe kernel from the tutorial, or even the one from fog and try to get the ipxe kernel to boot in uefi mode on another computer (like a desktop). This will test out uefi booting from that usb ethernet adapter. If that works then we can start focusing on the xps 12.

[Psycholiquid]

@george1421 Good call I am going to go try that now. I’ll report back with results.

[george1421]

really the only difference between the ipxe kernel from the tutorial and the official one from the fog server is where it gets the next server setting. If you look at the other uefi boot tutorial (easy way). In that one I just take the fog uefi boot kernel, move it to a flash drive and boot it. In that setup you have to key in the ip address of the fog server since it is not being provided by dhcp. There was a request to not have to key in the ip address of the fog server every time, that is what spurred me on to create the harder way.

[Wayne Workman]

@Psycholiquid said:

Why would I change my DHCP options? Wouldnt that break the boot for all other machines?

You can configure DHCP to support many boot files, and have it distribute those boot file options based on how hosts identify themselves. We have an article on it in the Wiki. https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=BIOS_and_UEFI_Co-Existence

But that’s for later. What George suggested is good advice.

[Psycholiquid]

@george1421 OK so I used a dell with EFI and I can see where the onboard NIC is working but the USB to Network never shows. This leads me to believe it is the USB NIC. I tried the same thing with docking station and I get the same results. I am thinking I need to find a USB NIC that will work with EFI. Any suggestions?

[george1421]

@Psycholiquid I’m out of the office today, so I can’t give feedback on the one and only usb ethernet adapter I have. I will do that tomorrow.

But my google-fu found this post which talks about the XPS 13 and usb booting. No definitive answer here either other that to use an older usb ethernet adapter. http://support.plugable.com/plugable/topics/can_i_use_a_usb_network_adapter_for_boot_time_pxe_scenarios

This post does confirm some of my suspicions about why this isn’t working.

[edit] found reference to StarTech USB21000S2 working still trying to confirm [edit]
[edit2] I’m finding more references to the above startech usb working at least in bios mode. The other thing I found interesting is that usb2 ports (black) work more successfully than usb3 ports (blue). [edit2]
[edit3] I did find this article that gives pretty good background inforamtion. http://www.johnwillis.com/2014/03/pxe-booting-using-usb-to-ethernet-dongle.html I do have a usb 2 adapter in my office, when I’m back tomorrow I will confirm for sure if it works with uefi mode on a dell laptop [edit3]

[Psycholiquid]

@george1421 Yeah I did some googling to on chip-sets of NIC and found the mot basic one gonna order it and see how it does: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00484IEJS/ref=cm_cd_asin_lnk