How to: Modify the PXE boot menu to allow the booting of .iso files

[ssx4life]

@ Joshua thank you for the kind words, I’m glad the tutorial was easy to follow.

If you have trouble with TRK please try the new version. I’ve seen other users with FOG getting it to work fine (example - [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=B8q5NtXbBGA#t=238s[/url] )

[bradgillap]

I tried the new TRK but it didn’t work either using the ISO method in this thread.

I’m trying to get HDAT working using your method but it tries to fall back to the cdrom drive. I have seen other people have had HDAT2 in their PXE menus around the web but it has some sort of weird extention with a .imz I think.

Do you have any sage wisdom on how i could get HDAT working in my install?

[ssx4life]

i’ve personally never used hdat2, so I can’t say from experience.

But going off the .imz extension, it can be PXE booted ( as can .img) Look here for help - [url]http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/one-pxe-menu-unite-them-all-dos-linux-winpe[/url]

edit - more default file examples here - [url]http://mrguitar.net/wiki/index.php/PXE_Menu[/url]

The default file shows the .imz file (which is uncompressed to my understanding).

Play around with the default file on this program, i’m sure you’ll find a way to make it work.

note
To quickly test changes and make new apps work with Fog on the PXE boot menu I suggest that you use a virtual machine to pxe boot the equipment as shown in my video. Just make sure you have the NIC’s set to linked / bridged using the actual device. If something doesn’t work just stop the VM, edit the default file right in the FTP client like shown in the video, upload the changes, and try again.

good luck, and if you get it to work [B]PLEASE[/B] humor us and document it on the wiki or a KB article!

[ssx4life]

As for TRK look here - [url]http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34477[/url]

p.s. google is your friend

I don’t have time to build and test these software packages due to my work schedule, but looking at the articles they seem rather cut+ dry and straight forward. Jump to part 3 of the guide for AV tools / etc.

[bradgillap]

Thank you for the links, I haven’t seen these yet. I do have quite a few different images and tools working on my server right now. I wasn’t sure if adding bootable media for fog to the wiki was frowned upon because there is such a lack of articles geared towards them at the moment.

I have some time off this Canadian long weekend and I have lots of experience in wiki writing. I’ll create a page for all of the bootable media that I have gotten to work using different methods I have found around the web.

[A Former User]

Hi everyone,

I’ve modified the PXE menu and have Hiren’s working fine, but now I want to do submenus -I know it’s possible because I’ve seen it in YouTube-. Does anyone know how to do this?

Thank you very much!

[ssx4life]

Remember that when you PXE boot using FOG it is using syslinux. This will point you in the right direction - [url]http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Comboot/menu.c32[/url]

[A Former User]

Thank you, ssx4life, that was exactly what I was looking for. I’m going to do submenus like rescue tools, operating systems, tasks, etc.

[joshua]

I am interested to hear how it works out for you… I might do something similar.

[ssx4life]

If you get this functionality working, please document it in a KB article or on the wiki.

thanks

[A Former User]

I’ve made something simple as creating a sub-menu and going back to main menu. Notice that you can change sub-menu title and background (and others) by including those parameters inside it. Of course, you can create sub-sub-menus, but this is an easy example.
In bold, the original text, and in red the added lines:

[B]DEFAULT vesamenu.c32[/B]
[B]MENU TITLE FOG Computer Cloning Solution[/B]
[B]MENU BACKGROUND fog/bg.png[/B]
[B]MENU MASTER PASSWD $1$0123456789[/B]
[B]\n[/B]
[B]menu color title 1;36;44 #ffffffff #00000000 std[/B]
[B]\n[/B]
[B]LABEL fog.local[/B]
[B]localboot 0[/B]
[B]MENU DEFAULT[/B]
[B]MENU LABEL Boot from hard disk[/B]
[B]TEXT HELP[/B]
[B]Boot from the local hard drive.[/B]
[B]If you are unsure, select this option.[/B]
[B]ENDTEXT[/B]
[B]\n[/B]
[B]LABEL fog.memtest[/B]
[B]kernel fog/memtest/memtest[/B]
[B]MENU LABEL Run Memtest86+[/B]
[B]TEXT HELP[/B]
[B]Run Memtest86+ on the client computer.[/B]
[B]ENDTEXT[/B]
[B]\n[/B]
[B]LABEL fog.reg[/B]
[B]kernel fog/kernel/bzImage[/B]
[B]append initrd=fog/images/init.gz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=127000 ip=dhcp dns=192.168.2.1 mode=autoreg web=192.168.2.115/fog/ loglevel=4[/B]
[B]MENU LABEL Quick Host Registration and Inventory[/B]
[B]TEXT HELP[/B]
[B]Automatically register the client computer,[/B]
[B]and perform a hardware inventory.[/B]
[B]ENDTEXT[/B]
[B]\n[/B]
[B]LABEL fog.reginput[/B]
[B]kernel fog/kernel/bzImage[/B]
[B]append initrd=fog/images/init.gz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=127000 ip=dhcp dns=192.168.2.1 mode=manreg web=192.168.2.115/fog/ loglevel=4[/B]
[B]MENU LABEL Perform Full Host Registration and Inventory[/B]
[B]TEXT HELP[/B]
[B]Perform a full host registration on the client[/B]
[B]computer, perform a hardware inventory, and[/B]
[B]optionally image the host.[/B]
[B]ENDTEXT[/B]
[B]\n[/B]
[B]LABEL fog.quickimage[/B]
[B]MENU PASSWD $1$0123456789[/B]
[B]kernel fog/kernel/bzImage[/B]
[B]append initrd=fog/images/init.gz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=127000 ip=dhcp dns=192.168.2.1 mode=quickimage keymap= web=192.168.2.115/fog/ loglevel=4[/B]
[B]MENU LABEL Quick Image[/B]
[B]TEXT HELP[/B]
[B]This mode will allow you to image this host quickly with[/B]
[B]it’s default assigned image.[/B]
[B]ENDTEXT[/B]
[B]\n[/B]
[B]LABEL fog.sysinfo[/B]
[B]kernel fog/kernel/bzImage[/B]
[B]append initrd=fog/images/init.gz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=127000 ip=dhcp dns=192.168.2.1 mode=sysinfo loglevel=4[/B]
[B]MENU LABEL Client System Information[/B]
[B]TEXT HELP[/B]
[B]View basic client information such as MAC address[/B]
[B]and FOG compatibility.[/B]
[B]ENDTEXT[/B]

[B]LABEL fog.debug[/B]
[B]MENU PASSWD $1$0123456789[/B]
[B]kernel fog/kernel/bzImage[/B]
[B]append initrd=fog/images/init.gz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=127000 ip=dhcp dns=192.168.2.1 mode=onlydebug[/B]
[B]MENU LABEL Debug Mode[/B]
[B]TEXT HELP[/B]
[B]Debug mode will load the boot image and load a prompt so[/B]
[B]you can run any commands you wish.[/B]
[B]ENDTEXT[/B]

[COLOR=#ff0000][B]MENU BEGIN Rescue tools[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]MENU LABEL Rescue tools[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]MENU TITLE FOG Computer Cloning Solution[/B][/COLOR]

[COLOR=#ff0000][B]LABEL Back[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]MENU EXIT[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]MENU LABEL Back[/B][/COLOR]

[COLOR=#ff0000][B]LABEL Hirens[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]kernel fog/hirens/memdisk[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]append iso initrd=fog/dell/MyHirensBootCD.iso raw[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]MENU LABEL Hiren’s Boot CD[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]TEXT HELP[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]Run Hiren’s Boot CD[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]ENDTEXT[/B][/COLOR]

[COLOR=#ff0000][B]LABEL Dell Diagnostics[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]kernel fog/dell/memdisk[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]append iso initrd=fog/dell/delldiags.iso raw[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]MENU LABEL Dell Diagnostics[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]TEXT HELP[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]Dell Diagnostic software[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#ff0000][B]ENDTEXT[/B][/COLOR]

[COLOR=#ff0000][B]MENU END[/B][/COLOR]

[B]\n[/B]
[B]PROMPT 0[/B]
[B]TIMEOUT 300\n[/B]

[B][ATTACH=full]62[/ATTACH][/B]
[B] [ATTACH=full]63[/ATTACH][/B]

[url=“/_imported_xf_attachments/0/62_FOG main menu.png?:”]FOG main menu.png[/url][url=“/_imported_xf_attachments/0/63_FOG sub menu.png?:”]FOG sub menu.png[/url]

[A Former User]

Added to KB [url]http://www.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Edit_PXE_menu_to_create_sub_menus[/url]

[ssx4life]

Thanks for the documentation, glad it is working for you.

[bradgillap]

I keep getting this memdisk error when I try to load a win7pe SE iso. The ISO is about 200mb and the vm has 4gb of memory available.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/cvZri.png[/IMG]

Ive tried keeppxe, raw, and rebuilding the ISO in several different ways. I tried a clean slate rebuild even but I can’t quite figure out if I’m troubleshooting the ISO or memdisk.

[ssx4life]

if you haven’t tried yet, please try an older version of memdisk for that .iso

I ran into issues in the past with the newer copies of memdisk in the past.

[Bjorn Jentoft]

It’s a known fact that tftp is not the fastest protocol out there. Bigger files transfer much better on http. If you exchange [B]pxelinux.0[/B] with [B]gpxelinux.0[/B], http is supported. This will decrease loading time of ISO files substantially.

Your pxelinux.cfg/default would then contain something like this

LABEL winstall32
MENU LABEL Install Windows (all 32-bit)
LINUX memdisk
INITRD [url]http://myfogserver/iso/LiteTouchPE_x86.iso[/url]
APPEND iso raw

or

LABEL winpe
MENU LABEL WinPE
LINUX memdisk
INITRD [url]http://myfogserver/iso/mywinpe.iso[/url]
APPEND iso raw

Good luck, Bjorn

[pallytank09]

[quote=“ssx4life, post: 1461, member: 268”]As for TRK look here - [url]http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34477[/url]

p.s. google is your friend

I don’t have time to build and test these software packages due to my work schedule, but looking at the articles they seem rather cut+ dry and straight forward. Jump to part 3 of the guide for AV tools / etc.[/quote]

I followed the guide that was posted here for getting Trinity to boot. I end up with the menu structure but when I burrow down into it, the menu that should list the Trinity options is completely blank. Any thoughts?

[ssx4life]

@pallytank09 I’ll have to dig into seeing why TRK doesn’t boot for you. I know it’s possible, and I’ve seen it work in the past for some people. I just don’t have the time at the moment to research it.

_< Have you checked with the TRK forums yet? I would suggest that you create a new topic in the help forums for this so we don’t keep adding on / appending this topic so it ends up being longer than needed. That way someone else here may be able to help you (or me if I get time)

thanks!

[comprx]

[quote=“ssx4life, post: 672, member: 268”]In case anyone is running into trouble I’ve included a copy of my TFTPBOOT folder - [SIZE=4][B][url]http://www.mediafire.com/?1ps7ogj18abz93g[/url][/B][/SIZE] Feel free to play around with it and cut + paste items into your own fog server as you see fit. Just remember to back up your own files before hand! :)[/quote]

The file was removed. any chance of a reupload?

[ssx4life]

Not to leave people hanging or trying to pick up the pieces, but I have been absent from this project and many other items recently due to family issues, so I apologize for not keeping up with requests or being active on supporting this documentation at this time.

In regards to re-uploading the tftpboot folder perhaps another member can zip and upload one for you. I’m sorry I just don’t have time and or resources to dedicate to this currently.

If things change you’ll be the first to know. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions and I’ll try to get back to ya’ll when I have time.

Thanks in advance >_<