Booting Ubuntu 16.04 ISO from FOG; /dev/sr0: No medium found

[Fitzzz]

Hi there,

I’m new to this forum and indeed this particular application. I’ve been tasked with setting up a bootable Linux ISO over PXE so the company I work for may use it to access guest machines that are likely themselves running Win7.

Here is my PXE boot menu configuration at its current state:

:MENU
menu
item --gap -- ---------------- iPXE boot menu ----------------
item ubuntu          Ubuntu 16.04 Desktop
item shell          ipxe shell
item return        return to previous menu
choose --default return --timeout 15000 target && goto ${target}

:ubuntu
initrd http://${fog-ip}/fog/service/ipxe/Linux/ubuntu-16.04-desktop-amd64.iso
chain memdisk iso raw ||
goto MENU

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

The configuration above successfully starts the iso, but when I select “Try without installing Ubuntu” (or basically any option, really) it continues to go and then all I get is "/init: line 7: can’t open/dev/sr0: No medium found

I’ve spent the last few hours making every possible link I could on Google purple, and can’t find a solid answer.
The system running fog is Linux Mint, and is a VM I access through vSphere. The guest machine in my scenario is another (basic) VM.

From what I’ve seen, some solutions involve physical problems such as USB3.0 vs USB2 sockets, etc.
I’m running out of hair from scratching my head, here, and I’m only 22! Some assistance would be incredibly appreciated.

Thank you for your time. I will try to reply as soon as possible to everyone.
Have a good day!

[Tom Elliott]

There is not a single Ubuntu ISO that I’m aware of that will boot unless it is off a CD/DVD

[george1421]

My guess is what you really want to do boot a linux live image in a pxe boot environment.

First let me say that fog is not intended to be used in this manner. And what you are doing is not supported by the FOG developers.

With that said you might want to look into live boot options here http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/ If you are using the trunk build or 1.3.0-rc1 of FOG you should be able to do this since the trunk build allows you to add custom iPXE boot menu options right from in the FOG management gui.

[george1421]

@george1421 Actually this link will get you closer to where you want to be. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveCDNetboot

[edit] And here are instructions I wrote for PXE booting a WinPE iso image with fog: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/6284/booting-mdt-2013-litetouch-with-fog

[Tom Elliott]

Another guide within our forums:

https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/4790/how-to-add-live-cd-iso-to-fog-1-2-on-ubuntu-12-04

Of course just adjust the parameters for the 16.04 ISO, but should help get you closer. /dev/sr0 is almost always CD/DVD Drive.

[Fitzzz]

Thank you for your replies, I will look into them and try out everything tomorrow morning when I’m back in the office!

[Fitzzz]

@Tom-Elliott Sorry for the late reply, I’ve looked through that thread extensively before and again now, it’s why I’m left so utterly confused. The original poster of that thread has both a linux distro and hiren’s working, neither of which can I get working, despite having the same setup for the advanced configuration.

However, I did fix the /dev/sr0 problem by disabling the CD-ROM drive in the VM settings. Thank you for that.

I boot the iso, do Try Without Uninstalling, and then it just says it’s unable to find a medium containing a live file system. Other ISOs I try to boot from (that other people have working) just bring me to Operating System Not Found, which I believe means it’s failed booting the ISO and is trying to boot from the hard drive (of which there are none).

Again, sorry for the late reply, as it is this reply took two days to make I’ve been so swamped.

[Tom Elliott]

@Fitzzz You’re not following the information as laid out.

[Tom Elliott]

You are still trying to boot the ISO as an ISO, rather than extracting the ISO and using the file structure FROM the iso.

[Fitzzz]

@Tom-Elliott I’ve tried that as well, it brought me to the same issue, unfortunately. I haven’t tried it for the other ISO’s though. Will do that this morning.

[Tom Elliott]

Then I need to see the menu entry and settings you have.

[Fitzzz]

@Tom-Elliott

:MENU
menu
item --gap -- ---------------- iPXE boot menu ----------------
item mint              Mint
item ubuntu          Ubuntu 16.04 Desktop
item ubuntu2         Ubuntu Extracted ISO Test
item hirens            Hiren's Boot CD
item shell          ipxe shell
item return        Return to previous menu
choose --default return --timeout 15000 target && goto ${target}

:mint
kernel http://$(fog-ip)/fog/service/ipxe/mint/casper/vmlinuz
initrd http://$(fog-ip)/fog/service/ipxe/mint/casper/initrd.lz
boot ||
goto MENU

:ubuntu
initrd http://${fog-ip}/fog/service/ipxe/Linux/ubuntu-16.04-desktop-amd64.iso
chain memdisk iso raw ||
goto MENU

:hirens
initrd http://$(fog-ip)/fog/service/ipxe/hirens/hirens.iso
chain memdisk iso raw ||
goto MENU

:ubuntu2
kernel http://$(fog-ip)/fog/service/ipxe/Linux/iso/casper/vmlinuz.efi
initrd http://${fog-ip}/fog/service/ipxe/Linux/iso/casper/initrd.lz
boot ||
goto MENU

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

Is this what you’re looking for? And how would I go about showing you the settings, exporting a backup?
As I post this I see the apostrophe affects the code’s display, does it affect how the code is interpreted by FOG?

[Tom Elliott]

@Fitzzz For the location, you have the mint folder loaded in /var/www/html/fog/service/ipxe/mint, and the files exist?

[Fitzzz]

@Tom-Elliott Yeah, the files are all there. I extracted everything from the ISO to that location, and previously I was using just the ISO. Both return “Operating System Not Found”.

[Tom Elliott]

@Fitzzz Is this in advanced menu? If the selections are in “advanced” i’d suspect you need to choose it from that location.

[Fitzzz]

@Tom-Elliott Yeah, I go down to the advanced menu and select my options there. Seeing the menu items isn’t a problem.

[Fitzzz]

Okay, what I just tried was recording the error message when trying to boot into the Ubuntu extracted ISO.
The error code is Error 0x3e11613b.
Searching for what it specifically is right now, just thought I’d update.

[Tom Elliott]

@Fitzzz http://ipxe.org/err/3e1161 Error: DNS name does not exist

[Fitzzz]

@Tom-Elliott

Do you know if this would be a configuration setting I may have screwed up in FOG itself? Or is this a system-based problem.

[Tom Elliott]

@Fitzzz First, I think, I need to know what version of FOG you’re running. Second, I need to see what the fog-ip variable is being set to to begin with. From the sounds of things, though, it would seem your dns has no record for the domain name you have defined as your fog-server.