Boot ISO memdisk 1.3+

cnewman402 · Aug 7, 2016, 4:25 AM

I have seen references to past versions booting ISO’s with memdisk. I would like to utilize my FOG server for other options as well to battle problems before having to resort to imaging the workstations. I see the wiki that tutorials how to do a few PE softwares. Is there a general way to boot iso’s with memdisk?

george1421 · Aug 7, 2016, 4:59 AM

What ios do you want to boot. We may have examples already for you application. You have to remember that you will be pxe booting iso images. Some applications will be looking for a physical CD-ROM so pxe booting and iso image is not perfect.

cnewman402 · Aug 7, 2016, 5:19 AM

For example instead of using Bitdefender, if I want to add in AVG as an option.

I’ve been reading on the whole memdisk and ipxe iso booting at reverse engineered and ipxe. I see the inefficiencies, and read about why. Really what I’m trying to accomplish is to change from using E2B (Easy2Boot - USB) as an option because its not efficient when working with larger amounts of workstations. I apologize in advance I have not even imaged a workstation yet with FOG. I will Monday when I return to the office.

So in the wiki I see the DBAN entry. I really need to try this before I understand it, but:


mkdir /iso
mkdir /var/www/html/dban
wget -O /iso/dban.iso http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/dban/dban/dban-2.3.0/dban-2.3.0_i586.iso
mount -t iso9660 -o loop /iso/dban.iso /var/www/html/dban

So can I use this as a general guide on how to boot iso’s and is it really even efficient?

I spent some of my weekend standing up a FOG server, and really havent got to test it yet other than booting a blank VM on vmware to see the results. Thanks in advance.

Quazz · Aug 7, 2016, 8:47 AM

The thing is, not all iso are created equal. With some of them you’ll be able to do it easily and perfectly, others just plain won’t work and so on.

Sebastian Roth · Aug 7, 2016, 8:50 AM

@cnewman402 Quazz is absolutely right. ISOs are different and a lot of them need to be handled differently. See the different parameters for Hirens and Bitdefender here: https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Include_any_ISO_in_the_FOG_Bootmenu

With most ISOs you can find information on the internet on how to extract and boot those. Give it a try or let us know which ISO exactly you are trying to boot so we might be able to help.

Wayne Workman · Aug 7, 2016, 3:48 PM

@cnewman402 The steps you posted are only for getting the dban iso onto the fog server. You’re not done there, FOG needs configured.

cnewman402 · Aug 7, 2016, 3:51 PM

Test and trials this morning on iso’s. I think I need to understand the menu entries, more specifically the parameters, and if they are always mandatory?
If so can I utilize memdisk in an entry?
Do I need to manually place a copy of memdisk in the directory or iso?

(Linux noob)

Wayne Workman · Aug 7, 2016, 3:54 PM

@cnewman402 Depends. Of course it’s mandatory to have an entry, but the parameters of such can be modified sometimes. Please post a screen shot of what you have.

cnewman402 · Aug 7, 2016, 3:58 PM

How far Ive gotten:

Wayne Workman · Aug 7, 2016, 4:11 PM

@cnewman402 You need parameters.
You need to figure out where the kernel is on the ISO, and specify it. I don’t know where it is, but normally it ends with a .bzi extension.

Two files that stick out for kernel and init are vmlinuz and initrd.lzm that I see in the picture.

I don’t know if this will work (it’s just a guess), but put these in the parameters section:

:AVG
kernel http://${fog-ip}/avg/isolinux/vmlinuz
initrd http://${fog-ip}/avg/isolinux/boot.cat
initrd http://${fog-ip}/avg/isolinux/initrd.lzm
initrd http://${fog-ip}/avg/isolinux/ldlinux.c32
initrd http://${fog-ip}/avg/isolinux/libutil.c32
initrd http://${fog-ip}/avg/isolinux/reboot.c32
initrd http://${fog-ip}/avg/isolinux/syslinux.png
initrd http://${fog-ip}/avg/isolinux/f1.msg
initrd http://${fog-ip}/avg/isolinux/isolinux.bin
initrd http://${fog-ip}/avg/isolinux/libcom32.c32
initrd http://${fog-ip}/avg/isolinux/syslinux.cfg
initrd http://${fog-ip}/avg/isolinux/vesamenu.c32
imgargs vmlinuz boot=live ip=dhcp edd=on noapic load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 rw vga=normal sleep=0 loglevel=0 keymap=us splash quiet - || read void
boot || read void

–EDIT–
updated the image args.

cnewman402 · Aug 7, 2016, 4:13 PM

This post is deleted!

george1421 · Aug 7, 2016, 4:30 PM

@cnewman402 the grab entries is a starting point.

I would try to boot the iso directly first. If that doesn’t work then dig into the iso and extract its content to a directory on the fog server and then checkout the syslinux config file or the grub config file

cnewman402 · Aug 7, 2016, 4:45 PM

Im starting to see how the entries are created. Thank you for pointing out each bootable image is unique. I’ll continue to test and see how the different images work. Im pretty new to Linux, with just basic experience from working at a webhost company for a while.

Is it possible to use memdisk with iso’s in this build or is it mandatory to extract and build entry into each one?

george1421 · Aug 7, 2016, 4:52 PM

@cnewman402 I did write a tutorial a bit ago about pxe booting a winpe disk that shows two examples. While its a bit off point of what you are doing right now it does show you the steps.
https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/6284/booting-mdt-2013-litetouch-with-fog

I also wrote one that shows how to boot the windows setup via a pxe boot.
https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7765/pxe-booting-into-ms-windows-7-setup

Couple that with the FOG Wiki that Sebastian referenced
https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Include_any_ISO_in_the_FOG_Bootmenu

That should get you started. Now understand each iso is different. The ones that are based on linux typically will have instructions on the provider web site on how to pxe boot them.

With that information you should be able to build your pxe boot menus nicely with the fog management gui.

Quazz · Aug 8, 2016, 9:37 AM

@cnewman402 By the way, you don’t (and shouldn’t) put the item identifier :AVG (or similar) in parameters field, FOG will automatically generate the item name based on the Menu Item field (so make sure that one has no spaces or special characters to avoid potential issues)

xfirero · Aug 9, 2016, 2:08 PM

@Sebastian-Roth I want to boot from Windows 7 iso:

:MENU
menu
item --gap – ---------------- iPXE boot menu ----------------
item windows Install Windows
choose --default windows target && goto ${target}
:windows
menu
item Win7AIK_EN Windows7_32
item shell ipxe shell
item return Return to Main Menu
choose --default Win7_32 target && goto ${target}

:Win7AIK_EN
initrd http://192.168.1.9/fog/service/ipxe/iso/Win7AIK_EN.iso
chain memdisk iso raw ||
goto MENU

:shell
shell ||
goto MENU
:return
chain http://192.168.1.9/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php?mac=${net0/mac} ||
prompt
goto MENU
autoboot
…
But client hangs at “Loading Boot Sector…booting…” during boot.

It is a “Solved” question https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/5521/add-to-advanced-boot-menu-windows-7-iso but I can’t find anything.