Boot from USB problem

[Abuelika]

Server

• FOG Version: 1.4.2
• OS: Ubuntu 14

Client

• Service Version: Sierra
• OS: MacOs

Description

This year after upgrading to Sierra computers mac the fog worked this year did not.
I’ve read there are people who have solved it by booting from USB
I created the USB by performing the steps in the tutorial ( https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7727/building-usb-booting-fos-image/5 ), but I find this problem in all the menus.

Amy idea?

Tnx!

[Sebastian Roth]

@Abuelika We are working on this issue and hopefully will be able to fix the PXE booting on MAC clients at some point. It would be great if you could also contribute to getting it fixed by posting your MACs software specs here. Please open the system information and tell us the Model identifier, Boot ROM version and SMC version of your clients. Are they all the same? See here on where to find this information: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518

Meanwhile USB booting is a great workaround - thanks to George. Something went wrong when creating it in your case. On which system did you do the steps? On Mac OS X, Cent OS or a different linux system?

I just followed the instructions and it worked great. Depending on the system you were using the variables were substituted by the shell instead of passed into the grub configuration.

[Sebastian Roth]

Argh, my fault. I just read through the whole post again and noticed that the script in Part 2b was still missing a minimal fix which would cause exactly what you ran into. I fixed this in the script. Please create a new one from scratch following the steps again and copying the updated script code…

[Abuelika]

@Sebastian-Roth Hi, Sebastian,

In the grub.cfg file that was generated, as I show below. The variables that appear at startup have not been applied. I have entered manually and it has already worked correctly.

menuentry "1. FOG Image Deploy/Capture" {
 echo loading the kernel
 linux   loglevel= initrd=init.xz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=127000 keymap= web=/fog/ boottype=usb consoleblank=0 rootfstype=ext4
 echo loading the virtual hard drive
 initrd 
 echo booting kernel...

I’m looking at the MACOS versions we have.

This version WORKS

Model identifier: imac 13,1
Boot ROM version: IM131.010A.B0A
SMC version: 2.9f5

It does NOT WORK

Model identifier: imac 13,1
Boot ROM version: IM131.010A.B11
SMC version: 2.9f5

[Abuelika]

@Sebastian-Roth said in Boot from USB problem:

Argh, my fault. I just read through the whole post again and noticed that the script in Part 2b was still missing a minimal fix which would cause exactly what you ran into. I fixed this in the script. Please create a new one from scratch following the steps again and copying the updated script code…

I have created a new usb boot with the new script and there is some problem. Now the following appears …

With the old version changed variables manually works fine.

Best Reggards,

A!

[Sebastian Roth]

@Abuelika I still can’t see why using the new script would cause this error. Maybe it’s just a typo in the IP address on your side? If the other one is working for you, then just stay with it till we hopefully get this iPXE issue fixed.

Would you be keen to get into testing a debug enabled iPXE binary on your iMACs? Please download 01_ipxe.efi here and try it out on both clients, one working and one not working. Post a picture or video of the output on screen here.

[george1421]

@Abuelika said in Boot from USB problem:

I have created a new usb boot with the new script and there is some problem. Now the following appears …

When you get this where FOS gets dhcp address and keeps looping. The test for the network being up is for FOS to make a call to the FOG server. If the fog server doesn’t respond then FOS thinks that the network is down and rediscovers again by dhcp.

Something to check. In the grub.conf file, make sure you update the setting at the top to point to your FOG server IP address.

[Abuelika]

@Sebastian-Roth

IMAC NOT WORKING

IMAC WORKING

Video here

[Sebastian Roth]

@Abuelika Ok, I got some new advice from the iPXE devs. Debugging the actual driver issue won’t be easy and will therefore take too many round trips of “try this binary and report again”.

Nevertheless we ought to try out using the SNP binary (debug enabled - DEBUG=snp:3,nii:3 to start with). So find 01_snp.efi here. Just give it a try and post pictures or video. Make sure when you take those to place the camera or phone on a stack of books in front of the screen so we have a good picture.

[Sebastian Roth]

Just cross-linking this here: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/10615/ipxe-booting-possibly-broken-on-os-x-sierra-update