Auto Deploy restarts PCs, but boots back into Windows

[Sebastian Roth]

@DarkSwordsman said in Auto Deploy restarts PCs, but boots back into Windows:

One is refind.efi and the other is refind_linux.conf.

refind.efi should not be a config file. I guess you mean refind.conf here. Not sure where refind_linux.conf is coming from but that’s something we provide AFAIK! Please tell us where you got that from?!

So, firstly, is there something I need to do to get refind.efi to see the config files in the first place?

In the iPXE boot loader code generated by your FOG server the config file is being pushed to the client by name. So please open the following URL (http://x.x.x.x/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php?mac=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx - use the actual FOG server IP and client MAC address instead of x’s!) in your browser and post the refind part of that here. Should look like this:

imgfetch ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/refind.conf
chain -ar ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/refind.efi

And secondly, what do I need to set, if any, in the config files to make it see the OS?

Probably best that you post the contents of your config files here as it seems they have been modified a fair bit. But feel free to take a look at the default content of refind.conf that we deliver here: https://github.com/FOGProject/fogproject/blob/master/packages/web/service/ipxe/refind.conf (latest release version 1.5.5)

[DarkSwordsman]

@Sebastian-Roth Thanks for the reply. We have to figure out the user and password for the Ubuntu server so we can edit files, but this is what I found:

In boot.php, these are the lines you mentioned:

choose --default fog.local --timeout 3000 target && goto ${target}
:fog.local
imgfetch ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/refind.conf
chain -ar ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/refind.efi || goto MENU

In our refind.conf, these are all the options (I excluded all white space):

timeout 5

textonly

scanfor internal,manual

uefi_deep_legacy_scan true

scan_delay 2

default_selection Windows

menuentry "Windows" {
    volume 0:
    ostype: "Windows"
    loader \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
    enabled
}

I’ll play around a bit once we get the linux credentials back. Looking forward to your reply.

[Sebastian Roth]

@DarkSwordsman Normally if you schedule a task the boot code received by the client is different than on normal boots. So when you schedule the task and then open the link as mentioned before: http://x.x.x.x/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php?mac=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx - use the actual FOG server IP and client MAC address instead of x’s - you should see a very different output compared to when there is no task scheduled for this host.

We have to figure out the user and password for the Ubuntu server

https://askubuntu.com/questions/24006/how-do-i-reset-a-lost-administrative-password

[DarkSwordsman]

Hey Guys,

So I was able to experiment a little bit and I realized that, by default, it’s booting using the BIOS option, and not UEFI. I had GRUB_FIRST_HDD set for BIOS and REFIND_EFI set for UEFI, and it used GRUB.

I don’t know if that helps us identify an issue. Also, I am into computers and programming, but this whole DHCP thing and handing out efi binaries just goes over my head. Are there any guides, start to finish, on the process? I tried following the one on your wiki but I just don’t get it.

[DarkSwordsman]

So it appears the following happens:

BIOS types:

• select… - : blinking cursor
  SANBOOT : blinking cursor
  GRUB : starting c.main()…
  GRUB_FIRST_HDD: starting c.main()…
  GRUB_FIRST_FOUND_WINDOWS: goes to grub> cli
  REFIND: blinking cursor.

Running “geometry (hd0)” when GRUB_FIRST_FOUND_WINDOWS shows the cli gives me:
" drive 0x80(LBA): C/H/S=1023/255/63, Sector Count/Size=16434495/512
Partition num: 0, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0xEE"

UEFI: All of the options lead to blinking cursor.

[Sebastian Roth]

@DarkSwordsman said in Auto Deploy restarts PCs, but boots back into Windows:

UEFI: All of the options lead to blinking cursor.

Have you actually switched to UEFI on the client’s firmware settings when trying those?

[DarkSwordsman]

@Sebastian-Roth It appears the UEFI Network boot selection is not available. Only the PXE option from Legacy works.

Amidst me trying to load different pxe binaries onto the server, I rm -rf /*'ed in root, so I destroyed the server by accident. Just made a new one and thankfully I have a PC with the existing image in tact with no modifications.

Is there a more in-depth guide to setting iPXE binaries? I was messing around with custom fog.local parameters using all sorts of iPXE commands I found on their site. It’s definitely getting the changes, but I can’t tell if it can’t load the bootloaders or if it the bootloaders can’t find windows.