Error deploying an image on Dell Optiplex 7080

[Rotoi]

Hi,

There is an issue with deploying an image on specific model Dell Optiplex 7080 in UEFI mode.

The error is Could not select: Exec format error (http://ipxe.org/2e008081)
Could not boot: Exec format error (http://ipxe.org/2e008081)
Could not boot: Exec format error (http://ipxe.org/2e008081)
Chainloading failed, hit ‘s’ for the IPXE shell: reboot in 10 seconds

Fog server is running on version 1.3.3

I tested the following bzImage :
5.10.19
5.10.12
5.6.18
4.19.143
I tested also in Raid-on and AHCI in the bios settings. The error still appears.

Is there a bzImage that supports this model ?

Thanks

[george1421]

@rotoi Are you sure you have FOG 1.3.3? If so we might need to think about upgrading your version of iPXE to something newer. I am a bit surprised that iPXE from 1.3.3 actually boots on your 7080.

[Rotoi]

@george1421 Yes, it is running on 1.3.3 but with the latest bzImage.

[george1421]

@rotoi Ok stick with me here.

The error is that iPXE can not start bzImage. You have tried different bzImage files but iPXE can’t start them. I don’t necessairly understand this but since you have 1.3.3 and it was released in 2017. Its conceivable that iPXE is too old to understand the bzImage format or there is a mismatch between iPXE and bzImage.

The first thing I would try is to download a newer version if iPXE from here: https://github.com/FOGProject/fogproject/tree/master/packages/tftp

You will probably need ipxe.efi and undionly.kpxe from that web site. Rename the existing files in /tftpboot on the fog server and replace them with the github files. Then pxe boot to see if we can get bzImage to load.

The other posibility is that bzImage51012 is damaged in some way. from the fog server linux console change to /var/www/html/fog/service/ipxe directory. Run this command file bzImage51012 It should report as a linux kernel 5.10.12.

The last bit I need to say is that you REALLY need to upgrade fog to 1.5.9 (actually the dev branch of that). That old version of FOG doesn’t support nvme drives. period. It doesn’t have all of the fixes that was added to 1.4.4 which was a major upgrade. When you move past 1.4.4 into 1.5.x there is a higher CPU requirements for the FOG server. But you do really need to think about upgrading if you are running the latest hardware. There are hardware devices that 1.3.3 simply can’t understand even with the latest kernel.

[Sebastian Roth]

@Rotoi My guess is what George said about the iPXE binary being too old to be able to load the kernel on your machine. Try downloading from the link provided and see if you can get it to work.

On the other hand you might think about putting the time into setting up a new clean FOG server with current version and migrate the FOG DB and all your images/snapins/SSL certs over. Or if you are really keen and able to snapshot your FOG server (if in a VM) you could also attempt an upgrade using the FOG installer. Though this also depends on your Linux OS. Is this also unpatched, years old? Then don’t try upgrading but do a migration.

[Rotoi]

@george1421 Thank you.

I updated the ipxe.efi file and set the appropriate permissions, still the same error.

But the command file bzImage reports MS-DOS executable, MZ for MS-DOS and not the linux kernel version with the latest on in version 5.10.19. I downloaded it again from the fog server webpage and it’s still that message. It reports the accurate version with an older bzImage (4.19.64).

Is there an issue with the bzImage ?

[george1421]

@rotoi Well that is strange and also explains the invalid format error.

Just to be sure this is what we are expecting you to do

[root@usnyc034 ipxe]# file bzImage
bzImage: Linux kernel x86 boot executable bzImage, version 4.19.48 (jenkins-agent@Tollana) #1 SMP Sun Jul 14 13:08:14 CDT , RO-rootFS, swap_dev 0x7, Normal VGA

That should not return an msdos file.

If your fog server has direct internet access you can use this command to get the kernel from the FOG Project site.

wget https://fogproject.org/kernels/Kernel.TomElliott.5.10.19.64 -O /var/www/html/fog/service/ipxe/bzImage51019

Then run the file command again to ensure you have the proper kernel file.

[Rotoi]

@george1421 It works. Thank you.

So then the bzImage downloaded from the fog configuration menu are corrupted ?

I download them from https://fogproject.org/kernels/ as of now.

[george1421]

@rotoi said in Error deploying an image on Dell Optiplex 7080:

So then the bzImage downloaded from the fog configuration menu are corrupted

I don’t understand why they would be, but you ARE using a super old version of FOG. So is possible that the down load code has changed over the years.

[Rotoi]

@george1421 Well the image does deploy by updating the kernel but then there is this :

There’s an issue with setting the disk guid. Is it about the image format ? It’s set on Single Disk - Resizable ; Partition - Everything, Compression is set to 6.

[george1421]

@rotoi Are you still running fog 1.3.3? More specifically you updated the kernel to something more modern, but have you touched the init.xz file? FOG 1.3.3 doesn’t (shouldn’t fully) support NVMe drives. The NVMe protocol wasn’t created until much later than FOG 1.3.3. Its akin to trying to install Windows 95 on an 11th gen laptop. It would kind of work, but not really well.