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Trying to add iPXE option to boot WinPE

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  • W
    WillingMost7
    last edited by george1421 Aug 3, 2021, 9:32 AM Aug 2, 2021, 1:27 PM

    Hi there all,
    I am trying to add an option to my fog server to boot PCs into Sergei Strelec (an ISO file). I have found some tutorials but no success.

    Here is what I used:
    https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/10944/using-fog-to-pxe-boot-into-your-favorite-installer-images/10
    https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Include_any_ISO_in_the_FOG_Bootmenu

    Sergei Strelec is 4GB, hence I tried a 300MB WinPE but it didn’t work either.
    This is the codes I tried, each with different problem (X.X.X.X is for my IP address):

    set tftp-path X.X.X.X
    set pe-path ${tftp-path}/tftpboot/os
    kernel ${tftp-path}/wimboot gui
    imgfetch --name BCD ${pe-path}/BCD BCD
    imgfetch --name boot.sdi ${pe-path}/boot.sdi boot.sdi
    imgfetch --name boot.wim ${pe-path}/boot.wim boot.wim
    boot || goto MENU
    

    This code shows it finds all files but instead of booting, it just restarts the computer

    set tftp-path tftp://${X.X.X.X}
    

    If I’m trying to do it like that (instead of the first line in the code) it says connection timeout.

    chain memdisk iso raw
    

    Adding this line before the boot shows MEMDISK: bootstrap too large to load when trying to boot to Sergei and WinPE (even though WinPE is only 300MB).

    initrd X.X.X.X/os/Sergei/Sergei.iso
    chain memdisk iso raw
    boot || goto MENU
    

    Same error with this code.

    G 1 Reply Last reply Aug 3, 2021, 12:48 AM Reply Quote 0
    • G
      george1421 Moderator @WillingMost7
      last edited by Aug 3, 2021, 12:48 AM

      @willingmost7 Ok first lets say the memdisk route only works for BIOS systems. memdisk does not support uefi environments.

      These instructions do work from the tutorial because I pxe boot into MDT all of the time and it boots just fine. On a side note loading a 4GB wim file over tftp will take a really long time, so you might get a timeout. We can switch that over to http file transfer and cut the download time. But as you said a 300mb wim file is still not booting. The only thing I can think off the top of my head (assuming all of the files are in the right spot) is that your wim file is damaged or wimboot is broken for some reason. Wimboot should at least load (it might reboot after downloading though).

      Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

      W Y 3 Replies Last reply Aug 3, 2021, 9:19 AM Reply Quote 0
      • W
        WillingMost7 @george1421
        last edited by Aug 3, 2021, 9:19 AM

        @george1421 I know it’s for legacy, that’s what my boot is set here.

        It seems like I am not able to connect to the fog server with ftfp or http (like: tftp://X.X.X.X/tftp/os/Sergei/BCD). And the thing about the reboot is that it is just rebooting and than not booting to the WinPE after that.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • W
          WillingMost7 @george1421
          last edited by Aug 3, 2021, 10:33 AM

          @george1421

          Update: I managed to get a connection with the fog server and it loads the files. Problem now is that it says “no bootmgr.exe”, do I need to extract the whole ISO file in the same folder with BCD, boot.wim and etc…?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • W
            WillingMost7
            last edited by Aug 3, 2021, 11:10 AM

            I looked inside the “boot.wim\Windows\Boot” and there is no PXE folde, thus it doesn’t have bootmgr.exe.
            What can I do to fix it? Can I just modify it and copy PXE folder from boot.wim who does have that folder (say, windows 10)?

            G 1 Reply Last reply Aug 3, 2021, 3:31 PM Reply Quote 0
            • G
              george1421 Moderator @WillingMost7
              last edited by Aug 3, 2021, 3:31 PM

              @willingmost7 You know I had an issue with hiren’s boot image where it was giving me an error that I traced down to wimboot where it didn’t understand the advanced compression applied to the wim file. It was throwing an error about bootmgr.exe not being available. The error is outlined here: https://forums.fogproject.org/post/144293

              The key was to download and install winboot 2.7.3. Lets have you try that. Because when I was testing with hirens, wimboot would start to load throw the error and reboot, which is inline with what you are saying.

              Lets load up wimboot 2.7.3 (which is not listed as current on github).

              Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

              W 1 Reply Last reply Aug 3, 2021, 4:04 PM Reply Quote 0
              • W
                WillingMost7 @george1421
                last edited by WillingMost7 Aug 3, 2021, 10:08 AM Aug 3, 2021, 4:04 PM

                @george1421 On your tutorial you linked 2.6.0, but I managed to find myself 2.7.3 and it didn’t work either.

                Here is the error (after I updated to 2.7.3):
                IMG_2211.jpeg

                It seems the WIM file lacks the folder PXE

                G 1 Reply Last reply Aug 3, 2021, 8:50 PM Reply Quote 0
                • G
                  george1421 Moderator @WillingMost7
                  last edited by george1421 Aug 3, 2021, 2:52 PM Aug 3, 2021, 8:50 PM

                  @willingmost7 OK I ran into that issue with the Hiren’s disk too. I ended up finding bootmgr.exe on a older windows 10 like 1503 or something iso image. I loaded that via FOG iPXE. From my previous linked post where I mentioned 2.7.3, if you look in the picture you will see it find bootmgr.exe file. Let me get the ipxe menu settings.

                  Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

                  G 1 Reply Last reply Aug 3, 2021, 9:01 PM Reply Quote 0
                  • G
                    george1421 Moderator @george1421
                    last edited by Aug 3, 2021, 9:01 PM

                    @george1421 Here is what I have for the ipxe menu

                    set tftp-path tftp://${fog-ip}/os
                    set pe-path ${tftp-path}/Hiren101
                    kernel ${tftp-path}/wimboot gui
                    imgfetch --name BCD ${pe-path}/BCD BCD
                    imgfetch --name boot.sdi ${pe-path}/boot.sdi boot.sdi
                    imgfetch --name bootmgr ${pe-path}/bootmgr bootmgr
                    imgfetch --name boot.wim ${pe-path}/boot.wim boot.wim
                    boot || goto MENU
                    

                    Now you might need to add/exchange this line

                    imgfetch --name bootmgr ${pe-path}/bootmgr bootmgr
                    

                    with

                    imgfetch --name bootmgr.exe ${pe-path}/bootmgr.exe bootmgr.exe
                    

                    I didn’t test this completely because I ran out of time.

                    Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

                    W 1 Reply Last reply Aug 4, 2021, 7:19 AM Reply Quote 0
                    • W
                      WillingMost7 @george1421
                      last edited by Aug 4, 2021, 7:19 AM

                      @george1421 Wow thanks a ton! It did bring me to the load screen, but it has a different error now. The thing about Sergei Strelec is that there are a lot of dependencies outside the wim file. I think I might need to take a different approach and load the whole ISO.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • W
                        WillingMost7
                        last edited by WillingMost7 Aug 4, 2021, 5:57 AM Aug 4, 2021, 11:51 AM

                        load the whole ISO.

                        The problem with this code is that it doesn’t boot into the ISO it loads, it just says Loading boot sector… booting… and then skips to windows:

                        initrd tftp://${fog-ip}/os/Sergei/Sergei.iso
                        chain tftp://${fog-ip}/os/memdisk iso raw
                        

                        This code just crashes when loading the WinPE in the ISO (meaning it loaded the whole 4GB ISO, but I don’t know why it crashes. The PC has 16GB of RAM):

                        sanboot http://${fog-ip}/html/Sergei/Sergei.iso
                        

                        This code just says input/output error 1d0c62 fix (on the ISO file):

                        initrd http://${fog-ip}/html/Sergei/Sergei.iso
                        kernel tftp://${fog-ip}/os/memdisk iso raw
                        
                        G 1 Reply Last reply Aug 5, 2021, 12:13 AM Reply Quote 0
                        • G
                          george1421 Moderator @WillingMost7
                          last edited by Aug 5, 2021, 12:13 AM

                          @willingmost7

                          initrd tftp://${fog-ip}/os/Sergei/Sergei.iso
                          chain tftp://${fog-ip}/os/memdisk iso raw
                          

                          You have 2 fundamental problems here.

                          1. memdisk only works with BIOS based computers not UEFI
                          2. sergei.iso is greater than 2GB (memdisk is a 32 bit program so the maximum amount of data memory it can address is 2GB).

                          Where do you get this Sergei Strelec iso file from? Is that something you created?
                          Is it free to download and try?

                          Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

                          W 1 Reply Last reply Aug 5, 2021, 5:06 AM Reply Quote 0
                          • W
                            WillingMost7 @george1421
                            last edited by george1421 Aug 14, 2024, 4:11 PM Aug 5, 2021, 5:06 AM

                            @george1421 Here is a link to the iso, very powerful useful tool.

                            @george1421 said in Trying to add iPXE option to boot WinPE:

                            memdisk only works with BIOS based computers not UEFI

                            PCs there are able to boot both from legacy and UEFI, but their OS is set to legacy boot. Is it possible to set this to boot from UEFI? It won’t cause any problems?

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • Y
                              YYoudi @george1421
                              last edited by Aug 14, 2024, 3:19 PM

                              @george1421 Do you boot on MDT with en iPXE entry or did you make a new Task Type for it ?

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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