HP Probook 430 G8 System MAC not passing through USB Type-C Dongle

[george1421]

@michaeloberg OK I have a new one-off init built. Download this file to /var/www/html/fog/service/ipxe directory. I debugged and replaced the script below in this this init to support mac spoofing like HP is doing. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cFsPlkrqlwOjblHErCGr-OXHiKZd8jeZ/view?usp=sharing

We are still debugging here. So lets take baby steps. Once this is downloaded go into the host definition for this specific computer. We need to update some values.

Host Init: init_macset.xz
Host Kernel Arguments: domacset=1

This tells this specific computer to use the new init (virtual hard drive). And the kernel parameter flags the mac replacement code to run. That way without that flag the network inits normally.

Schedule another task in debug mode on this dongled computer. Once in the FOS Linux CLI key in ip a s lets see if the nic has the mac address of the pass through mac. If not key in this command cat /proc/cmdline and post the results here.

[michaeloberg]

@george1421

Thank you for the explanation and work on this. You mentioned to download the init_macset and place it in the /var/www/html/fog/service/ipxe directory. I have the file downloaded to my computer, how do I go about transferring that to my FOG Server? When I was downloading and testing kernels, I did that directly in the cli of the FOG server through Putty from the shared google drive.

TIA,

Michael

[george1421]

@michaeloberg You can use pscp from command line. That is putty’s copy program. Understand its all command line. Or you can use WinSCP which is a gui based copy program much like filezilla client or windows exporer (ish).

or we can hack up the URL that Tom provided below

wget -O /var/www/fog/service/ipxe/init_macset.xz https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1cFsPlkrqlwOjblHErCGr-OXHiKZd8jeZ&export=download

[michaeloberg]

@george1421

The test results are below, circled in red is the system MAC (not the dongle).

[george1421]

@michaeloberg Excellent! The MAC pass through (hack) worked. So now it would be interested in seeing if you can get a working capture or deploy.

For full disclosure (for the Devs mainly) I had a problem building the inits with buildroot. gpartdisk (or something like that) failed to apply the patch that was in the package. That patch failed because it said it was already installed. There was another build root package that threw a similar error. In box cases I just removed the patch from the packages directory and then it built correctly.

My confidence level with this init is 90% just because I had errors with the build. The hack to the startup script was simple and as long as it passes syntax checking it should work so that bit is 99% confidence.

[Sebastian Roth]

@george1421 said in HP Probook 430 G8 System MAC not passing through USB Type-C Dongle:

For full disclosure (for the Devs mainly) I had a problem building the inits with buildroot. gpartdisk (or something like that) failed to apply the patch that was in the package. That patch failed because it said it was already installed. There was another build root package that threw a similar error. In box cases I just removed the patch from the packages directory and then it built correctly.

Please tell us which version of buildroot you use? The official FOS init is still build with 2020.02.12. I know it’s a shame but I didn’t get to work on updating this as well testing and all that. Should really do soon to hopefully have a newer version in the next official FOG release - needs a few weeks of people testing it.

[george1421]

@sebastian-roth said in HP Probook 430 G8 System MAC not passing through USB Type-C Dongle:

Please tell us which version of buildroot you use?

21.02.7. I remembered the 02 release from before, but I didn’t think it was 2020. Wow time flies during a pandemic…

I suppose I can reset buildroot and recompile the inits again and document the errors. But all of the errors were patch files failing saying the patch was already installed. Plus the gptdisk did have several versions of updates past what fog is using. I did not change that in the linked inits. So everything “should” be the same except for the update S40network init file.

[michaeloberg]

@george1421
I am not able to deploy an image to this machine, it shows “attempting to check in”

I also tried to do this by manually imaging (PXE Booting, then choosing deploy image) to no avail, it repeats the username/password 3 times then brings me to the FOG Compatibility menu and when I choose show MAC address it still shows the Dongle MAC:

In Debug mode using ip a s it shows the system MAC.

[michaeloberg]

@george1421 @Sebastian-Roth

Just wanting to update this post as it’s been a while. I have been working with HP support and they still have not fixed this issue (expect for the previously mentioned installer that only works in Windows).

I hope everyone has a Great Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!

I will continue to work off and on until January 5th when we return to school. If I don’t get anywhere with HP prior to that, I won’t be updating this.

Thanks again!

Michael

[george1421]

@michaeloberg Ok thank you for the update. I haven’t had time to dig into the script to where it checks in with the FOG server and to see why its failing. The “hack” that I did with the network boot up script to replace the mac address should hold through the imaging process. I think from the fog side we can get this moving even if HP doesn’t have a solution. I just need a few quite hours around the holiday to look at what its doing wrong. I think we are close to a solution, though.

Thank you for the update and have a splendid holiday with your family.

[Tom Elliott]

@michaeloberg I know this is an old topic, but there’s a piece that I noticed missing in all the instructions:

At registration time, the domacset flag isn’t set, so it would use the non-passed through device.

Please see this post:
https://forums.fogproject.org/post/154826

it should help as there is a “global” method to set domacset regardless of if the device is registered or not and I suspect that will FIX the problem for new devices.

I’m sure you’ve worked around this by now, but just wanted to make it informed.

[Tom Elliott]

@Tom-Elliott I think this post helps fix the issues:
https://forums.fogproject.org/post/154920