Hung up on black screen
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I recently built a new FOG server using version 1.5.9 on a Ubuntu v20.04 LTS platform. I used the settings for a standalone network.
For some reason when the host computers (Dell Optiplex 9020MT) are connected to the FOG server, again, a standalone network not connected to the internet, they won’t boot to Windows. The computers go through the PXE process and get to the FOG project options screen but when it tries to Boot to HDD it hangs up on a black screen with a flashing line in the top left corner. If I disconnect the host computers from the network, or shut down the FOG server, they boot just fine.
If I deploy an image the image installs just fine and then restarts but again, after it gets to the FOG projects option screen and automatically chooses boot to HDD it hangs up on a black screen.
I don’t recall what version of FOG I was using before I built this updated server (Built from scratch. I used nothing from the old server). When I pull the new server box off my network and put the old one back in everything works fine again.
I know DELL computers tend to be a pain in the butt when imaging but everything worked fine on the previous version of my FOG imaging server. Any suggestions as to what might be causing this?
Thanks.
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@spchristy Have you tried different settings for “Exit Type”?
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I have tried a couple different exit type settings based on what I found on forums but it didn’t seem to make a difference. Any suggestions for what to try with Dell Optiplex 9020MT model?
I need to do a lot more learning in terms of understanding better how FOG actually works. Up to this point my previous set up just simply worked and I didn’t have to dig any deeper than that. This may be a dumb question, but one thing I’m unclear on, does the exit type only come in to play after an image has been deployed/installed? Or would it also be part of the boot process for a computer that is simply booting while connected to my FOG server?
My network is 25 Dell desktops hooked to a switch connected to my FOG setup. They are not connected to any other network. These computers are used to teach a computer repair and troubleshooting class and I use FOG to reimage the computers after students mess them up after software troubleshooting labs.
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@spchristy The first question would be what mode is this 9020 is in? Its is bios or uefi? The FOG exit mode depends on the firmware mode.
If your computer is in bios mode then SANBOOT (bios exit mode) works 99% of the time for almost all hardware.
If your computer is in uefi mode then rEFInd (uefi exit mode) works most of the time. For uefi modes only refind and exit are your only options. The other options are bios specific.
The 9020 is pretty old and the second model year that supports uefi. The X010 was the first year and its uefi firmware is broken to where ipxe will not initialize the firmware to boot.
So your troubles are between ipxe and windows booting (i.e. SANBOOT or rEFInd). FOG has 1 field for each firmware types globally as well as these values can be overridden on a per host basis in the host configuration page.
Just so you are clear this issue has noththing to do with the FOS Linux (a.k.a Kernel). I realize it was not mentioned here, I just wanted to keep focus on where the problem is and isn’t.
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@spchristy said in Hung up on black screen:
This may be a dumb question, but one thing I’m unclear on, does the exit type only come in to play after an image has been deployed/installed? Or would it also be part of the boot process for a computer that is simply booting while connected to my FOG server?
Just answering this point as George’s is clear on all the rest. This depends on how you configure the startup order (BIOS/UEFI). If it’s set to boot from network it will try to get an IP and bootp information from your DHCP server and then PXE boot into that. If it’s a FOG server and there is no task scheduled for this host it will default to try to boot from the local disk (exit type).
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I left the FOG exit settings at the defaults which is SANBOOT for BIOS and rEFInd for UEFI.
I think they’re set to legacy mode. I’ll need to double check that when I get to work tomorrow though. I messed around with the settings so much I may have those changed. Sounds like setting them to BIOS is probably the least problematic option and may resolve the problem.
What’s odd though, is that they worked perfectly fine with the previous version of FOG I was running with the BIOS/UEFI default settings.
Thanks for helping me narrow this down. I did look into updating the kernel on FOG server so keeping me away from that path is helpful.
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@sebastian-roth said in Hung up on black screen:
Just answering this point as George’s is clear on all the rest. This depends on how you configure the startup order (BIOS/UEFI). If it’s set to boot from network it will try to get an IP and bootp information from your DHCP server and then PXE boot into that. If it’s a FOG server and there is no task scheduled for this host it will default to try to boot from the local disk (exit type).
The startup order is set to Onboard NIC, then USB drive, then HDD.
Your explanation is very helpful. Since this runs on a separate stand alone network FOG server is running the show. The only time it’s not, are on those occasional lab days where students need the bench PC’s to have internet access. In that situation I turn off my FOG server, connect my switch to a district network drop, and allow the school district network dhcp to run the show. At all other times these PC’s are segregated from the school district network.
When it’s on, FOG is passing out appropriate IP addresses for the network settings so that much is fine. Based on what you’re saying, and what @george1421 is saying, the problem has to be with the BIOS/UEFI settings on the hosts, and the FOG server exit settings. Again, it seems odd that this worked fine on the previous FOG server I had set up. I guess I’ll have to revive the old server and take a look at what the settings were on the old setup when I get to school tomorrow.
Thanks, both of you, for pointing me in the right direction. I appreciate the help.
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@spchristy said in Hung up on black screen:
What’s odd though, is that they worked perfectly fine with the previous version of FOG I was running with the BIOS/UEFI default settings.
The older version probably used a different version of rEFInd which is packed with FOG. You can download and manually try different versions: https://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/
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Success!
For the Dell Optiplex 9020 here are the settings that worked:
Exit to Hard Drive Type: GRUB
Exit to Hard Drive Type(EFI): REFIND_EFIThank you Sebastian and George for your insights. They were very helpful in pinpointing where the issue was.
