Unable to Get IP Address After PXE Menu on Physical PC (FOG Project on ESXi)

[mbghost]

Hello,

I have a problem with getting an IP address after the PXE menu. My FOG Project server runs on an ESXi host. I tried creating a VM on the same host, and it works (both UEFI and BIOS), but when I try on a real PC, I get this error. The network topology is: ESXi server → Cisco Switch → Client.

Starting en01 interface and waiting for the link to come up
udhcpc: started, v1.37.0
udhcpc: broadcasting discover
udhcpc: broadcasting discover
udhcpc: broadcasting discover
udhcpc: no lease, failing
Either DHCP failed or we were unable to access http://ip/fog//index.php for connection testing.
No DHCP response on interface en01, skipping it.
Failed to get an IP via DHCP! Tried on interface(s): en01
Please check your network setup and try again!

I tried many ways, like configuring DHCP on my Windows Server and also using the DHCP built into the FOG Project, but every time it works on a VM, but not on a real PC. On the forums, I read that it could be because of the init.xz file. I tried changing the version, but with some versions I get an error about mounting the root fs.

Also I tried run in on Debug Mode, but i get error:

Unable to mount root fs on "/dev/ram0" or unkown-block(1,0)

I tried two different types of PCs, both with UEFI and BIOS modes. I also checked our firewall and I don’t see any traffic between the client and the server, and nothing is being blocked.

[george1421]

@mbghost said in Unable to Get IP Address After PXE Menu on Physical PC (FOG Project on ESXi):

ESXi server → Cisco Switch → Client.

So just to be clear pxe boot the vm on esxi works no prob, but physical host does not.

Lets test this, on the target computer, put one of those cheap unmanaged switches (like the $20 monoprice ones) between the pxe booting computer and the building network switch. Now try to pxe boot. If it works then get with your networking group and make sure the switch ports are configured for portfast, because its spanning tree causing you some troubles. Understand this is an educated guess based on what you’ve posted.

Just for some background on this, standard spanning tree takes 27 seconds to start forwarding traffic. FOS Linux boots in under 15 seconds, so its already given up trying to get an IP address by the time spanning tree starts forwarding data.

[mbghost]

@george1421 Thank you so much! I enabled portfast on the switch port, and it works on physical PCs.

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on "/dev/ram0" or unknown-block(1,0)
Kernel Offset: disabled
---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on "/dev/ram0" or unknown-block(1,0)

But sometimes this error appears even if I haven’t changed anything in the configuration and files. Even if I update or roll back the init.xz or bzImage file to a previous version, it doesn’t help. The only thing that seems to work is setting up a completely new FOG server, but after some time, the problem can come back. How I can find right version or how I can solve this problem? Most time it error on PCs with UEFI