FOG 1.3.5 RC 12

[Tom Elliott]

https://news.fogproject.org/fog-1-3-5-rc-12/

[Wayne Workman]

For interested people - I’ve got an Optiplex 790 in the basement that I’ve been trying to image in UEFI mode /w GPT disks using fog for… a month? Last night using the latest code finally it worked in GPT mode both for non-resizable and resizable.

I think GPT imaging might just be fixed now.

[sudburr]

You got a Dell OptiPlex 790 to UEFI network boot successfully ?? Ooh, I gotta try this.

[Tom Elliott]

@sudburr Yes, he sure did lol.

[sudburr]

Exactly how did you get the 790 to UEFI network boot?

[KnightRaven]

@sudburr
Im interested in this too. I have a 790 I was testing with back in Nov. George was helping but could only get it to work in non proxy mode(using dnsmasq). When proxy mode was used it wouldn’t uefi boot. I was going to get back to testing but other priorities arose.

[Wayne Workman]

@sudburr said in FOG 1.3.5 RC 12:

Exactly how did you get the 790 to UEFI network boot?

I guess I wasn’t clear enough, I’ll rephrase. The hard-drive in the Optiplex 790 was laid out as GPT because I booted to the Windows installation disk using the UEFI boot option that the installation disk provides in the boot options menu that F12 gives you at boot.

So booting the Windows Installation disk in UEFI mode allows you to install Windows in UEFI mode, therefore the disk is laid out as GPT instead of MBR.

Network booting with the Optiplex 790 in UEFI mode looks to be impossible.

That said, network booting to FOG in BIOS mode works, fog is able to capture and deploy the GPT hard-disks just fine, it doesn’t matter what mode it booted as.

I don’t have to switch any settings in the Optiplex 790 for this to work. When you set it in firmware to UEFI, this isn’t actually true. Setting it to UEFI actually sets it to a mixed-mode where the system can boot UEFI or BIOS from hard-disks and optical disks and probably removable media. But the NIC no matter what only will boot in BIOS mode.

[KnightRaven]

@Wayne-Workman
Thanks for clarification. I misread as well and got a bit excited. And now that I think about it, it may have been a 990 in my case not a 790. Honest mistake as they are sitting side by side and look the same.

Anyway, good to know that UEFI net boot isn’t required for getting a UEFI/GPT image.

thanks,
Jason

[sudburr]

I’d been doing that for awhile until we put our Server 2016 DHCP solution into play. What you network boot with has zero impact on what you lay down onto the SSD/HDD.

Still, bummed that a UEFI network boot solution hasn’t been found for the 790 though. 8(

If only I could find documentation on how to build the boot sequence string in their BIOS.

[Wayne Workman]

@sudburr my linux based isc-dhcp handles both legacy and uefi and others too. thats not the issue. The firmware for the optiplex 790 just sucks.