Dell XPS13 with Displaylink DA100

[Tom Elliott]

From the sounds of things, the device is attempting to boot UEFI mode (based on the menu options you are able to see.)

I don’t know what your BIOS looks like, but most systems have a means to “Enable PXE Stack” and what not.

[Tom Elliott]

I might also suggest you update.

1.3.4 is the latest “stable” version, and 1.3.5 RC 12 is the latest “testing” version.

[george1421]

@Tom-Elliott There was an issue about 4 weeks ago where we needed to add back in two kernel drivers CBC MDM, or something like that Sebastian was also part of that discussion. But those were needed for the DisplayLink adapters to work.

For the OP in UEFI mode the firmware has to support the network adapter. If this is an official dell XPS dock then it “should” support uefi mode pxe booting. There are a lot of generic docks that use these display link adapters too.
As Tom noted, a lot of times pxe booting or the PXE stack is disabled by default in the firmware. Since the ethernet adapter and dock are external there isn’t the tight integration as with a laptop with a built in network adapter.

[froydo]

hi Tom,

Yes, the Dell Bios is very limited. But need your advice please. Once I boot into BIOS, I see

Boot mode is set to UEFI: Secure BootL Off

Legacy Boot:
Minicard SSD
UEFI BOOT:
Windows Boot Manager
UEFI: Samsung SSD PM851 M.2 2280 256GB
Other Options:
BIOS Setup
BIOS Flash Update
Diagnostics
Change Boot Mode Settings

So I tried to change from UEFI to legacy by going into “BIOS Setup” in “Other options”
And in Boot Sequence I only see:

• Windows Boot Manager (checked)
• UEFI :Samsung SSD (checked)

Boot list option

• Legacy
• UEFI (checked)

In Advanced Boot Options

• Enable Legacy Option ROMs (checked)
• Enable UEFI Network stack (checked)

I don’t see network boot anywhere or the Enable PXE stack as you mentioned.

And when I check - “Legacy” in the “Boot list option” , “UEFI” automatically becomes unchecked and the boot sequence changes to :

• diskette drive
• usb storage device
• CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive
• Minicard SSD

But still no network boot option.
And if I boot with this legacy option:
I get a message " No Boot Device Found, Press any key to reboot the machine"

Any ideas ?

[Tom Elliott]

@george1421 The CBC_MDM (or whatever it was) has not been removed because of that issue 4 weeks ago. Just trying to give a bit of “piece of mind” here.

[Tom Elliott]

@froydo Just making changes on a “whim” is not a good way to figure things out.

This is because the way an OS is installed somewhat depends on these bios settings. Changing From “UEFI” to “Legacy” is not a good thing because the OS installed is not layed out as the legacy mode would be expecting.

I’d start by looking at BIOS Setup. You could change “Boot mode settings” but if your device has a NIC and the device is recognizing the Dock and/or device at BiOS time, the option to pxe boot should be there. It may not be immediately obvious though and depends solely on the BIOS and your willingness to look around.

It’s easy to just “give up” when you see a bunch of things and feel like you’re being rushed.

To me, it sounds like either the dock is not recognized (if it is indeed connected to the dock) or the USB NIC does not support PXE booting.

[froydo]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the quick reply. I’ve confirmed the displaylink dock is working fine within Windows in the Dell laptop and it can see the network where I normally do my PXE boot to work with my lenovo machines.

And I tried the boot options and tried other changes UEFI and Boot options - and there’s never a network or even a USB device option other than the internal Samsung SSD appearing at any time when I try to stop and check it after going through the reboot cycles. Just trying to “dig out” the network PXE boot option, and I’ve looked through the entire BIOS even the areas I don’t think its there. But thanks for your suggestions - so looks like the dock might not support PXE boot and hence does not appear in BIOS .

[Junkhacker]

@froydo i believe i’ve worked on that model before. it only supports pxe with a supported usb nic, and i think you even have to get the right usb port (that model has usb 3.0 on one side and 2.0 on the other, right?)

[froydo]

@Junkhacker Hi Junkhacker, yes I tried both ports, on the right side and also on the left - no difference. Which one worked for you for see the PXE option ?

[Tom Elliott]

@froydo I would side with this agreement. While I’m not familiar with the dock or device you’re referring to, I would have to say if everything’s been looked at, then probably that device isn’t supported on that particular computer.

[Junkhacker]

@froydo are you trying with a pxe supported usb network adapter, or are you still trying the dock? the adapter must be supported for boot by the computer’s firmware, and we have not established that this dock is.

[george1421]

I guess the question that needs to be asked is:

1. Is this an official Dell dock for the XPS13
2. Does Dell say that pxe booting is supported in this dock.

If the answer is no to the above, then you need to look for a Dell usb ethernet adapter that supports pxe booting. They are out there. There has been references to them in the forums from last summer, they were about $45USD and supported PXE booting.

[froydo]

@Junkhacker Hi Junkhacker, oh I’ve stopped trying the dock…since it looks like the DA100 displaylink dock which I am using does not support PXE boot. I’m reaching out to the Displaylink support already and ask them about it …and which of their products actually support PXE booting.

[froydo]

@george1421 Hi george1421, yes its an official Dell dock - has a Dell logo embossed on it too. I’m reaching out to both Dell and DisplayLink now to confirm which dock model will work with PXE boot for my Dell XPS. Thanks for your pointers too.

[froydo]

Just spoke to the Dell technical support side on the phone. They said this particular Dell XPS 13 does not support PXE network booting at all. So it doesn’t matter if the Displaylink dock supports PXE boot or not.

[george1421]

@froydo OK then, now you know.

Then on to plan B: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/6400/usb-boot-uefi-client-into-fog-menu-harder-way

I do need to refresh this tutorial since the values at step 6 have changed since dec 2015. But the idea is to get that XPS into the fog menu by usb booting using the iPXE kernel.

You may be able to just grab the ipxe.efi off the FOG server and rename it so that it matches the uefi boot image file and try it that way. You may have to manually enter the fog server IP but that will tell you if its going to work or not.

[froydo]

@george1421 Awesome! Thanks george1421. I’m so glad there’s an alternative, I’ll take a look at it and try that out.

[Junkhacker]

@froydo sorry to hear that. i must have been thinking of the XPS 14 or 15 (or maybe something completely different, i can’t be certain)

[froydo]

@george1421 Hi george1421. I did the steps in the link , step6 , I checked everything. and now when I stick the usb in the laptop and boot from usb, I now see “ipxe…initialising devices” which is good news! But then I got the “dhcp failed” message and press s to go to ipxe or reboot.

[george1421]

@froydo Well that is a bit sad. Do you see any reference to a mac address? If not then iPXE can’t see the nic. What is going on the iPXE kernel doesn’t appear to have the driver for that displaylink adapter.

Do you have an older usb 2 to ethernet adapter? Since we aren’t using the built in PXE firmware we can use any usb to ethernet adapter that is supported by iPXE.