HP Spectre x360 13-ac050ca & 15-bl018ca

[agent_k]

Hello,

I’m getting the error below:

"XZ-compressed data is corrupt

–– System halted"

I’ve now tried a total of ten (10) HP Spectre x360 laptops, 13" and 15", this isn’t normally important except for the fact the 13" uses surface mounted RAM which in other threads and (i)PXE forums most discussion is with relation to the RAM and well I’m not about to attempt to switch surface mounted anything.

I have however switched the RAM on the 15" with new, different manufacturer sticks and yet the issue persist, and therefore I feel confident that it isn’t a RAM issue per se however I’m not all that familiar with Linux to say for certain that said I can say with certainty that it will boot Windows 10 Pro, Ubuntu without issue, I also ran a couple memory burn-in tests for good measure all of which came back negative for any faults with the RAM.

Steps to error:

1. PXE boot
2. At the FOG menu, choose from ‘Perform full host registration’, ‘Quick registration’, ‘Deploy image’, or ‘Client System information’.
3. init.xz extraction completes and then the error comes up.

It is important that I mention that the FOG server is working fine with other machines tested.

I read in another forum where that person used an uncompressed image file and it works perfectly. This is great except I do not know how to do this for use with the FOG server. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
-ak

[george1421]

is it possible to post a clear screen shot taken with a mobile phone of this error?

Are these laptops in uefi mode or bios (legacy)?

Have you confirmed you have the latest firmware installed on these systems?

Lastly what version of FOG are you running?

[agent_k]

@george1421 Thank you for your reply.

#Responses to your questions in the order they were asked.#

Screenshot attached.
BIOS/legacy mode.
Yes, they are running the latest available FW.
FOG version: 1.3.5 SVN 6067

[Tom Elliott]

@agent_k Did somebody extract the XZ and not recompress it, or recompress it improperly?

Would you mind redownloading the inits?

wget -O /var/www/fog/service/ipxe/init.xz https://fogproject.org/inits/init.xz
wget -O /var/www/fog/service/ipxe/init_32.xz https://fogproject.org/inits/init_32.xz

[george1421]

@Tom-Elliott It does sound like the inits (init.xz and/or init_32.xz) have been damaged in some way.

The other thing comes to mind is the iPXE kernel being used. @agent_k what value do you have configured for dhcp option 67 {boot-file}?

[agent_k]

@Tom-Elliott Thank you for your reply. No one extracted and/or recompressed the XZ. I’ve redownloaded the inits, restarted the FOG server just in case, same error.
@george1421 Thank you for your reply. The dhcp option 67 is set to: undionly.kpxe

[agent_k]

Hi All,

The other forum that I was refferring to that offered the suggestion to use an uncompressed version of inits is here: http://forums346.rssing.com/browser.php?indx=7254081&item=835 the first post by zix.

Please forgive my ignorance but this is roughly the same issue/file(s) in question correct? Is there an easy way for a novice like myself to try this with FOG?

[Tom Elliott]

@agent_k While you’re more than welcome to try it, I suspect it’s not going to help anything. The problem, as I’m seeing it, is the driver doing the decompression. I say this because this seems specific to this system and works fine for all your other systems.

Might I suggest, first, you try using the ipxe7156.efi file instead of ipxe.efi? I’m suspecting it’s the ipxe driver unable to read in the init properly based on what I’m hearing from you.

To try the uncompressed form of things you would do:

xz -d </var/www/fog/service/ipxe/init.xz>/var/www/fog/service/ipxe/init
xz -d </var/www/fog/service/ipxe/init_32.xz>/var/www/fog/service/ipxe/init_32

Then edit your FOG Configuration Page under:
FOG Configuration Page->FOG Settings->TFTP Server->FOG_PXE_BOOT_IMAGE to read just init
and FOG_PXE_BOOT_IMAGE_32 to read just init_32

[george1421]

@agent_k Well I would think if the inits work on another hardware, its this hardware that is suspect.

FOG sends the kernel and inits to the target computer and executes out of memory. If you have a memory issue then I might understand this.

just for grins, force this system to take the 32 bit kernel and inits. Lets see if that is the issue.

[george1421]

@agent_k How are you pxe booting this device? From the specs it doesn’t have a built in ethernet port. Are you pxe booting in a dock? Not that it matters, I’m just trying to get a clear picture here.

Forgive me if I already asked this (I’m bouncing between similar threads today). Have you updated the firmware in this device to current?

[agent_k]

@george1421 No worries, I can’t imagine keeping all the threads separate…

Yes, I’m booting from a dock. Yes, the firmware has been updated. Yes, other hardware HP or otherwise works without issue.

I’m not very savvy so how does one force the use of the 32bit kernel and inits? I guess this also goes to @Tom-Elliott 's point of trying ipxe7156.efi instead of ipxe.efi again please forgive me but I thought I was using undionly.kpxe as set in dhcp, am I confusing things?

[george1421]

@agent_k said in HP Spectre x360 13-ac050ca & 15-bl018ca:

trying ipxe7156.efi instead of ipxe.efi again

OK wait a minute here… you said your dhcp option 67 was undionly.kpxe where did the efi ones come from.

What mode is this device in? Since it has win10 on it. I might think it was configured for uefi mode, in that case undionly.kpxe is the wrong iPXE kernel.

[agent_k]

@george1421 so I think between @Tom-Elliott and I something got lost in translation. To be clear I’ve ONLY used the undionly.kpxe never *.efi

[Tom Elliott]

@agent_k I based my information off the ipxe thread where the user was using efi. If you’re not booting via EFI, then you should be fine.

Though it might be worth a shot if you can use EFI Network stack to boot these machines to see if things work a little better for you.

[agent_k]

@Tom-Elliott I appreciate all the help and I’m willing to try just about anything you suggest. I apologize for the confusion of that other thread it was just that person seemed to have a eureka moment by having his inits uncompressed…

[george1421]

@agent_k Can we confirm for absolute if this device is a legacy (bios) or uefi system? Check to see if secure boot is an option and its turned off in the device firmware.

[agent_k]

@george1421 100% in BIOS mode, secure boot off and in fact when I attempted in UEFI mode it doesn’t even get an IP.

I’m going to attempt the instructions here https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/BIOS_and_UEFI_Co-Existence and report back, thankfully it does appear to be isolated to a specific set of hardware and quite frankly using UEFI mode might make all difference anyways. Thanks again for your help, I’ve monopolized enough of your time and @Tom-Elliott 's for one day.

[Tom Elliott]

@agent_k You can still try the decompressed init’s I suggested earlier without having to make any major changes.

While I don’t suspect it will work, it’s worth a “try”.

[Tom Elliott]

@Tom-Elliott https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/9981/hp-spectre-x360-13-ac050ca-15-bl018ca/8#

[agent_k]

@Tom-Elliott You Sir are correct, 100% no help.