HP Spectre x360 13-ac050ca & 15-bl018ca

[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.

[george1421]

@agent_k You had a question earlier about where these settings go (custom kernel and custom [unpacked] inits)

[agent_k]

@george1421 Like this?

Host Kernel: /tftpboot/i386-efi/ipxe.efi or /tftpboot/ipxe7156.efi
Host Init: /var/www/fog/service/ipxe/init_32

[george1421]

@agent_k well yes and no, but more no than yes.

kernel: bzImage32
host init:init_32.xz

If that doesn’t work then extract the 32 bit image like tom outlined. Place the file in the same location as the init_32.xz (/var/www/html/fog/service/ipxe). Then change host init to: init_32

The 32 bit kernel will boot just fine on a 64 bit cpu.

FWIW: The kernel you referenced is for the iPXE menu not FOS. Not a bit issue, it just won’t do what you think.

[agent_k]

@george1421 So the force 32bit approach isn’t working, both the xz and uncompressed attempts end with the same error we started with. Any other suggestions?

[george1421]

@agent_k well my bag of tricks are getting a bit empty on this one.

I do have one left. We can try to usb boot the fog engine directly and bypass pxe booting all together. With usb booting we loose the tight integration with FOG, but I’m interested in seeing if this is a iPXE issue vs FOS.

ref: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7727/building-usb-booting-fos-image

[george1421]

@agent_k Watch the chat bubble on the fog forum tool tray at the top for additional instructions

[agent_k]

@george1421 Thank you, thank you, thank you! and @Tom-Elliott thank you too!!