I first tried the last menu entry, which is the debug mode. That’s when I wrote my previous “yes, progress!” post. Then I did schedule a capture task on the server, booted the host, selected the first menu item (capture/deploy), and then it gave me the “type null” error. At that point I added the update to my previous post.

@george1421 As far as I remember, I didn’t downgrade the fog server… but I’ll make sure to check that on monday!

I can’t test anything until after the weekend (I’m already home and don’t have access to this device of course), but if you guys can think of more things to try on monday, just let me know! Always happy to test things with this weird piece of hardware… and hopefully it can help someone with the same issues in the future!

Finally, some progress!
When I disable UEFI Boot in the bios, and add ACPI=OFF to the kernel parameters, it boots from the FOS stick!

So what’s next now? I use this method to capture/deploy this type of device? Or are there other steps we can take to make if network-boot?

Update: When I choose the “FOG Image Deploy/Captyre” GRUB entry (to which I added the ACPI=OFF parameter too), then it halts with error “fatal error: unknown request type :: Null” (with or without a tastk scheduled for this host). The “Quick Registration” entry as well. “Client System Information” seems to work fine.

Two updates:

• Switching between AHCI and IDE in the bios doesn’t make any difference when I try the capture task.
• This device is starting to annoy me. The usb connector on top doesn’t seem to work anymore now (usb keyboard nor usb stick are recognised). The only other usb connection still works but then I have to choose between USB stick and USB keyboard This thing also has a built-in ups so removing the power to really reset it, is not so easy: I have to remove a couple of screws to reach a reset-button. Ugh. I think I’m gonna leave it disconnected from the power during the night, and retry tomorrow morning.

Thanks again for the help guys, I’ll get back tomorrow with the results of the FOS usb stick… I hope.

@george1421 said in another init.xz issue:

Just for clarity, if you are booing with the FOS USB stick, you need to update the image args in the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file. The FOG server is not part of the booting process at this level.

Just for clarity too: I put “has_usb_nic=1 mdraid=true” at the end of the line "linux $myimage loglevel=7 … " near the bottom of the file?

@Quazz said in another init.xz issue:

I actually took the time to look through the spec sheet this time, seems like the Ethernet port is located on the dock you plug the device in.

I don’t think that makes it a USB NIC, not sure how much support there is for such docks to be honest.

Of course that doesn’t make it a USB NIC, but if the readme file that comes with the drivers say that it’s a USB NIC, then I tend to believe that The device itself doesn’t have any connections, so I assume that the dock is a “close extension” of the device, and we can see it as one.

No idea if it’s using a raid controller. There’s no option like that in the bios anyway…
I tried “has_usb_nic=1 mdraid=true” in the kernel arguments field for the host, but it keeps hanging on “init.xz…ok” when I create a capture-task for it.

Correction… I found the AHCI/IDE option. Will try that as well…

Disabling TPM does not change anything.

Then, I tried your image. I see “loading the kernel”, “loading the virtual hard drive” and “booting the kernel…”. Then it halts. The TPM setting in the bios doesn’t change anything.

I guess this is bad news… ?

EDIT: When I disable “uefi boot” in the bios, I get more text, but it hangs again before I get a prompt (see screenshot below)
EDIT2: After a few hours of searching, I found a driverset of the VM3 device. It seems that the NIC used here is some sort of USB network device. The readme.txt mentions LAN95XX. Don’t know if that might help debugging this? I tried booting with a ipxe.iso that I created on rom-o-matic.eu, with all network drivers, but it can’t find any NIC. So I guess this driver isn’t included (yet)…

@Wayne-Workman said in another init.xz issue:

Can you boot it to a live linux disk successfully? If you can, what is the output of lsblk and lspci ? You could also turn up fogs kernel debug level so that maybe we see some errors.

I wrote Ubuntu on a usb stick, and tried booting. When I choose “try ubuntu” from the grub menu, the screen goes black, and stays black. So that doesn’t seem to work very well…

@Tom-Elliott said in another init.xz issue:

@bmaster001 based on this replied post, it would appear to me the file you’re currently using is pxelinux.0 and not undionly it snp

I tried to put ipxe.efi in the filename, but that showed me the same boot-menu. When I disable uefi boot, it’s not even trying to network-boot. I get that boot-menu immediately after power-on. Nothing else is displayed.

I’m pretty sure that pfsense is setup correctly (see screenshot).

@Wayne-Workman said in another init.xz issue:

@bmaster001 Then that means the kernel isn’t even loading. You could try a different boot file.

Can you not put this computer into BIOS mode somehow? I know computers are beginning to come out that are UEFI only, but if this machine can be set to BIOS and works that way, that’d be the route I’d recommend.

I tried disabling “uefi boot”: I then get some weird “boot menu” with no menu-items in it. I don’t really see any other option in the bios (maybe you see something on the screenshots that rings a bell?)

Another boot file? Not sure what you mean… please treat me like a newbie

Sorry to get stuck on this, but you are sure in pfsense that you have the next server pointint to your new FOG server?

Very sure I get to the fog menu, and on our old server we added some items to the advanced part, and that menu-item didn’t show up with the newly installed fog. Also, see the following screenshot, where 10.1.6.51 is the ip of the new centos server:

It appears that there are different hardware configurations for the different OS versions (disk size and such). I got the impression that the CPU also changed with the OS (WinCE vs WinPro). But maybe I was mistaken.
That’s very well possible. I wasn’t involved in the selection of the hardware, so I don’t know about the options. I’m just the guy that tries to get the imaging working

@Wayne-Workman said in another init.xz issue:

@bmaster001 Understand this is only temporary, you’ll want to set it back to defaults afterwards.

Web Interface -> FOG Configuration -> FOG Settings -> FOG Boot Settings -> FOG_KERNEL_DEBUG and FOG_KERNEL_LOGLEVEL

Ok, I did that. What should be the result? The capture-task hangs again at the same point (init.xz…ok). Nothing new is displayed during the process

@Wayne-Workman said in another init.xz issue:

I think it’s kernel related because of the new hardware. Sounds like the kernel isn’t even starting right.

Can you boot it to a live linux disk successfully? If you can, what is the output of lsblk and lspci ? You could also turn up fogs kernel debug level so that maybe we see some errors.

Working on downloading some linux to try booting it from usb. Meanwhile, is turning up the kernel debug level something I can try easily?

@Sebastian-Roth said in another init.xz issue:

@bmaster001 While I am still unsure if those two topics are related I found that Could not select: Exec format error part very interesting. Lately we had at least two people who’s devices wouldn’t boot but print that message after loading the kernel/init.xz. In those cases it was some kind of security chip that needed to be disabled in the BIOS/UEFI firmware. See here and in the wiki. I really hope you find this to be the issue/solution. Otherwise we need to start unpacking the heavy tools for debugging this. Let me know.

There are not many options in the bios (see screenshots). The “secure boot activation” is disabled (and grayed-out, so I can’t even activate it). Is that the option we are looking for?

@george1421 said in another init.xz issue:

What is your dhcp server?

We use the dhcp server in pfsense 2.2.

I see there are three different models. Which one do you have? What OS did it come with.

I don’t know where you see those 3 models, but we have a model with an Intel Atom E3826, 8 GB ram, and “Windows 7 Pro Emb” on it. The bios mentions “Phoenix SecureCore Technology”, and is at version HVM3036. That’s pretty much everything I can find at the moment. I don’t want to boot the preinstalled Windows yet, because I want to capture it as it is, so that I can deploy it again if I mess up

Concerning your comment about an old ipxe kernel being used: I did a fresh install of fog on a fresh installed centos. I think it downloads the latest kernels during the installation?

I understand, I created a new topic: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7767/another-init-xz-issue
PS: dhcp settings seem to be ok (see the new topic).

I’m having an issue that’s likely closely related to this one: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/6105/init-xz-issue

History:

• fog 1.20 on Ubuntu 12.04 (which served us well for a couple of years now)
• a “special” computer arrived this week that we need to image: a Thor VM3 (https://www.honeywellaidc.com/en-US/Pages/Product.aspx?category=vehicle-mount-computers&cat=HSM&pid=thorvm3)
• Since this uses uefi, it doesn’t work with fog 1.20. So I upgraded to the trunk version, hoping this would fix all my issues
• it boots to the fog menu, but when I choose the quick registration task, the machine hangs on “init.xz … ok” (no reboot, it just hangs there).
• memtest doesn’t work either: it says “memdisk… ok” followed by “Could not select: Exec format error” and “Could not boot: Exec format error”
• I read in this topic that installing fog on a fresh Centos 6.7 helped for @bjmarowitz. I tried that today, but it behaves the exact same way in our situation here

Our dhcp options are correct I think. We use pfsense, and I have the following settings:

• next-server: ip address of fog server
• default bios filename: undionly.kpxe
• UEFI 32bit filename: i386-efi/ipxe.efi
• UEFI 64bit filename: ipxe.efi

PS: Last attempt was with trunk version 8099 (or is it the SVN revision 5678 that is important? I’m confused )

Any help is very welcome! Thanks!

Sorry to reply to a rather old topic, but I’m having the exact same issue…
History:

• fog 1.20 on Ubuntu 12.04 (which served us well for a couple of years now)
• a “special” computer arrived this week that we need to image: a Thor VM3 (https://www.honeywellaidc.com/en-US/Pages/Product.aspx?category=vehicle-mount-computers&cat=HSM&pid=thorvm3)
• Since this uses uefi, it doesn’t work with fog 1.20. So I upgraded to the trunk version, hoping this would fix all my issues
• it boots to the fog menu, but when I choose the quick registration task, the machine hangs on “init.xz … ok” (no reboot, it just hangs there).
• memtest doesn’t work either: it says “memdisk… ok” followed by “Could not select: Exec format error” and “Could not boot: Exec format error”

I read in this topic that installing fog on a fresh Centos 6.7 helped for @bjmarowitz. I tried that today, but it behaves the exact same way in our situation here

PS: Last attempt was with trunk version 8099 (or is it the SVN revision 5678 that is important? I’m confused )

Any help is very welcome! Thanks!