For anyone with my problem described - it was due to me spelling kernel improperly… I had kernal chain.c32 instead of kernel chain.c32… live and learn.

Bryce, you just made my day. That was definitely the problem. YAY!!

Thanks for being my hero for the day!

I checked the permissions, even used chmod 777 to give everyone access to those files - still repeatedly counts down from 3 at the graphical menu. I copied the files from the installers tftp directory, but then the menu was the non-graphical version (?) and it still rebooted the system instead of booting off the hard drive.

So next, I got a totally different server, fresh install of everything, same results (reboots without syslinux patch, menu countdown never ends with syslinux patch)

I’m not sure what to do or try next… Any help is greatly appreciated.

We have a whole slew of Optiplex 790 Dells, and after applying this fix, the graphical menu displays, counts down from 3, then the countdown starts over again. I am using the exact syslinux version as the guide shows. I have setup a new fog server and tried the setup instructions and it behaves the same way. So either I am doing something identically wrong after following the guide, or perhaps this fix does not work on the Optiplex 790s? Any help?

I’m not sure about the boot list option - I don’t recall seeing anything called legacy. I’m sure they are AHCI and not RAID. The server is RAID, but the server also wasn’t even supposed to be on pxe boot.

I originally tried to use 5.x, but couldn’t figure out the needed files and resorted back to 4.05 since someone on a forum said that worked for them… I have since fallen back on 4.04 since that’s what some guides recommended… none seem to work for me.

Here’s my default file:

DEFAULT vesamenu.c32
MENU TITLE FOG Computer Cloning Solution
MENU BACKGROUND fog/bg.png
MENU MASTER PASSWD $1$0123456789
\n
menu color title1;36;44 #ffffffff #00000000 std
\n
LABEL fog.local
kernal chain.c32
append hd0
MENU DEFAULT
MENU LABEL Boot from hard disk
TEXT HELP
Boot from the local hard drive.
If you are unsure, select this option.
ENDTEXT
\n
LABEL fog.memtest
kernel fog/memtest/memtest
MENU LABEL Run Memtest86+
TEXT HELP
Run Memtest86+ on the client computer.
ENDTEXT
\n
LABEL fog.reg
kernel fog/kernel/bzImage
append initrd=fog/images/init.gz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=127000 ip=dhcp dns=10.10.5.2 mode=autoreg web=10.10.5.88/fog/ loglevel=4
MENU LABEL Quick Host Registration and Inventory
TEXT HELP
Automatically register the client computer,
and perform a hardware inventory.
ENDTEXT
\n
LABEL fog.reginput
kernel fog/kernel/bzImage
append initrd=fog/images/init.gz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=127000 ip=dhcp dns=10.10.5.2 mode=manreg web=10.10.5.88/fog/ loglevel=4
MENU LABEL Perform Full Host Registration and Inventory
TEXT HELP
Perform a full host registration on the client
computer, perform a hardware inventory, and
optionally image the host.
ENDTEXT
\n
LABEL fog.quickimage
MENU PASSWD $1$0123456789
kernel fog/kernel/bzImage
append initrd=fog/images/init.gz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=127000 ip=dhcp dns=10.10.5.2 mode=quickimage keymap= web=10.10.5.88/fog/ loglevel=4
MENU LABEL Quick Image
TEXT HELP
This mode will allow you to image this host quickly with
it’s default assigned image.
ENDTEXT
\n
LABEL fog.sysinfo
kernel fog/kernel/bzImage
append initrd=fog/images/init.gz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=127000 ip=dhcp dns=10.10.5.2 mode=sysinfo loglevel=4
MENU LABEL Client System Information
TEXT HELP
View basic client information such as MAC address
and FOG compatibility.
ENDTEXT

LABEL fog.debug
MENU PASSWD $1$0123456789
kernel fog/kernel/bzImage
append initrd=fog/images/init.gz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=127000 ip=dhcp dns=10.10.5.2 mode=onlydebug
MENU LABEL Debug Mode
TEXT HELP
Debug mode will load the boot image and load a prompt so
you can run any commands you wish.
ENDTEXT
\n
PROMPT 0
TIMEOUT 30\n

I am very new to all of this… the machines wouldn’t boot using the normal method Fog uses… that is why I started looking into this bootlooping/chainloader stuff. Does that answer the question?

Yes they can boot just fine when bypassing pxe.

bump - it’s more than just my dell workstations - apparently one of our Dell servers rebooted this past weekend and it was set to PXE boot first, which caught it in an endless fog startmenu loop as well. Perhaps I have missed something somewhere… any ideas anyone? Why do I get stuck in a 3 second countdown to infinity?

I found this thread which talks about the Dell bootlooping chainloader situation:
[url]http://fogproject.org/forum/threads/after-deploying-image-reboot-loop-dell-e6520-fog-0-32.445/[/url]

Which led me to the wiki telling how to change a few lines in the default file, overwrite a few files, and it should work…
[url]http://www.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Boot_looping_and_Chainloading[/url]

However, now my fog menu counts down from 3, then flashes and starts over again, repeatedly. I tried changing hd0 to hd1, but the problem still persists. Almost as if the machine’s HD isn’t taking the name hd0. (h d zero)

The machine is a Dell Optiplex 790.

Any thoughts or suggestions I can try to get this working? Thanks in advance!