Posts made by mkstreet

mkstreet

[quote=“Tom Elliott, post: 30893, member: 7271”]Sysprep is useful for many reasons. It won’t hurt “not” to do it, but it won’t hurt to do it either. In the case of mass imaging (as fog is intended), it’s useful especially for Volume Licenses. That said, it’s not a necessity UNLESS::

NTFS Resizable without Sysprep never worked with 0.32, only Sysprepped Windows 7 could be NTFS Resizable. FOG 1.X.X, brought this ability however. It is assuming, (just so you understand) a clean base install of Windows 7, either single part (all the disk is used for C:) or 2 part (100MB Recovery and the rest for the C:). This same principle exists as well for 0.32 (but again only if the system was sysprepped will it boot.)
[/quote]

What is the definition of the term “clean base install of Windows 7”? I think everything in my environment is derived from a copy of something else, and then modified. I don’t have a virgin HDD nor an official O/S CD-ROM to install with from scratch…

That said, it seems our shop has already violated the second stipulation since we have a C and D drive because we keep the C drive frozen (with deep freeze) and students are allowed personal files on the D drive as a “common space”.

So, given our configuration of C and D drives, even with sysprep, we won’t be able to resize it. Does that seem correct?

[quote=“Tom Elliott, post: 30893, member: 7271”]
This is wrong. The mbr file contains the Partitioning layout. In Multi-part (single or all) disk images, the MBR is backed up with the image. It is this MBR that get’s written to the hard-drive. The MBR contains the partitioning layout, and as such, the specified HDD Partition Sizes, this is where the image “fails” because the Partition is larger than the disk can handle. If the drive is the same or larger size as what the partitions are based on, things run fine, if the drive is smaller, it doesn’t know how to deal with the data.
[/quote]

I will have to look at this again, but I have had many examples in the past week where the machine wouldn’t load.
Then, after I did a Fog deploy-debug boot, I manually setup the partition table to match the image computer’s partition table (using fdisk), the deploy would run successfully right away.

The Fog inventory (at least under Fov v0.32) doesn’t seem to show the HDD sizes. If I could easily find that out, I would find the smallest drive machine and make my image on that… because then it would fit into all the bigger ones.

mkstreet

[quote=“mkstreet, post: 30796, member: 24215”]

Some of my computers run in a static IP environment and they have no issues with their wired ethernet connection after a deploy. However, I have noticed that dynamic IP/dhcp environment computers have two issues after a deploy causing the ethernet LAN connection to not work. First, Windows tells me that “network sharing and discovery is turned off” – where I am sure it must have been ON in the computer I imaged. So I don’t know how this got turned off. Second, after I turn network sharing/discovery on, the ethernet connection shows a “Default Gateway IP” (and I think also the DHCP server IP) with the value of the Fog server’s IP address. Is there a setting I have wrong on this?

[/quote]

OK I think I have found at least part of the problem on #5… there are two profiles: 1) Home/Office – with Network Discovery turned ON… but also 2) Public – where it is turned off. The newly imaged machines don’t know they are part of the Home/Office and use the public profile.

mkstreet

[quote=“Bronzli, post: 28203, member: 24373”]Hello,
I’ve just upgrade my fog server to 1.0.1 and have problème to boot the host under pxe!!!
few informations :
ubuntu 12.04 ; fog 1.0.1
service tftpd-hpa running
my fog config.php :
…
[/quote]

I run Fog under the same version of Ubuntu as you and in the past I have had PXE boot issues. I don’t remember exactly what all the symptoms were, but over time I have come up with this two line script and I just run this every time, first thing, after I reboot the Fog server… since I started this practice…never had any problems again:

sudo this file

start isc-dhcp-server
restart tftpd-hpa

mkstreet

Sounds great! Thanks. That’s what I planned to do until I went to go download and saw the FOG VM… that caused me to pause and question.

mkstreet

I’ve looked at this forum, Fog wikis/guides, and other sites that google found for me.

There seems to be a lot of different and often conflicting information out there, often posted at different times over the past 3 years.

I’d like to get clarity in one place of the current information…

Here are my technical details:
Fog Server: vers 0.32 under Ubuntu 12.04

Deploy boxes:
Windows 7, 64-bit

 Image computers (and most deploy computers) have:
 Windows HDD configuration:  C drive (about 130 GB) and D drive (about 170 GB)

 fdisk shows 3 partitions
  /dev/sda1   boot partition,  partition type ID 7 "htt... something"
  /dev/sda2                         partition type ID 5 "extended"
  /dev/sda5                         (logical partition that matches dimensions of /dev/sda2), partition type ID 7

To the questions/issues…

When I create my image, I don’t run sysprep and I don’t run chkdsk… but I’ve successfully deployed to about 50 computers (although those computers were identical in every way). Am I missing doing an important step(s) such that I should use sysprep and/or chkdsk?
When I create the image, I’ve not gotten image type of NTFS resizable to work (upload). I have successfully created, and deployed, both multi-partiion single disk (not resizable) and multi-partion all disks (not resizable). I’ve seen older information suggesting that NTFS resizable wont work with Windows 7. Am I doing this correctly to NOT use NTFS? This leads to my next two items (#3 and #4)… [I also saw older comments saying that they had used multi-partition single/all disks RESIZABLE – but this isn’t an option in my Fog vers – I am guessing this resizable was there before and is deprecated now?]
It seems to be the case that the target computer’s partition table entries need to exactly match the image creator’s partition table…or the deploy won’t start. I think there have been some cases where the target computers partitions are larger and that seems to work. I thought that as long as the data of the partition was smaller than the defined partition that it would deploy? I’d read some comments to the effect that Windows 7 would work this way even with not resizable images (that Windows 7 would resize even though the image type is not resizable).
I’d like to make an image that is more hardware independent as far as HDD partition sizes… how can this be done (if it can be) with Windows 7 and the image types available?
Some of my computers run in a static IP environment and they have no issues with their wired ethernet connection after a deploy. However, I have noticed that dynamic IP/dhcp environment computers have two issues after a deploy causing the ethernet LAN connection to not work. First, Windows tells me that “network sharing and discovery is turned off” – where I am sure it must have been ON in the computer I imaged. So I don’t know how this got turned off. Second, after I turn network sharing/discovery on, the ethernet connection shows a “Default Gateway IP” (and I think also the DHCP server IP) with the value of the Fog server’s IP address. Is there a setting I have wrong on this?

Thanks!

mkstreet

In the download section, I see both FOG and FOG VM.

If I want to run this on Virtual Box, is there a reason NOT to just install the normal FOG (instead of FOG VM)?

I’d like to try out Fog V 1.1.1 on Virtual Box (under Ubuntu 13.10).

p.s. I am new to trying/using Virtual Box… so sorry if this is a silly question.

mkstreet

[quote=“Tom Elliott, post: 29976, member: 7271”]What is the OS of the image?

What is the type of the image (raw, single disk, multi-part?)

It looks like the mbr or gpt tables aren’t being written back. At least not properly.[/quote]

I may have found something that fixes this.

I did a deploy-debug on both PC’s.

Then at the debug prompt:
# fdisk /dev/sda and then “w” to write it out
# fog

Both PC’s seems to be loading. Though I don’t know if this is one-time or I will need to manually do this every time I want to load these machines. Any ideas?

(got this from: [url]http://fogproject.org/forum/threads/partition-table-error.1234/#post-10305[/url] )

mkstreet

[quote=“Tom Elliott, post: 29976, member: 7271”]What is the OS of the image?

What is the type of the image (raw, single disk, multi-part?)

It looks like the mbr or gpt tables aren’t being written back. At least not properly.[/quote]

I might have found a clue to this, but I don’t know how to interpret it.

I tried to deploy this same image to a third PC (all three PCs are the same hardware)… this is what I noticed:

The first time, I get an error like this:

Checking hard disk: Error: invalid partition table on /dev/sda – wrong signature 0.

Then on subsequent attempts to deploy, I don’t see that error any more but only the error…
* Changing host name … ntfs-3g: no mountpoint specified

mkstreet

[quote=“Tom Elliott, post: 29976, member: 7271”]What is the OS of the image?

What is the type of the image (raw, single disk, multi-part?)

It looks like the mbr or gpt tables aren’t being written back. At least not properly.[/quote]

The image O/S is Windows 7 (64-bit).
I first tried image type: Multiple Partition Image All Disks (not resizable)

I just tried Multiple Partition Image Single Disks (not resizable). This gets:

Using hard disk /dev/sda
Restoring MBR … Done
Checking Hard Disk: Error: invalid partition table on /dev/sda – wrong signature 0.
Done
Task Completed
Changing host name … ntfs-3g: no mountpoint specified

ntfs-3g 2009.3.8 integrated FUSE 27-third generations NTFS driver

Copyright … (information about the driver… and its usage)

Fog server o/s: Ubuntu 12.04
Fog Vers: 0.32

mkstreet

Still no success. The Multi Partition Single Disk gets me this error when I try to download:

Using hard disk /dev/sda
Restoring MBR … Done
Checking Hard Disk: Error: invalid partition table on /dev/sda – wrong signature 0.
Done
Task Completed
Changing host name … ntfs-3g: no mountpoint specified

ntfs-3g 2009.3.8 integrated FUSE 27-third generations NTFS driver

Copyright … (information about the driver… and its usage)

I am running out of ideas…

mkstreet

The image O/S is Windows 7 (64-bit).
I first tried image type: Multiple Partition Image All Disks (not resizable)

Now I am creating/trying Multiple Partition Image Single Disks (not resizable)

Fog server o/s: Ubuntu 12.04
Fog Vers: 0.32

mkstreet

I tried creating (uploading) the image as Vista and then tried both downloading at Win 7 or Vista.
The same kind of errors as noted above.

Now I am trying to create a new image from the source PC as image type “Multiple Partition Single Disk (not resizable)”
and Win 7.

mkstreet

Update:
I did see another thread about specifying the image as Windows Vista, even thought it is Windows 7.

I tried just changing the Fog database to show the client as Vista and deploy.

When I do this, I get this error instead:

Looking for hard disks… Done.
Task Completed
Changing host name … umount: can’t unmount /ntfs: invalid argument

Now I am trying this: change the first PC to Vista and uploading a new image. Then I will try to deploy that as Vista on the 2nd PC.

mkstreet

I have two PC’s of the same architecture. I setup one and uploaded its image to Fog.
Now on the second PC, I want to deploy that image.

The Fog deploy script begins normally, showing the image name and so forth.

Then it says:

Looking for hard disks… Done.
Task Completed
Changing host name … ntfs-3g: no mountpoint specified

ntfs-3g 2009.3.8 integrated FUSE 27-third generations NTFS driver

Copyright … (information about the driver… and its usage)

Then it aborts and updates the Fog database to say task done.

Fog server o/s: Ubuntu 12.04
Fog Vers: 0.32
Client O/S: Windows 7
Image type: Multiple Partition Image All Disks (not resizable)

mkstreet

I solved the problem. For some reason the isc-dhcp-server was not running. This hadn’t happened before, but starting that and restarting tftpd-hpa fixed the DHCP issue.

This is for Ubuntu 12.04.04 with Fog 0.32

mkstreet

[quote=“mkstreet, post: 27393, member: 24215”]Tom,

It seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks!

I did use SYSLINUX 4.04…

Mark[/quote]

Perhaps I spoke to soon.

After I restarted FOG and Ubuntu, I tried to do a deploy with multicast. The computers tried to boot and would eventually timeout on trying to locate DHCP.

I un-did these SYSLINUX changes and then they could find DHCP again.

I wonder if it would be better if I used something more recent than SYSLINUX 4.04?

Mark

mkstreet

[quote=“Tom Elliott, post: 27378, member: 7271”]Try from this wiki:
[url]http://fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/Boot_looping_and_Chainloading[/url][/quote]

Tom,

It seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks!

I did use SYSLINUX 4.04…

Mark

mkstreet

[quote=“Tom Elliott, post: 27378, member: 7271”]Try from this wiki:
[url]http://fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/Boot_looping_and_Chainloading[/url][/quote]

FYI… on that link above it says:

[SIZE=5][B]Update SYSLINUX[/B][/SIZE]

[LIST]
[]Download and extract the latest SYSLINUX (Currently using 4.04): [url]http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/[/url]
[]Copy/Overwrite the following files to /tftpboot/:
[/LIST]
syslinux-4.04/com32/modules/chain.c32
syslinux-4.04/com32/menu/vesamenu.c32
syslinux-4.04/core/pxelinux.0

But the “latest” syslinux (6.02) doesn’t have these files anymore.
I’ve downloaded the 4.04 version (since that was also referenced in the wiki link).

mkstreet

[quote=“Tom Elliott, post: 27378, member: 7271”]Try from this wiki:
[url]http://fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/Boot_looping_and_Chainloading[/url][/quote]

Ah, that looks interesting. It’s 8am on Sunday here. When I get to school tomorrow, I will try this and report back as soon as I can.
Thanks much!

mkstreet

[quote=“Tom Elliott, post: 27365, member: 7271”]As you’re using 0.32. There are two options to fix this issue for you.

First is, if you’re able to, upgrade to 1.x.x FOG. The reason being is related to what I’ll ask you to try secondly. You will have to make a change on the DHCP Option 67 to be looking for file: undionly.kpxe as opposed to pxelinux.0 as was done in the past. 1.x.x does chainloading natively and should help with your issue. With it, you’ll be able to change the exit type of FOG as well, so if one doesn’t work, try the other and you should be good to go.

Second, look up chainloading howto on the wiki. This should help you out if you can’t upgrade.[/quote]

We’ve been using FOG a grand total of about two weeks.

In the first week, we tried getting 1.0.0 FOG from SVN (this was just prior to 13-May-2014) and installing it (on Ubuntu 14.04). Since we are using static IP in this computer lab, we did try setting up FOG as ProxyDHCP with dnsmasq (btw, those are what the wiki chainloading links redirect to). We had trouble getting any of that to work. Though offhand all the things we encountered are a blur now.

Our solution attempt was to go back to FOG 0.32 and Ubuntu 12.04.04. We did this and upload/deploy started working right away and so easily that our days/hours of earlier effort with 1.0.0 FOG and dnsmasq config seem like wasted hours of head-pounding-wall.

Right now, it’s really only this issue of BOOT LOCAL DISK remaining and this Com Lab goes live in under 24 hours. If changing that FOG_EXIT_BOOT_TYPE is not an option, then I will have to wait until there is time to “play” with this again.