I’m using Ansible to provision a machine and fully configure and install a FOG server automatically.

I’m looking for a way to automate installfog.sh, because so far I haven’t found a way to do it other than manually. The only way I’ve seen to run it automatically is with the -Y / --autoaccept option, which just auto-accepts defaults.

I’ve checked the ‘FOG installer command line options’, but none seem to allow setting the network interface, IP, or hostname directly.

The goal is to provide these three values (interface, IP, and hostname) as parameters so the IPXE server is fully set up automatically.

Any suggestions or possible solutions would be greatly appreciated.

@brent could you specify exactly at which point of the installation you see this error? If you notice the installer hangs or fails specifically during the “pinning” stage, it is likely a name resolution issue.

I’ve found a solution for this: you need to manually edit the Windows hosts file at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts and add an entry with your FOG server’s IP address followed by the name “fogserver”. This ensures the SmartInstaller.exe recognizes the server and can download the certificate properly.

Just adding my case here in case it helps someone else with the same error.

I’m running FOG 1.5.10 on RHEL 9.5. In my case the problem was not iPXE, kernels or init.xz, but a broken NFS setup on the FOG server.

When I tried to rerun installfog.sh, it always failed at “Starting NFS server” with a systemd dependency error. Checking systemctl list-dependencies --failed nfs-server.service showed that one dependency was a failed mount coming from /etc/fstab. It was an old ISO mount pointing to a path that no longer existed.

Because that mount failed, nfs-server could not start, and FOS Linux failed to mount its root filesystem over NFS, causing the kernel panic on UEFI clients.

After removing the invalid mount from /etc/fstab, running systemctl daemon-reload, fixing NFS exports and starting nfs-server, I was able to complete installfog.sh and UEFI PXE boot started working again.

@Hojjati I’ve found a solution for this issue that worked for me.
You need to manually edit the Windows hosts file at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts and add an entry with your FOG server’s IP address followed by the name “fogserver”.

This is necessary because SmartInstaller.exe performs a pinning process during installation, if you notice the installer hangs or fails exactly at that pinning stage, it is definitely due to this resolution issue.

Adding the entry ensures the installer recognizes the server and can download the certificate properly.

I’ve solved this “Invalid security token” error before with two methods.

This error usually happens because the security trust between the node and the server is broken or the encryption keys don’t match.
First, try deleting the host from the FOG Web UI, then perform a Quick Registration on the client machine and run the install again, this resets the trust relationship from scratch.

If the token.dat is still missing after that, open services.msc, manually start the FOGService, and reboot the computer. Manually triggering the service often forces the client to check in and finally generate the missing token.dat file.

@nicolas-moraes I managed to solve it and in my case it was not a FOG or network issue. I verified that DHCP was working correctly (confirmed with tcpdump), options 66/67 were unchanged, TFTP was running, and the FOG web/ipxe boot.php were reachable.

The key test was that when the client stayed at “Start PXE over IPv4”, the FOG server was not receiving any DHCP or TFTP requests at all, which pointed to a client-side problem. Even though Secure Boot and Fast Boot were already disabled, the issue was caused by the BIOS state.

After restoring BIOS defaults on the HP laptop and re-enabling PXE IPv4 boot, everything started working again. It seems some UEFI/PXE flags were stuck, and resetting the BIOS fixed it.