Posts made by thomGee

Hi there,
this Problem allready existed in this forum and has been signed solved, as the threadstarter resigned and used the EXIT-way in Fog
(https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/16762/local-grub-booting-fails-from-fog-menu-pxe-uefi/7)

For me the problem persisted, as I need the features in refind for dualbooting the systems.

Meanwhile I tried some more scenarios.
My PC’s have 2 OS’s : Windows 10 and Ubuntu

With Ubuntu 20.04 everything was fine untill one Update (still have the Image) and all version from there on show the the Kernel panic.

I tried several configs in initramfs - different compressions, I thought it is a bug

I think I followed all descriptions from all experts in the net for this Error.

But the system (as you allready know) boots fine, when booted directly

So I start to ask myself - what is the difference?

refind and booting from the memory fog-pxe presents.

is it possible, the compression gots worse?
that for some reason the initramfs gots bigger
is there a way to reduce the initramfs filesize

It is a pitty ther is not enough logging

Unfortunately, it is not working!
I am not sure where to look at for further errors.
Any ideas! But for now - happy easter!

@george1421 said in local GRUB booting fails from FOG-Menu (PXE-UEFI):

@thomGee Instead of rEFUnd lets try mode EXIT.
Prior to version 1.5.10 there was a bug in exit. I hope it was fixed in 1.5.10 (I don’t remember the change log at the moment).
I am a bit confused because FOG 1.5.10 and 1.5.9 are basically the same in this area with maybe the exception that refind was updated to the latest release.
If there is still is still a bug in EXIT, I’ll look up the patch and we will recompile ipxe with the patch.
In regards to FOG and UEFI. FOG and iPXE chain calls refind to manage booting to the hard drive. We (you) might need to make some adjustments to the refind.conf file on the fog server to correct this behavior, I don’t know what might need to be changed at the moment.
One last bit, don’t use FOG’s grub exit modes, those are only for bios based computers and will fall flat if you try to use them with uefi.

@george1421 i‘ll try this tomorrow, but I hope, that I still may use the configs in refind, as i used the option to boot different OS on different hours after reboot (ex. win on daytime linux at night, or for course 1 (Linux) 08:00-12:00 and course 2 (Windows) 12:15 to 16:00)

And this managed centralised on the fog-server

@medchemii Just to make feel better - You are not alone !
I‘ve got the same problem. I do start an computerpool of 30 PC‘s for dualboot per refind in fog with pxe
This worked like a charm until maybe 3 weeks ago, after an update.

Exactly as you say: Booting via UEFI-Menu direkt from disk is no problem. From refind (I even tried several versions) via PXE - no way.
I am sure it comes from the update, as i restored an old image and everything is fine. After the update - my adrenaline rises… !

Also, the recommended solution for this Error (w/o PXE-boot) to rebuild the initramfs and update-grub has no result in our case

I think it must have to do something with GRUB.
Therfore I‘ve been looking to boot in refind directly from disk without grub. But no luck yet. Maybe I‘ve just not found the right way to set the
Menuentry and how to get an appropriate efi without grub
But if someone has an idea, I‘d be thankfull too!!!

Meanwhile I explore and tell whatever is usefull…

@george1421 said in rEFInd - themes:

Also something to try is because the error references “themes\theme.conf” we might want to use the dos path separator instead of the unix one. \ vs / in the --name key value.

I did this as the first project, this is much mor work than i thought… it has to be made by hand, no search and replace…
But there is some success:

imgfetch <somename> <uri> **<somename>** 

this second somename made a change and I even saw for a second the backgroundimage before it fell back to textmode! So the syntax and the path works ina way
but this fallback to textmode led only to another problem:
“Icons directory doesn’t exist; setting back textonly =TRUE”

Also in your imgfetch, I don’t see you actually sending “themes\theme.conf” to iPXE. Maybe that is why its throwing the error. Again I’m doing a lot of educated guessing here because I’ve never needed this method. So its going to be some trial and error here.

it is there in the first row - and after adding the second “somename” on the end it works…

@thomgee Can you change the configuration file to look for the icons and images in the same path where the refind.efi and refind.conf? I really don’t know how the directory structure works within this ipxe vhd . The concerns is that its a simple directory structure where sub dirs are not supported.

Maybe I don’t need this in the moment, as it is reading the themes/theme.conf and the huge amount of files.
the Icon-dir is my problem, as refind needs is obviously somehow.
I guess it needs the default icon-folder refind ships - but I feel horrified to fetch every single file…

@george1421 OK. I am on scratch

Thanx for the fast reply

I did as you said - hopefully I didn’t miss anything

i show you the code i used in the Menu:

imgfetch --name themes/theme.conf ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/theme.conf
imgfetch --name themes/icons/vol_optical.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/vol_optical.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/vol_net.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/vol_net.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/vol_internal.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/vol_internal.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/vol_external.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/vol_external.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/tool_windows_rescue.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/tool_windows_rescue.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/tool_shell.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/tool_shell.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/tool_rescue.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/tool_rescue.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/tool_part.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/tool_part.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/tool_netboot.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/tool_netboot.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/tool_mok_tool.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/tool_mok_tool.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/tool_memtest.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/tool_memtest.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/tool_fwupdate.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/tool_fwupdate.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/tool_apple_rescue.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/tool_apple_rescue.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/os_windows.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/os_windows.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/os_win.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/os_win.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/os_unknown.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/os_unknown.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/os_ubuntu.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/os_ubuntu.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/func_shutdown.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/func_shutdown.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/func_reset.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/func_reset.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/func_csr_rotate.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/func_csr_rotate.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/func_exit.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/func_exit.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/func_firmware.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/func_firmware.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/func_hidden.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/func_hidden.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/func_about.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/func_about.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/arrow_right.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/arrow_right.png
imgfetch --name themes/icons/arrow_left.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/arrow_left.png
imgfetch --name themes/background-bio.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/background-bio.png
imgfetch --name themes/selection-big.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/selection-big.png
imgfetch --name themes/selection-small.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/selection-small.png
imgfetch --name themes/source-code-pro-extralight-14.png ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/themes/source-code-pro-extralight-14.png
imgfetch ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/refind.conf
chain -ar ${boot-url}/service/ipxe/refind_x64.efi || goto MENU

I copied the files accordingly into folders in ipxe.
When I start the menu i looks promissing
All imgfetches run with an ok! It is slow this way, but this seems to work
but refind keeps falling back in to textmode.
when I refresh, it sais:

• Configuration file “themes\theme.conf” missing
• Icons directory doesn’t exist: setting textonly = TRUE
• Icons directory doesn’t exist: setting textonly = TRUE
• Warning: unable to scale icon from 1 x 0 to 32 x 32 from “.VolumeBadge.png”
• and about 8 similar warnings…

I made sure refind is in graphical mode (textonly 0) and the path is right
The files for the theme are 870 kB alltogether

Ana idea, why it doesn’t find the neither the themes.conf nor icon-folder?

I am going to give my clients the possibility to choose the OS via rEFInd
is it possible to load the theme from the fog server?
I installed it like on local installations in the same folder like refind.conf (/var/www/fog/service/ipxe/themes/) and configured an “include” for the theme.conf into the refind.conf
But it seems like ipxe.efi does not load the themes folder or the refind.conf is not able to load the folder.

Any ideas? maybe set the path to the themesfolder as url?

@george1421 Thank You for beeing so fast
I’ll try that in my Lab-Environment.
Fortunately, I have a little time until the pool has to be online.
But than it has to be bulletproof

I am also not used to rEFInd yet, but so far i like it.
I think I even found something to look for HD-Labels.
With SSD in UEFI this may hopefully work with several PCs

But further Ideas are welcome

Hi there,
I have installed windows on one drive and Linux on the other.
In addition i want rEFInd on the Linuxpartition to have the user a nice way to choose the OS.

Actually, I’d like to have it automatically booting Linux in the evening and Windows at daytime.

Is it possible to change the FOG-Image in a way, to decide which local Drive to boot from?

I could make in both OS’s a Autotask to reboot at a specific time. So only FOG has to change the default local bootdevice in its image to change the default OS

I think there might be 2 Images to be switched on the FOG server
or to change the iPXE-Setting in FOG via Script. Right?

But how to change this in the right time (ex. with cron?)

Any ideas?