Posts made by Zer0Cool

@sebastian-roth I changed that line but do not see any difference. This is what I altered:

explode("\n", $mainFallback),
            array(
                'goto MENU',
                ':get_console',
                "console --x 1024 --y 768 --picture $this->_booturl/ipxe/$bgfile "
                . "&& goto console_set || goto alt_console",
            )

I also noticed a vast difference between the size of the menu in BIOS and UEFI, the BIOS version is actually a little too big if anything, but the UEFI version takes up maybe 1/4 of the screen.

Any way to get these 2 menus on par in terms of size with each other?

As an aside, I thought setting the resolution to 1024x768 (matching my bg) would get the background to display, but it has not.

I guess next step is to try and save my bg as 800x600 and see if it displays, then as png instead of as jpg.

Thanks

So I have found this:
https://github.com/nielsbasjes/ipxe-boot-rom/blob/master/menu.ipxe

There are other examples online showing adding parameters to the console line in menu.ipxe as to change the screen resolution of the iPXE menu:

ex:

console --x 1024 --y 768 --picture http://ipxe.org/_media/logos/ipxe-large.png --depth 32

My boot.php shows a similar line like:

console --picture http://myip/fog/service/ipxe/pxe.jpg --left 100 --right 80 && goto console_set || goto alt_console

However upon review I am unsure where I can update this line to include the -x/-y parameters. The boot.php is pretty sparse and looks like it relies on many other resources to build up the menu dynamically. I was unable with any digging to find the lines/lines of code responsible for the console line.

I would really like to adjust the resolution, as especially on UEFI boot the menu is super small, roughly 1/4 of the screen making it hard to see.

I came across mention of using some advanced options to customize the menu in the wiki but they seem to be dated (and specific to syslinux menus).

My apologies if there is a simple way to set this in the GUI I have overlooked. Any help would be great,

Thanks

Well, I mounted the ISO for 6.5 on the server, copied everything over, recreated the menu and edited the boot.cfg and the same issue:

• The bootx64.efi and boot.cfg load as expected
• The VMWare ESXi installer loads files according to the boot.cfg
• The VMWare ESXi installer starts, the band/progress bar at the bottom gets past a couple stages and then PSOD on the “storage-stack” portion every time.

(all related to 6.5 U1 A10)
Tested 2x R620’s, one with all newest firmware, both have same issue. Tested on an FC630, works no issues.

ISO burned to physical media runs as expected and works in both R620’s via UEFI DVD/CD boot.

I am going to try and alter the 6.5 install to run over ftp instead of http to see if it changes anything. I had done this prior I think, but want to be sure. I will pass everything via ftp (bootx64.efi, boot.cfg and all modules from boot.cfg).

If that doesnt work I will just give up on the R620’s getting PXE booted ESXi 6.5 U1 A10. As long as its 1 or 2 machines/models that arent critical I can live with that but if the crashes become the rule and not the exception thats going to cause issues for me.

Lastly, is there anyway to via UEFI do something similar to a memdisk/iso load? I know memdisk itself is BIOS only, is there a way to UEFI boot straight from ISO?

Thanks

EDIT: ftp crashes just the same, i give up unless I can UEFI boot the ISO

@george1421 I can confirm ESXi 6.7 installs and boots without an issue.

I am going to proceed with mounting the ISO on the server for 6.5, copy its contents over into the proper place again, and see if it resolves anything.

If not, I am going to chalk it up to a compatibility issue between the R620, iPXE and ESXi 6.5 U1.

@george1421 Hey Thanks for looking into it.

Hold off on anything more for now. ESXi 6.7 goes through the install without the PSOD on the same hardware.

I also should have mentioned these are both the Dell ESXi versions (6.5 U1 A10 and 6.7 A00)

I am seeing right now if 6.7 really works, or fails at some other point.

I am also xfering the 6.5 ISO to the server, and will mount/copy the files over from the server instead of on another machine and then ftp’ing them over in case I am somehow causing issues with the files.

Ill report my findings back. Also, I may try on another server to see if its just a quirk with the R620’s.

Thanks

@george1421 Sorry I think we are on different pages here.

I DO need UEFI boot.

If you UEFI booted on hardware, your result is unlikely to be the same as in a VM (which is pretty “sanitary” by comparison). Conversely if I tried to PXE boot a UEFI VM it would likely work.

The issues appears to be the combination of: FOG(really iPXE) -> UEFI boot on specific hardware -> ESXi

I am attempting ESXi 6.7 now to see if its the same issue. I will likely try another type/model of Dell server to see if that has the same issue.

Basically, I need to be able to UEFI PXE boot and install CentOS 7 and ESXi 6.5/6.7. I have CentOS working on the same hardware (Dell PowerEdge R620) but I get the PSOD when trying to install ESXi.

I hope this clarifies the situation.

@george1421 I am pretty sure this is an iPXE issue, I found this thread over at iPXE forums thats exactly my problem (on different hardware). As they describe it, its when they use iPXE with that hardware and ESXi that the problem surfaces.

They however do not seem to have found a solution, which is a problem for me as I need to serve up ESXi via PXE and will need to regularly on hardware. I had other issues using SYSLINUX instead for it, so I was really hoping an alternative to Syslinux would work.

Is it possible to boot from ISO via UEFI boot? I know I could do memdisk via BIOS, looking for something similar via UEFI as a possible alternative if this cant be worked out.

Thanks

CentOS 7.4.1708 base
FOG: 1.5.2
FOG server is only server on its own subnet acting as dhcp and pxe, http, tftp, etc.
Host: Dell PowerEdge R620

Added a menu entry under iPXE for VMWare ESXi (6.5 U1). I have the contents of the cd/dvd in /images/desxi/

I have edited the boot.cfg in /images/desxi/efi/boot/ to have the prefix of my server path to the path of these files (http://ip/fog/images/desxi) and have removed all the leading ‘/’'s in the modules and in front of the tboot.b00.

I followed this post as a guide:
http://forum.ipxe.org/showthread.php?tid=9477&pid=14952#pid14952

I have verbatim what they have in terms of my boot.cfg and my menu entry except I am using my paths.

For UEFI its a bit different (adjusting menu entry to use bootx64.efi):
It flashes that bootx64.efi loads/ok
I then get the VMWare ESXi screen loading all the files needed.
It gets to ESXi’s screen with the progress bar, but I get a PSOD (Pink/Purple Screen of Death) when it gets to storage-stack in that process. At this point a hard reboot is required.

Some stuff I have tried:

• I have tried loading the bootx64.efi and the boot.cfg via http and tftp (either loads these 2 files)
• I have tried setting the boot.cfg prefix parameter to: http, tftp, nfs (nfs doesnt work, other 2 load all the files/modules listed).

In all cases no matter how I successfully load the bootx64.efi and boot.cfg file and no matter how I load the modules from the boot.cfg file, once I get past loading the modules in ESXi’s loading screen and get to the installer, it crashes right towards the start on loading storage-stack or something along those lines, showing a PSOD.

I have checked the forums and found a similar post but without resolution and tried altering my menu to match with similar results

@george1421 The issue has changed drastically since posting this, likely warranting anew title and description as well. I was going to delete this topic had no one responded. I will leave it for now and post a link to my new topic. Sorry

CentOS 7 base
Fog 1.5.2
no other dhcp/fog servers

Hey,

Added a menu entry under iPXE for VMWare ESXi (6.5 U1). I have the contents of the cd/dvd in /images/desxi

I have edited the boot.cfg both in /images/desxi and /images/desxi/efi/boot/ to have the prefix of my server path to the path of these files (http://ip/fog/images/desxi) and have removed all the leading ‘/’'s in the modules and in front of the tboot.b00.

I followed this post as a guide:
http://forum.ipxe.org/showthread.php?tid=9477&pid=14952#pid14952

I have verbatim what they have in terms of my boot.cfg and my menu entry except I am using my paths.

I get the entry upon boot, select it and get text saying (BIOS):
“http://ip/fog/images/desxi/mboot.c32… ok”
Then it just sits there and does nothing. I have nethogs up and see no traffic, nothing is being xfered. It just sits at that screen.

For UEFI its a bit different (adjusting menu entry to use bootx64.efi):
It flashes that bootx64.efi loads/ok
then it goes to a screen that looks like the ESXi boot up if it was vertically smashed into a smaller space and if it was a scrabbled tv signal (cant make out any of the “text”, just bands of color). It then freezes and has to be hard shutdown/startup

I do need this to work via UEFI and BIOS, so I dont think memdisk is an option. Ive followed dozens of articles on VMwares site, articles online, searched these forums, etc. Ive tried variations of the commands both in boot.cfg and within the menu parameters with no luck.

Any help would be great, thanks

-PS I did get CentOS 7 working via PXE boot on multiple hosts using both BIOS and UEFI boot. So I am pretty sure things like dhcp, http, firewall, etc are configured properly. I have also tried redownloading the esxi ISO 3 times, so I doubt its the image.

@tom-elliott This is accurate for me. When creating a new entry description doesnt save but the rest does. I am then able to edit it and add description.

I will be blowing out the server and rebuilding from the ground up in the near future as this was just testing, so I can revisit it then and confirm if it was an issue with my specific setup or a repeatable issue.

@quazz Nope, this was the issue…

When I created the entries new, I did put in a description and saved them, the saved entry did not keep the description field, thus it was empty and the menu items were in the PXE boot menu, but blank under everything else (invisible).

I went back to the entry and gave it a description again via the “iPXE menu item settings” category and clicking o nthe menu entry and adding a description to the description field, then re-saving it. Checked and now shows in the PXE boot menu on the host.

Possible I made this mistake 2x…I guess but unlikely considering I recall deciding what I would make the description.

@quazz Ok wait a second, just noticed neither of my menus kept the description which I assume is the visible part i nthe menu, ie:

item fog.multijoin Join Multicast Session
item fog.sysinfo Client System Information (Compatibility)
item os.Centos7
item test.menu

My Centos7 and test entries have nothing to the right of them, which I assume comes from the description field…I did fill those in but now they are empty

@quazz Just relized that, edited prior reply with it

@quazz Yep noted here:

@zer0cool said in New iPXE Entries Not Showing:

@wayne-workman Is that the “Menu Show With”? I have it set to all hosts, I would presume that includes non-registered but there is an entry specifically for not registered.

Also here is the snippet from boot.php:

:os.Centos7
kernel tftp://${fog-ip}/centos7/images/vmlinuz
initrd tftp://${fog-ip}/centos7/images/initrd.img
imgargs vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img root=live:nfs://${fog-ip}/images/centos7/LiveOS/squashfs.img ip=dhcp
repo=nfs://${fog-ip}/images/centos7 splash quiet
boot || goto MENU
param sysuuid ${uuid}

I dont see anything out of place with it

Sorry, think this is what you meant:

:MENU
menu
colour --rgb 0xff0000 0 ||
cpair --foreground 1 1 ||
cpair --foreground 0 3 ||
cpair --foreground 4 4 ||
item --gap Host is NOT registered!
item --gap -- -------------------------------------
item fog.local Boot from hard disk
item fog.memtest Run Memtest86+
item fog.reginput Perform Full Host Registration and Inventory
item fog.reg Quick Registration and Inventory
item fog.deployimage Deploy Image
item fog.multijoin Join Multicast Session
item fog.sysinfo Client System Information (Compatibility)
item os.Centos7
item test.menu
choose --default fog.local --timeout 120000 target && goto ${target}

Looks like both the entries I created are listed there (os.Centos7 and test.menu)

@wayne-workman said in New iPXE Entries Not Showing:

@zer0cool There is an advanced menu item if I recall, best to try that too.

In what capacity do you mean? I see some options in the Web GUI for advanced (enabling a login and the entry under menu item settings), but only the options I listed are available on the PXE booted host, no advanced option there.

@wayne-workman No change.

I created another menu entry, just gave it a name and set to all menus, no parameters. It also did not show up but is in the boot.php.

I then did a quick register on the host, it shows up as registered in the web gui, but doesnt have either menu entry as expected in the PXE boot.

Again to confirm here, are we expecting these entries to be at the top level right after boot, along with entries like memtest and deploy image or are they a sub menu to something?

@wayne-workman Ok heres the setup

Single fog server on its own subnet for staging. It acts as DHCP, etc.

I have a workstation on the same network that I am using to PXE boot and check things from acting as a host.

Currently its a clean slate, nothing registered.

The entry for CentOS is the only entry I have attempted creating in PXE.

I have so far tried changing the All hosts to Unregistered hosts in the “Menu Show With” and have also rebooted the server after creating the menu, neither changed anything.

The host boots, and shows the standard menu via BIOS or UEFI boot, with these options:
“local, memtest, full registration, quick reg, deploy image, join multicast and client system info.”

I will try and add another “dummy” entry to PXE and see if it displays. I will also try registering the host to see if that matters. Ill report back

@wayne-workman Is that the “Menu Show With”? I have it set to all hosts, I would presume that includes non-registered but there is an entry specifically for not registered.

Also here is the snippet from boot.php:

:os.Centos7
kernel tftp://${fog-ip}/centos7/images/vmlinuz
initrd tftp://${fog-ip}/centos7/images/initrd.img
imgargs vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img root=live:nfs://${fog-ip}/images/centos7/LiveOS/squashfs.img ip=dhcp
repo=nfs://${fog-ip}/images/centos7 splash quiet
boot || goto MENU
param sysuuid ${uuid}

I dont see anything out of place with it

@wayne-workman So the ownership was off, so set it fog:root like everything else. Booted host and still no new menu entry. Permissions seem to be what they should be, I dont see any issues there

I get: local, memtest, full registration, quick reg, deploy image, join multicast and client system info.

Does the host need to be registered prior to seeing this menu entry?