f21970 Posted July 7, 2009 Posted July 7, 2009 (edited) Hi all - I'm setting up FOG and having a few problems getting PC's to PXE boot. I've got options 66 & 67 set on a Windows DHCP server to the FOG server's IP address and pxelinux.0 respectively. If I change a client to PXE boot in BIOS, I get the PC trying to DHCP, then (too quickly to see properly) a whole string of error messages. The client then just sits there with a black screen not doing very much at all. Can anyone help me? Edited July 7, 2009 by ZeroHour
Batman Posted July 7, 2009 Posted July 7, 2009 That should work so I expect the problem is not to do with the Windows server... although a word of warning, we had a problem where the machines would only PXE boot on one scope. I had assumed that changing the options at a root level would propagate to all the nested stuff but it only worked on one scope because the other scopes had been assigned individual settings. If you have multiple scopes, check the options for all scopes. What make is the machine, and have you tried different ones? When I first tested it I used a VM to do it and that worked fine. The second machine I tried it with was an Optronix (big pile o' poop!) and that did much the same as yours did, but all the other computers we have work fine (laptops, desktops, netbooks... everything)! Assuming it's none of those things, have you gone through the installation guide to make sure you didn't miss anything there? You didn't set the FOG server up as a DHCP server did you?
ninjabeaver Posted July 7, 2009 Posted July 7, 2009 What network card have you got in the PC's? If it's the SIS 900 or 191 cards then I can't get them to work either. Have you tried setting the PXE menu to text inside of FOG. I'm at home so can't remember where that setting is inside the FOG Console.
f21970 Posted July 8, 2009 Author Posted July 8, 2009 Funnily enough, after I've checked, they are SIS900 cards. Does that mean that I'm unable to image these PC's?
f21970 Posted July 8, 2009 Author Posted July 8, 2009 Think I've answered my own question (if Google failed the world would end!). Theres a document about it on FOG's Wiki and it suggests using Etherboot - clicky here
Batman Posted July 8, 2009 Posted July 8, 2009 When I've had machines that were incompatible with ghost, I image a bunch of hard drives in one machine that works and move the drives back to the bad machines afterwards. It's a messy workaround, but it can be a lifesaver. Same thing should work with FOG but it's not ideal. From what I've read, there's a bug in the Linux kernel that stops the SIS900/901 from working; so it's not a FOG problem it's a Linux problem. Do a google search for "SIS 900 linux" and there's plenty up there, something on the Ubuntu forums suggests turning off acpi can fix it? Other idea, got any spare cards? Or could you get some more? FOG is so good when it works, it's a shame it doesn't for you
Batman Posted July 8, 2009 Posted July 8, 2009 Think I've answered my own question (if Google failed the world would end!). Theres a document about it on FOG's Wiki and it suggests using Etherboot - clicky here Ahh well found
f21970 Posted July 8, 2009 Author Posted July 8, 2009 Apparently it's a problem with a dodgy PXE stack in the SIS900 cards. With 400+ SFF PC's, replacing the ethernet cards would be a tad tricky, so just gotta try this Etherboot workaround. Will let you all know if it works.
Cools Posted July 8, 2009 Posted July 8, 2009 (edited) i have AcerPower M8 PCs and the PXE works on in text mode but not in Graphical mode. and the net work card is ; yk50x86.inf created 20-Sep-2007 ; ; Marvell Yukon Ethernet Controller been looking to get this fixed for Yrs...... Well After a 1h i have PXE chainloading on frog.. and now i get the graphical boot screen only problem is booting from local Disk it wants to reboot.. all the time .. FIXED.. Mine . . might work .. for you.. Update the PXElinux.0 on fog.. cd /tmp wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/syslinux-3.82.tar.gz tar -zxvf sys* cd sys* cd core cp pxelinux.0 /tftpboot/ Done .. Edited July 8, 2009 by Cools Addon .. / Update 1
f21970 Posted July 17, 2009 Author Posted July 17, 2009 Those who have got the pxe chainloading working, or who have more knowledge of pxe than me, please help me!! I've got the clients pxe booting, but then get the message 'Boot from Network Disk or Quit'. I'm assuming that it's not going on to the second DHCP request properly and loading pxelinux.0, but I've set it up as per the FAQ and am completely stuck. As I've never seen FOG work, I don't know what it's meant to look like, so don't quite know which part of the boot process I'm stuck at!!!
Cools Posted July 17, 2009 Posted July 17, 2009 have you tryed updating the pxelinux.0 to 3.82 ?? b4 chain loading.
ninjabeaver Posted July 17, 2009 Posted July 17, 2009 have you tryed updating the pxelinux.0 to 3.82 ?? b4 chain loading. How do we go about that mate? I'm still getting my head around this FOG stuff. Thanks.
Cools Posted July 17, 2009 Posted July 17, 2009 (edited) i posted a how to look up the page.. Copy and past.. ------------------------------------------- Update the PXElinux.0 on fog.. 1. get putty and ssh into fog server 2. sudo bash (then enter root password) then cd /tmp wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/syslinux-3.82.tar.gz << right click and copy link.. Stupid forum. tar -zxvf sys* cd sys* cd core cp pxelinux.0 /tftpboot/ Done .. Edited July 17, 2009 by Cools Coz i can..
f21970 Posted July 17, 2009 Author Posted July 17, 2009 Hi there, Thanks for replying Cool - I've tried that, and no joy. It runs through and then says 'boot from Network, Disk or Quit. If I try to boot from Network, then it just goes through the same cycle. Baffled!
ninjabeaver Posted July 20, 2009 Posted July 20, 2009 i posted a how to look up the page.. Copy and past.. ------------------------------------------- Update the PXElinux.0 on fog.. 1. get putty and ssh into fog server 2. sudo bash (then enter root password) then cd /tmp wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/syslinux-3.82.tar.gz << right click and copy link.. Stupid forum. tar -zxvf sys* cd sys* cd core cp pxelinux.0 /tftpboot/ Done .. Sorry, should of read the post better. Thanks again mate. Gonna try it later today, time permitting.
Cools Posted July 20, 2009 Posted July 20, 2009 Np .. let me know how it goes... i have spent hours on this problem my acer power m8 will not pxe boot i use get get a black screen.. but now with Ver 3.82 of PXElinux.. it works a dream.. "or am i still dreaming.."
ninjabeaver Posted July 20, 2009 Posted July 20, 2009 Nope, everything seems to be booting here as well now. Just copying an image now, and will upload it back in a bit. Fingers crossed.
f21970 Posted July 20, 2009 Author Posted July 20, 2009 That works for me too!! Great!! Thanks Cools. Can I use Acronis images over FOG, or do I need to create an image with FOG? To create an image am I right in saying that I type 'fog' at the Boot prompt and it will give me a menu? So much reading in the manual, so little time!!!!
teky Posted July 20, 2009 Posted July 20, 2009 (edited) Hi all, I had the sam issue on a certain group of laptops, using the ideas posted here I decided to try and emulate the gPXE from a usb stick and then boot from usb and proved successful. read the following thread for more info http://www.edugeek.net/forums/o-s-deployment/38856-fog-lenovo-3000-n100-help.html#post362632 I did try the pxelinux.0 3.82 update, and tried the gpxe from network, gpxe worked fine on all my other machines, it was just this dam laptop Edited July 20, 2009 by teky
ninjabeaver Posted July 20, 2009 Posted July 20, 2009 That works for me too!! Great!! Thanks Cools. Can I use Acronis images over FOG, or do I need to create an image with FOG? To create an image am I right in saying that I type 'fog' at the Boot prompt and it will give me a menu? So much reading in the manual, so little time!!!! You will need to remake the images again mate. For the second question the Graphical Menu should now work and you can select it from the list. Change it in the FOG console. A bit weird, I was looking at buying Acronis before I came across FOG. Nearly £7000 for the Acronis we needed. Nuts.
Cools Posted July 20, 2009 Posted July 20, 2009 Acronis universal restore.. is so sweet... 1 img all PCs.. Check out fogs forum for help on this.. i find it easyer to have a few images..
f21970 Posted July 20, 2009 Author Posted July 20, 2009 Yep. Got it working now, and attempting to capture an XP image and write it back to the same PC. It's failing though - saying that the block size on the ntfs volume isn't supported yet. Has anybody successfully imaged XP un-sysprepped?
teky Posted July 20, 2009 Posted July 20, 2009 about the ntfs size, if the error says that you need to free up less space then try changing the image type to "multiple partition image - single disk", worked for me. this only started to happen on the 0.27 fog upgrade. 1
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