iPXE discussion forum

I'm using ipxe.efi compiled on Ubuntu (approximately one week ago).

When booting windows from an iscsi target (SANBOOT) the display is unreadable. I have traced the issue to the following command in my ipxe menu script -

console --picture ipxe.png

Commenting out this line removed the issue. Screenshots of the problem -

http://mistyprojects.co.uk/screenshots/2019.05.20_1.jpg

http://mistyprojects.co.uk/screenshots/2019.05.20_2.jpg

This bug/error was discovered when installing windows to an iscsi target by booting into WinPE (SANHOOK target and booting via wimboot) and running setup.exe. Stage 1 of setup (selecting the target disk and applying install.wim, etc) completed fine and the display was rendered properly. Following the reboot and starting stage 2 resulted in the display issue.

I lengthy thread I started on the reboot.pro forum documents my setup and this issue in much more detail -

http://reboot.pro/topic/22026-sanboot-wi...efi-system

Misty

P.s. let me know if there is anything I can do to try and trace the issue, or if any more details are required.

which arguments are you using to wimboot?

Have you tried removing the image / reseting console before starting wimboot?

(2019-05-22 06:33)NiKiZe Wrote: [ -> ]which arguments are you using to wimboot?

Have you tried removing the image / reseting console before starting wimboot?

Hi NiKiZe
wimboot works fine. The issue is encountered during the second stage of Windows setup (and also when booting an installed Windows) after issuing a SANBOOT command. wimboot is not used at all during this stage.

I am happy to try resetting the console - can you provide an example command for me to try when I get home.

Misty

humor me, how are you booting wimboot, since you don't have issues there correct?

(2019-05-22 18:21)NiKiZe Wrote: [ -> ]humor me, how are you booting wimboot, since you don't have issues there correct?

Happy to humour you. No issues with wimboot. iPXE menu entry for stage 1 (used to run Windows setup.exe) -

Thanks for the tip about clearing the console. Adding the following to my menu entry worked -

Full menu entry for stage 2 (SANBOOT) with console command now added to clear the console -

Misty

So no gui on the wimboot lne, could you try with gui on the wimboot line?
I would expect you to get the same result there as well - just looking for a reproducable test case.

Great hearing that console clears it, maybe this is something that should be handled by iPXE boot part, or wimboot

(2019-05-22 19:55)NiKiZe Wrote: [ -> ]So no gui on the wimboot lne, could you try with gui on the wimboot line?
I would expect you to get the same result there as well - just looking for a reproducable test case.

Great hearing that console clears it, maybe this is something that should be handled by iPXE boot part, or wimboot

@NiKiZe
My previous post only contained a part of my iPXE menu. The full menu that can hopefully be used to reproduce the display bug is contained below.

I should also mention for those that do not want to trawl through the lengthy thread on reboot.pro that this display bug was encountered with a Client system booting in UEFI mode with CSM disabled.

Stage 1 (menu item iscsia) booted fine and the display bug was not encountered. Stage 1 (SANHOOK the iSCSI Target and boot WinPE) was used to install Windows - using Windows setup.exe. After setup completed an automatic reboot occured.

The bug occurred when booting Stage 2 (menu item iscsib), executed after the Stage 1 reboot. Interestingly during one of my tests (after adding a displaybootmenu yes entry to the BCD store) a boot menu was correctly displayed followed by a Windows background image for a few seconds, then the console bug was encountered and I was not able to read the display.

Hope this makes sense.

Misty