(2017-10-01 21:58)NiKiZe Wrote:  You could always dd your disk to an iSCSI device and boot from that with iPXEs sanboot command.

But my guess that you have something small-ish that you want to boot and if so I would recommend creating an initramfs with your whole disk.

Below is psuedo command to create such a file of your fs

Code:

find . | cpio -H newc -o | gzip > /ramfs.gz

The choices here depends on a few things
* Do you want it to work when network cable is disconnected for whatever reason
* Do you have the RAM to hold your entire system
* Do you want to be able to store data
* Do you want to have multiple machines running with the same image

Since you have already tried squashfs my guess is that you have the RAM and want it to work even if the machine goes "offline"

If so if you post what you have with your squashfs approach so far, as in what is the files you have, the iPXE script you are using, and what the actuall issue is (error message) when you use this I'm sure we can figure it out, but it's always hard to start helping from "nothing".

it might be as easy as adding your squashfs image with initrd, but first adding cpio headers to it, if your are booting in pcbios mode (not efi) than it is possible to have iPXE add those headers for you.

(2017-10-01 22:20)ajr Wrote:  To answer your questions:
- No, I don't need it to work when the network is unplugged - I only want my disk image stored on a server for the client to fetch
- Yes, I want the image mounted read-only and changes saved in RAM - AFAIK this is default behavior?
- No, I don't need to store any data on the client
- Yes, ideally I want it to work for multiple clients at once

(2017-10-01 22:20)ajr Wrote:  

Code:

#!ipxe
kernel http://10.0.0.2/ipxe/vmlinuz
module http://10.0.0.2/ipxe/initrd.img
imgargs vmlinuz boot=live config console=ttyS0 username=aj fetch=http://10.0.0.2/ipxe/sdc.squashfs
boot

This results in iPXE 'freezing': https://i.imgur.com/6DDgmng.png

(2017-10-01 22:39)NiKiZe Wrote:  

(2017-10-01 22:20)ajr Wrote:  To answer your questions:
- No, I don't need it to work when the network is unplugged - I only want my disk image stored on a server for the client to fetch
- Yes, I want the image mounted read-only and changes saved in RAM - AFAIK this is default behavior?
- No, I don't need to store any data on the client
- Yes, ideally I want it to work for multiple clients at once

Multiple clients make iSCSI for a bad option, with your approach of http fetching it will only need network at boot and then it can go offline.
We haven't gotten to what is default yet, but yes with initrd or fetch over http it will be all in RAM.
My question about storing data was supposed to be in regards to iSCSI as permanent storage, but that was a bad stated question.

(2017-10-01 22:20)ajr Wrote:  

Code:

#!ipxe
kernel http://10.0.0.2/ipxe/vmlinuz
module http://10.0.0.2/ipxe/initrd.img
imgargs vmlinuz boot=live config console=ttyS0 username=aj fetch=http://10.0.0.2/ipxe/sdc.squashfs
boot

This results in iPXE 'freezing': https://i.imgur.com/6DDgmng.png

The only reason for it to freeze there should be that iPXE is done, kernel is executing but something fails.
So more likely it's your kernel that freezes rather then iPXE.


Try to only do

Code:

kernel http://10.0.0.2/ipxe/vmlinuz
boot

And you should see the same thing - that means that you will need to kernel working.
Are you sure that that same kernel works when you are booting from disk?

The concept that you have here does work.
As an example of systemrescuecd working via iPXE you can test this script: http://b800.org/sysr/sysrcd.ipxe

In regards to your username= and fetch= those are not handled by the kernel, so you will need to have scripts in your initrd that handles those, and also something that mounts the squashfs etc.

If you want to do all this scripting on your own, that's lots of work.

Another approach that I totally forgot is to use legacy nfsroot, but with that you will still need scripts that creates a local ramfs overlay, unless you want to store files on the NFS share, but that causes issues with multiple clients.

(2017-10-01 22:42)ajr Wrote:  Here is what happens with only the kernel and boot options: https://i.imgur.com/Jhssl4q.png

I don't care about the username and fetch flags, I only included them because they were in the examples I found.

(2017-10-02 12:44)ajr Wrote:  Ubuntu Server 17.04 on both client and server. Also if you wouldn't mind showing me your NFS export and telling me how you installed the OS on NFS?

(2017-10-03 03:34)MultimediaMan Wrote:  I looked at your screenshot: I can almost guarantee the error is because you are missing "initrd=initrd.img" in your Kernel Parameters.

(2017-10-03 09:05)MultimediaMan Wrote:  Looking at the boot screen again, he's using a Hyper-V Gen 2 VM; that VM is booting from a Hyper-V EFI BIOS.

(2017-10-03 09:05)MultimediaMan Wrote:  I've run into the issue many times with many Distros. Even newer PC BIOS kernels can experience the issue if you do not explicitly specify initrd=initrd.img

The VFS message means the vmlinuz kernel can't find the initrd.

Quote:Here is what happens with only the kernel and boot options: