Booting Norton Ghost floppy images

[Biite]

Hi there,

Love iPXE but I have one problem:
When we boot Norton Ghost floppy images the UNDI driver fails to work.
Before iPXE we used PXELINUX and it did work.

We tried using:

• sanboot
• memdisk
• memdisk with keeppxe option
• memdisk with floppy and keeppxe options
  

It does boot, but the UNDI driver fails to work

Regards,
Martien

[robinsmidsrod]

Which version of iPXE are you using, and which binary are you using when doing these things. I need to see the actual commands you use to start the ghost floppy (sanboot/memdisk cmdlines) and whatever errors the DOS UNDI driver is giving you. Sharp photos and/or serial line debugging is the best way to get that.

Be aware that sanboot loads the floppy in read-only mode, while memdisk loads it read-write (although writes just go to memory, so they are lost). Not sure if this makes a difference for the way the floppy is architected.

Considering you're trying to run a somewhat big dos program, you might also be hitting some DOS base memory issues. Again, more details are needed to understand the issue.

[Biite]

Robin,

I'll try to reply next thursday, as I'm leaving for Germany tomorrow and I might not have access to our servers for the next few days.

Thanks for the reply . Hope to give you guys the info needed ASAP.

Martien

[Biite]

(2013-10-27 10:49)robinsmidsrod Wrote:  Which version of iPXE are you using, and which binary are you using when doing these things. I need to see the actual commands you use to start the ghost floppy (sanboot/memdisk cmdlines) and whatever errors the DOS UNDI driver is giving you. Sharp photos and/or serial line debugging is the best way to get that.

iPXE version is 1.0.0+ (b757), ipxe is built with 'bin/undionly' and an embedded script.

sanboot:
sanboot --drive 0x00 ${boot-url}${base-path}ghost82.img

memdisk:
initrd ${boot-url}${base-path}ghost82.img
chain ${memdisk-bin} || goto failed
goto ${this-menu}

memdisk with keeppxe:
kernel -n memdisk ${memdisk-bin} keeppxe
initrd ${boot-url}${base-path}ghost82.img
boot memdisk || goto failed
goto ${this-menu}

memdisk with keeppxe and floppy:
kernel -n memdisk ${memdisk-bin} keeppxe floppy
initrd ${boot-url}${base-path}ghost82.img
boot memdisk || goto failed
goto ${this-menu}

It mostly results in not binding the adapter.

B.T.W. I cannot seem to upload an attachment with the screenshot.

[robinsmidsrod]

Maybe the image was too big or something for the forum software. You can use an external link to something like Dropbox as well. I assume that all of the tests actually booted the DOS environment, but failed while loading the DOS UNDI driver, right?

[Biite]

(2013-11-03 22:50)robinsmidsrod Wrote:  I assume that all of the tests actually booted the DOS environment, but failed while loading the DOS UNDI driver, right?

You're absolutely right.
When I 'force' the server to boot PXELINUX by letting it boot in a different network it does boot.

B.T.W. The image is just 56kB, but I simply cannot add the attachment. The error message is:

Quote:Please correct the following errors before continuing:
The file upload failed. Please choose a valid file and try again. Error details: There was a problem moving the uploaded file to its destination.

[robinsmidsrod]

So a server issue. I guess I'll have to talk to the guy that runs the server and see if it's possible to get that fixed. Meanwhile, you'll need to use an external service.

I think maybe you could be dealing with some memory map issue, that the Ghost UNDI driver is confused by how iPXE presents itself as an UNDI device. Not sure how to proceed with this one. You might get a better response from the mailing-list. More technical people reading that medium.