iPXE exit fails

[jamesosbourn]

I have an iPXE menu which is working well for me and with help from the forums have managed to get my Windows boot working.

My problem now is that if I leave the iPXE menu to timeout i get the message

"No more networked devices" and then it just sits tehre. it never exits back to the bios for a local boot.

I am using ISC DHCP to chain load the iPXE environment

if exists user-class and ( option user-class = "iPXE" ) {
filename "bootstrap.ipxe";
} else {
filename "undionly.kpxe";
}

My menu looks as follows:

#!ipxe

# boot-url is set in bootstrap.ipxe

# Setup some basic convenience variables
set menu-timeout 30000
set submenu-timeout ${menu-timeout}

# Ensure we have menu-default set to something
isset ${menu-default} || set menu-default quit

###################### MAIN MENU ####################################

:start
menu iPXE boot menu for XenServer
item --gap -- ---------------------- Operating System Installers -----------------------
item --key w menu-windows Install (W)indows
item --key l fai Install (L)inux
item --key x xenserver Load (X)enServer PXELinux from DNS1
item --gap -- -------------------------- Tools and Utilities ---------------------------
item --key m memtest (M)emtest x86
item --key t trk (T)rinity Rescue Kit
item --gap -- ---------------------------- Advanced Options ----------------------------
item --key c config ©onfigure settings
item shell Drop to iPXE shell
item reboot Reboot computer
item
item --key q quit (Q)uit iPXE and continue BIOS boot
choose --timeout ${menu-timeout} --default ${menu-default} selected || goto cancel
set menu-timeout 0
goto ${selected}

:cancel
echo You cancelled the menu, dropping you to a shell

:shell
echo Type exit to get back to the menu
shell
set menu-timeout 0
set submenu-timeout 0
goto start

:failed
echo Booting failed, dropping to shell
goto shell

:reboot
reboot

:quit
exit

:config
config
goto start

:back
set submenu-timeout 0
clear submenu-default
goto start
############ MAIN MENU ITEMS ############

Any assistance on exiting would be appreciated.

James

[mcb30]

(2013-06-24 15:26)jamesosbourn Wrote:  My problem now is that if I leave the iPXE menu to timeout i get the message

"No more networked devices" and then it just sits tehre. it never exits back to the bios for a local boot.

I am using ISC DHCP to chain load the iPXE environment

Some BIOSes are broken and do not correctly handle a "boot next device" request from undionly.kpxe.

You could try using undionly.kkpxe instead. This retains the underlying PXE stack and exits by returning control to the PXE stack (instead of using INT 18 to move to the next boot device).

Michael

[jamesosbourn]

(2013-06-24 17:11)mcb30 Wrote:  

(2013-06-24 15:26)jamesosbourn Wrote:  My problem now is that if I leave the iPXE menu to timeout i get the message

"No more networked devices" and then it just sits tehre. it never exits back to the bios for a local boot.

I am using ISC DHCP to chain load the iPXE environment

Some BIOSes are broken and do not correctly handle a "boot next device" request from undionly.kpxe.

You could try using undionly.kkpxe instead. This retains the underlying PXE stack and exits by returning control to the PXE stack (instead of using INT 18 to move to the next boot device).

Michael

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the suggestion. Do you know where I can get the undionly.kkpxe file from as I cannot see it in the compiled ipxe output.

James

[jamesosbourn]

I found some documentation on compiling the undionly.kkpxe with the make bin/undionly.kkpxe command.

I updated my DHCP server to use the new undionly file and tried the boot again and I am still getting the same response where the message no more network devices appears. This is a relatively new machine, Dell Latitude E6320, that I am using so I would expect the BIOS to be up to date. Are there specific BIOS settings that need to be applied for the exit to work?

Thanks

James

[robinsmidsrod]

There isn't really a lot you can do, except making sure you're running the latest BIOS for your machine. You could of course report it as a bug to your hardware vendor, but I have had little luck with that approach myself. YMMV.

I've had a similar problem on my HP Compaq 6730b, which is using the tg3 driver. Whenever I exit from network boot (using either undionly.kpxe or ipxe.pxe) it just sits there for about 30 seconds doing nothing before it starts booting the local disk. I don't get a "no more network devices" message, though.

Have you tried changing your BIOS boot order around and see if this still causes an issue once you exit from network boot? If that doesn't work, have you tried disabling the network boot in your BIOS, put ipxe on a usb stick or CD and boot using that one instead of the network card? If you exit from that one, does it actually boot local? If so, your issue might be in the vendor PXE firmware, not in your BIOS. In that case, the hard job is to replace/upgrade the vendor PXE firmware in your BIOS, which is a tricky thing and could brick your motherboard. You could work around the issue by booting ipxe from a tiny usb stick or sdcard you keep permanently attached to the machine. I use a Lexar USB-to-MicroSD adapter which is tiny for that purpose.

[nicodejong]

Today suddenly 3 systems fails with "no more network devices", while working perfectly before.. using ipke.pxe chainloaded (DHCP)
I got one system running again with an older version of ipxe; but the 2 other remain the same.