wimboot, I'm stumped

[mecasull]

Im hoping i'm missing something particularly trivial here, I cant find the disconnect.

I didnt want to install iPXE directly on my networking card, so i settled on chainloading. I have my TFTP server set up, and can successfully PXE boot, pull the undionly.kpxe, and get to the IPXE> command line from ctrl + B.

from there, I decided for now i would manually direct to which setups i wanted to do until i better understood how to configure menus. I have my windows 7 installation media all unpacked and in a folder on a web server. (address 192.168.1.10/Win7) permissions are all set and i can access.

I followed the wimboot instructions and set up an boot.ipxe file *well, i named it W7.ipxe). So from the IPXE> command line i type the following and it hangs. so maybe its something in my W7.ipxe file?

Code:

IPXE> dhcp
configuring (blah blah blah)
IPXE> chain http://192.168.1.10/Win7/W7.ipxe
http://192.168.1.10/Win7/W7.ipxe... ok
_

W7.ipxe is below (note ive tried using relative paths... my install files are in server/Win7/W7, ive tried moving them to server/Win7)

Code:

#!ipxe

  set wimboot-path http://192.168.1.10/Win7
  kernel ${wimboot-path}/wimboot
  initrd ${wimboot-path}/W7/bootmgr          bootmgr
  initrd ${wimboot-path}/W7/boot/bcd         BCD
  initrd ${wimboot-path}/W7/boot/boot.sdi    boot.sdi
  initrd ${wimboot-path}/W7/sources/boot.wim boot.wim
  imgstat
  boot

is something wrong with my file that i'm missing?

as an example, I tried this, with success:

Code:

IPXE> dhcp
configuring (blah blah blah)
IPXE> chain http://boot.ipxe.org/demo/boot.php

If i need to give more information, i gladly will. I'm at a loss for ideas..

Thanks for any help i can get!

[mecasull]

So, I created an ipxe file kon my local server that mimiced the demo file on ipxe.org... That file loaded successfully, leading me to believe my file that starts wimboot is botched, or the wimboot files themselves are messed up. Anyone have any clues?

[MultimediaMan]

Recommendations:

1) Recreate the file in gEdit or another POSIX-compatible editor.
2) Don't use leading tabs or spaces
3) Do make sure any trailing spaces are deleted.

Line By Line debug example: added an echo and a sleep statement with tailing pipes to let the script continue if there are errors. You should be able to see where the problem is in the called script.

Code:

#!ipxe
echo Line 1; sleep 3
set wimboot-path http://192.168.1.10/Win7
echo Line 2; sleep 3
kernel ${wimboot-path}/wimboot ||
echo Line 3; sleep 3
initrd ${wimboot-path}/W7/bootmgr     bootmgr ||
echo Line 4; sleep 3
initrd ${wimboot-path}/W7/boot/bcd    BCD ||
echo Line 5; sleep 3
initrd ${wimboot-path}/W7/boot/boot.sdi   boot.sdi ||
echo Line 6; sleep 3
initrd ${wimboot-path}/W7/sources/boot.wim   boot.wim ||
echo Line 7; sleep 3
imgstat ||
echo Line 8; sleep 3
boot ||
echo End; sleep 10

Best,

M^3

[mecasull]

(2014-01-19 03:41)MultimediaMan Wrote:  Recommendations:

1) Recreate the file in gEdit or another POSIX-compatible editor.
2) Don't use leading tabs or spaces
3) Do make sure any trailing spaces are deleted.

Line By Line debug example: added an echo and a sleep statement with tailing pipes to let the script continue if there are errors. You should be able to see where the problem is in the called script.


Best,

M^3

Meant to hop on here... I tried the leading spaces a couple of hours ago and had success. I feel kind of dumb that this was the problem, but everything is resolved, now. Thank you for your feed back, though, you were spot on.

[MultimediaMan]

I was pretty sure those leading spaces were trouble, but didn't want to dismiss anything out of hand. Another common problem is which bootmgr file you use.

The trailing pipes

Code:

||

exit operators are essential for a more robust script; It might not have mattered with the spaces in front, however.

Glad you got it sorted!

M^3

[robinsmidsrod]

For the record, if you build iPXE with DEBUG=script it will automatically print every command before it is executed. No need to add lots of echo statements unless your setup makes it hard to recompile and deploy a new iPXE binary.