Netboot Macbooks und (U)EFI with LINUX

[gzebedin]

Hello @ll,

I have been reading A LOT in this and other forums and tried to solve this for weeks now but am stuck right now. Here is the problem I'm trying to solve:

I need to boot Laptops via LAN with a Linux System. Its an custom image which allows to connect to an exam environment on our university.
Right now we do only PXE and everything works fine. As more and more Macbooks and WIN8 Laptops appear I need a solution for this EFI Based machines. I don't need to cover Secureboot because this can be easily deactivated. Switching to CSM is not an option because students usually forget to switch back.

So we have Laptops in BIOS mode, (U)EFI mode and Macbooks which should preferyble boot the same image.

Using IPXE on an USB stick I can boot also EFI Laptops and Macbooks but this is also not a preferable option.

I CANT install ANY software on the students laptops so everything MUST work without modification (except boot order).

I know that I address two problems in one question.
1. netbooting Macbooks with a Linux image (Knoppix at the moment)
2. PXE booting UEFI laptops with a Linux image
3. PXE booting BIOS laptops with a Linux Image (this already works)

Does anyone have experiences with Task 1 and 2 here in this forum? I already managed to netboot OSX images from a LINUX Server so this works but I also have an Apple Server available. But I cant figure out how to netboot a Linux Image. So I was thinking I netboot IPXE and then continue to the usual PXE task #3 which already works.
I can also make an individual boot config in the DHCP.conf based on the MAC Addresses if necessary.

So maybe someone can help me out with this mission!

thank you very much!

gerald

[Aigor]

Hi, i dont know if it helps but compiling ipxe.efi in room-o-matic website i can boot machine in uefi mode, my lab has only pc, but i gues that if i can boot pc in uefi mode, you can boot apple laptop in same way.
I dont know the exact boot sequence for laptop, for pc it's' known, so, you have only to try :-)

[NiKiZe]

(2015-01-10 14:43)gzebedin Wrote:  Using IPXE on an USB stick I can boot also EFI Laptops and Macbooks but this is also not a preferable option.

Where are you stuck?
if ipxe.efi works from USB then you only have to configure your DHCP server to hand out ipxe.efi if it is an uefi boot.
Robinsmidsrod has good templates for isc-dhcpd at
https://gist.github.com/robinsmidsrod/40...green-conf

Here is a part of it:

Code:

if option arch = 00:06 {
        filename "ipxe-x86.efi";
    } elsif option arch = 00:07 {
        filename "ipxe-x64.efi";
    } elsif option arch = 00:00 {
        filename "ipxe.pxe";
    }

This will work with PCs, but don't know about mac.