undionly and oracle's virtualbox

[mimiko]

Hello.

I've encountered a strange problem with ifup or dhcp command in virtualbox.

When virtual machines is started, its Intel UNDI PXE gets an IP from DHCP, and loads undionly.kpxe. I press Ctrl+B to get in shell.
ifstat shows net0's MAC address and state is closed.
I issue ifopen or dhcp command and its ok. Then chain to something. For better testing I chain to a script to load windows setup. Files are downloaded, wimboot started. After windows loads and asks for something I close the window so windows will reset, or press Reset button in virtualbox to restart the system.

No, again Intel UNDI PXE gets an IP and loads undionly.kpxe. I press Ctrl+B.
I issue ifopen - no message. Then I try to chain again - after a while I get connection timed out.
I try to use dhcp command. After a while I get error 0x040ee119.

So no connection, network interface remains closed. So I close the virtual machine's windows to shut down it. And open again. A cold start allows to bring interface up.

Now, the same oracle's virtual box at home. It boots with Intel UNDI PXE which gets an IP, downloads and starts undionly.kpxe. But even on cold start up, the network interface cannot be opened. I've tried to use iPXE firmware of virtualbox (unistalling extension pack) - the results are the same.

Using vmware have no problem with the undionly.kpxe. Even after restart it will open interface and chain.

So this is definetly a problem between iPXE and virtualbox.

[pimetal]

Same issue for me.

(2015-11-11 13:38)mimiko Wrote:  Hello.

I've encountered a strange problem with ifup or dhcp command in virtualbox.

When virtual machines is started, its Intel UNDI PXE gets an IP from DHCP, and loads undionly.kpxe. I press Ctrl+B to get in shell.
ifstat shows net0's MAC address and state is closed.
I issue ifopen or dhcp command and its ok. Then chain to something. For better testing I chain to a script to load windows setup. Files are downloaded, wimboot started. After windows loads and asks for something I close the window so windows will reset, or press Reset button in virtualbox to restart the system.

No, again Intel UNDI PXE gets an IP and loads undionly.kpxe. I press Ctrl+B.
I issue ifopen - no message. Then I try to chain again - after a while I get connection timed out.
I try to use dhcp command. After a while I get error 0x040ee119.

So no connection, network interface remains closed. So I close the virtual machine's windows to shut down it. And open again. A cold start allows to bring interface up.

Now, the same oracle's virtual box at home. It boots with Intel UNDI PXE which gets an IP, downloads and starts undionly.kpxe. But even on cold start up, the network interface cannot be opened. I've tried to use iPXE firmware of virtualbox (unistalling extension pack) - the results are the same.

Using vmware have no problem with the undionly.kpxe. Even after restart it will open interface and chain.

So this is definetly a problem between iPXE and virtualbox.

[andrewju]

Hi have you guys solved this problem? I encountered similar issue.

I chain loaded the latest undionly.kpxe rom and booted debian. The first boot is always fine.
However after reboot/reset the VM, embedded ipxe can get DHCP, but chain loaded ipxe rom cannot.

I did dhcpdump, dhcp server responds with DHCP offer, but client doesn't send DHCP request.

[andrewju]

Have you guys solved this issue? I ran into the same.

Basically I wanted to chain load another ipxe rom with http support, the first boot was always fine, after reset/reboot, the builtin ipxe rom could get DHCP lease and load my custom ipxe rom, but the custom ipxe rom couldn't get DHCP lease.

I did a dhcpdump, and found DHCP service did return DHCP offer, but the custom rom didn't continue DHCP request.

[robinsmidsrod]

This is a virtualbox issue. Try to not use the extension pack ROM and instead use a custom iPXE ROM built with the CONFIG=vbox make parameter. See src/config/vbox/README for details on how to build it.

[jensgw]

(2016-03-17 12:56)robinsmidsrod Wrote:  This is a virtualbox issue. Try to not use the extension pack ROM and instead use a custom iPXE ROM built with the CONFIG=vbox make parameter. See src/config/vbox/README for details on how to build it.

Hi there,
ipxe works wonderfully for bare iron machines. However when trying to boot a vbox vm there are some issues (Host win7-x64, bridged networking, intel pro/1000 mt):

1) no networking
1.1) Boot with vbox's Intel UNDI PXE get an ip
1.1.1) load ipxe (any of: undionly.kpxe or undionly.kkpxe)
1.1.1.a) dhcp fails, logs on server side show: DHCPDISCOVER, DHCPOFFER but no DHCPREQEUST or DHCPACK
1.1.1.b) manual config with ifopen and set/ip set/netmask also produces no usable network

2) bluescreen when using wimboot
2.1) Boot with vbox's Intel UNDI PXE get an ip
2.1.2) load ipxe (any of: ipxe.pxe, ipxe.kpxe, ipxe.kkpxe) -> dhcp works, yay
2.1.3) load WinPE 3 with wimboot get bluescreen PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

3) bluescreen when using wimboot with ipxe as replacement for vbox's Intel UNDI PXE
3.1) follow steps mentioned in src/config/vbox/README create intel.isarom
3.2) start vm with intel.isarom as pxe
3.3) dhcp works, try to load WinPE as in 2.1.3 -> same bluescreen

Hope this was not to confusing :-)
Cheers
Jens

[jensgw]

Hi there,
ipxe works wonderfully for bare iron machines. However when trying to boot a vbox vm there are some issues (host win7-x64, bridged networking, intel pro 1000/mt):

1) no networking
1.1) Boot with vbox's Intel UNDI PXE get an ip
1.1.1) load ipxe (any of: undionly.kpxe or undionly.kkpxe)
1.1.1.a) dhcp fails, logs on server side show: DHCPDISCOVER, DHCPOFFER but no DHCPREQEUST or DHCPACK
1.1.1.b) manual config with ifopen and set/ip set/netmask also produces no usable network

2) bluescreen when using wimboot
2.1) Boot with vbox's Intel UNDI PXE get an ip
2.1.2) load ipxe (any of: ipxe.pxe, ipxe.kpxe, ipxe.kkpxe) -> dhcp works, yay
2.1.3) load WinPE 3 with wimboot get bluescreen PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

3) bluescreen when using wimboot with ipxe as replacement for vbox's Intel UNDI PXE
3.1) follow steps mentioned in src/config/vbox/README create intel.isarom
3.2) start vm with intel.isarom as pxe
3.3) dhcp works, try to load WinPE as in 2.1.3 -> same bluescreen

Hope this was not to confusing :-)
Cheers
Jens

[pxe_curious]

Did you ever find a solution for this?

[jensgw]

(2016-06-24 15:20)pxe_curious Wrote:  Did you ever find a solution for this?

Yes, use full ipxe. Curently i use ipxe.kpxe and that boots WinPE just nicely on the vm. Cheers Jens

[iucounu9]

Thanks hugely for this, it resolved an (albeit different) issue for me.

I was facing a strange problem whereby pxeboots would fail, due to tftp timeouts, with VirtualBox, and some desktop-class machines (e.g., Dell XPS), but succeed with enterprise workstations (e.g., Dell T series and HP Z series) and KVM. But the failures would only happen in a certain zone in our network. I suspected it was a PXE ROM issue, but couldn't prove it. Network packet tracing didn't provide an answer. So I thought I'd search for an alternative ROM than the PXE-2.1 ROM that VirtualBox uses, and found your post.

Thanks again!

(2016-03-17 12:56)robinsmidsrod Wrote:  This is a virtualbox issue. Try to not use the extension pack ROM and instead use a custom iPXE ROM built with the CONFIG=vbox make parameter. See src/config/vbox/README for details on how to build it.

---

I should clarify: the issue was a problem with TFTP timing out. The client would get an IP from DHCP on the kickstart server, which was also the TFTP server. The firewall was configured to allow TFTP, as it did fine for other classes of clients. As soon as the ROM was replaced, it worked. I still don't know what the cause was, but may take a look in how ipxe works to see how it establishes TFTP that could account for the fix.

(2017-03-02 14:15)iucounu9 Wrote:  Thanks hugely for this, it resolved an (albeit different) issue for me.

I was facing a strange problem whereby pxeboots would fail, due to tftp timeouts, with VirtualBox, and some desktop-class machines (e.g., Dell XPS), but succeed with enterprise workstations (e.g., Dell T series and HP Z series) and KVM. But the failures would only happen in a certain zone in our network. I suspected it was a PXE ROM issue, but couldn't prove it. Network packet tracing didn't provide an answer. So I thought I'd search for an alternative ROM than the PXE-2.1 ROM that VirtualBox uses, and found your post.

Thanks again!

(2016-03-17 12:56)robinsmidsrod Wrote:  This is a virtualbox issue. Try to not use the extension pack ROM and instead use a custom iPXE ROM built with the CONFIG=vbox make parameter. See src/config/vbox/README for details on how to build it.