Can't boot Windows/Ubuntu installer on new ThinkPad 13

[f4242]

Hello,

I have successfully booted the Windows 10 and Ubuntu 16.04 installer on different model of PC. Newer laptops often lack of network adapter built-in but I found that USB adapter were working great.

I received two Lenovo ThinkPad 13 G2 laptop. I can't boot the Windows or Ubuntu installer on theses laptops with IPXE and USB network adapter.

IPXE boot and display the boot menu. I select the item I want to boot. I see that the boot image is being downloader and then nothing. The windows installer stay stalled on the Windows logo and the Ubuntu installer just do nothing.

I built IPXE from source and I use this binary on my TFTP server: ./src/bin-x86_64-efi/ipxe.efi. The computer is configured to boot with EFI and Secure boot is disabled.

This is an extract of my menu.ipxe configuration:

Code:

...

:windows_10_pro_volume
kernel ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/wimboot
initrd ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/boot/bcd         BCD
initrd ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/boot/boot.sdi    boot.sdi
initrd ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/sources/boot.wim boot.wim
boot

:ubuntu_1604_netboot_developpeurs
kernel ${boot-url}/ubuntu/16.04_netboot/linux initrd=initrd.gz auto=true priority=high vga=788 locale=fr_CA.UTF-8 kdb-chooser/method=cf url=http://xxxx:****@nas.xxxx.ca:8080/ipxe$
initrd http://xxxx:****@nas.xxxx.ca:8080/ipxe/images/ubuntu/16.04_netboot/initrd.gz
boot || goto failed
goto start

...

I'm running the latest version available of IPXE on the git repository (commit b5e0b5). I had a previous version before and was not working too.

Any idea what's wrong?

Thanks!

[f4242]

What can I do to make things more verbose ? I would like to find the root cause of this problem.

[MultimediaMan]

Couple of things:

Windows 10: If you are attempting to use your stock Win10 install disk *.wim, you are going to be disappointed: you need to have Windows 10 ADK wim image for automated deployments. Your syntax is fine, from what I can see.

Ubuntu: There are a couple of issues here. First, I do prefer to use "chain" (but "boot" should work). This usually changes up the load order into memory (which can matter a great deal in UEFI systems). You have some inconsistencies in your ubuntu install... they could easily be how you are set up but the look "wrong" (usually linux and initrd are in the same directory)

This is what you had:

Code:

:windows_10_pro_volume
kernel ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/wimboot
initrd ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/boot/bcd         BCD
initrd ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/boot/boot.sdi    boot.sdi
initrd ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/sources/boot.wim boot.wim
boot

:ubuntu_1604_netboot_developpeurs
kernel ${boot-url}/ubuntu/16.04_netboot/linux initrd=initrd.gz auto=true priority=high vga=788 locale=fr_CA.UTF-8 kdb-chooser/method=cf url=http://xxxx:****@nas.xxxx.ca:8080/ipxe$
<assuming this is a correct path, if you are using an authenticating proxy server this command might need to be reviewed; iPXE doesn't have a proxy feature.> initrd http://xxxx:****@nas.xxxx.ca:8080/ipxe/images/ubuntu/16.04_netboot/initrd.gz
boot || goto failed
goto start

This is what I recommend:

Code:

:windows_10_pro_volume
initrd ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/sources/boot.wim boot.wim
initrd ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/boot/boot.sdi    boot.sdi
initrd ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/boot/bcd         BCD
chain ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/wimboot || goto failed

:ubuntu_1604_netboot_developpeurs
initrd ${boot-url}/ubuntu/16.04_netboot/initrd.gz
chain ${boot-url}/ubuntu/16.04_netboot/linux initrd=initrd.gz auto=true priority=high vga=788 locale=fr_CA.UTF-8 kdb-chooser/method=cf url=http://xxxx:****@nas.xxxx.ca:8080/ipxe$ || goto failed

I'm not sure is the "$" at the end of your URL= line is going to work to hide anything with with an HTTP call.

[f4242]

Hello,

I tried what you suggested, but I still have the same failure. I would like to add that the current setup work fine with various Dell and Lenovo desktops and laptops. This issue only occurs with the Lenovo Thinkpad 13 (the 2017 edition, the 2016 edition works fine too). I have two TP13 2017 and they both fail to boot the installers, so I don't think this is a defect.

My modified configuration is now:

Code:

:windows_10_pro_volume
initrd ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/sources/boot.wim boot.wim
initrd ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/boot/boot.sdi    boot.sdi
initrd ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/boot/bcd         BCD
chain ${boot-url}/windows_10_pro_volume/wimboot || goto failed

:ubuntu_1604_netboot_developpeurs
initrd http://xxxx:****@nas.xxxx.ca:8080/ipxe/images/ubuntu/16.04_netboot/initrd.gz
chain ${boot-url}/ubuntu/16.04_netboot/linux initrd=initrd.gz auto=true priority=high vga=788 locale=fr_CA.UTF-8 kdb-chooser/method=cf url=http://xxxx:****@nas.xxxx.ca:8080/ipxe/preseeds/ubuntu-16.04.developpeurs.preseed || goto failed

About the Windows image, I'm using the image generated by MS Deployment Workbench.

Thanks!

[MultimediaMan]

If you boot with a USN Stick installer for Windows or Ubuntu, is the installer recognizing the NIC on the Lenovo Stinkpad?

[f4242]

Hello,

I booted the Windows installer from USB and the installation completed without problem. The litetouch installer boots from USB but copy the image from a network share.

[MultimediaMan]

OK, try building snponly.efi with your embedded script and try that. It is probably a memory ordering problem.

[f4242]

It's working! Many thanks!

[MultimediaMan]

Glad you got it working. The snponly.efi binary is a "driverless" boot loader (roughly akin to undionly.kpxe in a PC BIOS system). The snpdrivers tend to be easy to get working, but they lack features (and are restricted to one interface in iPXE. The ipxe.efi can address multiple adapters in a system (I've personally observed iPXE enumerate 48 NICs in one machine... ).