iPXE HTTP boot using PHP

[darkoni]

Hi!

* I am trying to load Fedora 30 over http, so I ran a php server

$ php -S 192.168.5.140:8080

* I put an ipxe.usb on a usb stick

$ wget http://boot.ipxe.org/ipxe.usb
$ dd if=bin/ipxe.usb of=/dev/sdb

* then booted up virtualbox from the usb stick

* manually typed to iPXE

iPXE> chain http://192.168.5.140:8080/boot.php

* I got an output from the php server:

[Sun Nov 17 19:16:10 2019] 192.168.5.180:54685 [200]: /boot.php
[Sun Nov 17 19:16:10 2019] 192.168.5.180:57370 [200]: /Fedora30/pxeboot/vmlinuz
[Sun Nov 17 19:16:10 2019] 192.168.5.180:21219 [200]: /Fedora30/pxeboot/initrd.img
[Sun Nov 17 19:16:28 2019] 192.168.5.180:59228 [200]: /Fedora30/install.img/.treeinfo

* and then it all stoped - as i do not have the file .treeinfo

* content of boot.php is:

#!ipxe

set base http://192.168.5.140:8080/Fedora30

kernel ${base}/pxeboot/vmlinuz stage2=${base}/install.img
initrd ${base}/pxeboot/initrd.img

boot

# end of boot.php

* Fedora files are downloaded from archives.fedoraproject.org

$ wget https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/a...s/boot.iso
$ wget https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/a...fiboot.img
$ wget https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/a...nstall.img
$ wget https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/a...acboot.img

$ mkdir -p pxeboot
$ cd pxeboot

$ wget https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/a...initrd.img
$ wget https://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/a...ot/vmlinuz

$ tree
.
├── boot.iso
├── efiboot.img
├── install.img
├── macboot.img
├── pxeboot
├── initrd.img
   └── vmlinuz


* I probably downloaded something wrong as the boot process is not all clear to me

* please, can someone help me get the iPXE boot to work

Many thanks!

Darkoni

[darkoni]

Hi everyone !

If you take a look for the chain command

http://ipxe.org/cmd/chain

you can see

chain http://boot.ipxe.org/demo/boot.php

and you can download content of http://boot.ipxe.org/demo/boot.php to see what is inside

Code:

#!ipxe

kernel vmlinuz-3.16.0-rc4 bootfile=http://boot.ipxe.org/demo/boot.php fastboot initrd=initrd.img
initrd initrd.img
boot

and you can also try to see if there is any content on

http://boot.ipxe.org/

There is !!! Also for Fedora :-)

http://boot.ipxe.org/fedora/14/install.ipxe

Code:

#!ipxe

echo
prompt -k 0x197e -t 2000 Press F12 to install Fedora... || exit

set base http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/14/Fedora/x86_64/os/images

kernel ${base}/pxeboot/vmlinuz stage2=${base}/install.img
initrd ${base}/pxeboot/initrd.img
boot

Then I wget the mentioned files to my local machine

Code:

base=http://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/releases/14/Fedora/x86_64/os/images
wget ${base}/pxeboot/vmlinuz
wget ${base}/install.img
wget ${base}/pxeboot/initrd.img

and rewrite boot.php

Code:

#!ipxe

set base http://192.168.5.140:8080/Fedora14
kernel ${base}/vmlinuz inst.stage2=${base}/install.img
initrd ${base}/initrd.img
boot

And everything works !!!

Filesystem is loaded from install.img !!!

It works !!!

PS: why is there no mention of the argument inst.stage2 in documentation ?

http://ipxe.org/cmd/chain

If you just write the argument stage2= - it doesn't work...

Please, can you mention the argument inst.stage2 in the documentation ?

PPS: tommorow I will try to run Fedora 30 Live in this way, so stay in touch :-)

Darkoni

[cckp]

(2019-11-19 23:16)darkoni Wrote:  ... mention the argument inst.stage2 in the documentation ?

each system has it's own kernel parameter, why bother mention one?