how do i boot the iso file using iPXE? for ex i want to boot to hiren.iso

[knatesan]

I have installed iPXE in UBuntu12.04 [downloaded ipxe-7405685.tar.gz]

below is my bootloader.cfg file:

imgfree
imgfetch http://192.168.15.5/download/hiren.iso
imgstat


If i boot with above settings, its looking for boot options..

i tried adding
boot hiren.iso
at the end..
but it throwing with below err.
"Exec Format error(http://ipxe.org/2e008001)

Let me know how should i add the boot options..
Should i use memdisk?

[robinsmidsrod]

You must use the sanboot command to boot the ISO file, and it must be located on a HTTP server. I'm not sure if the Hiren BootCD has been setup to work with network booting, and chances are that it'll have issues to work unless it is based on pure DOS. If you start a windows or linux kernel it will lose access to the CDROM (that is completely normal behavior).

If sanboot is giving you issues you can also try to use memdisk. They provide mostly the same service. The primary difference is that sanboot uses HTTP range-requests to just load what it needs as needed, while memdisk downloads the entire ISO and puts it in memory. Sanboot is also always read-only, while memdisk is read-write. This is usually relevant if you try to sanboot floppies.

[erwan.l]

About Hiren BootCD, the below works fine for me :

:hbcd
#open iso with iso editor and remove pmagic to make it ligther
initrd ${boot-url}/images/hbcd152.iso
kernel ${boot-url}/memdisk iso raw || goto failed
boot || goto failed
goto start

Using sanboot against HBDC makes my computer restart.

[knatesan]

Thanks for the response.. My actual Intention is to boot to Custom .iso which has my tools running as a startup script..
To create a custom.iso i followed below steps:
1. Installed Ubuntu12.04 and installed my other package.
2. Installed relinux
# relinux iso
3. Created a custom.iso
4. Mounted iso file to temp mount point.
$ mount -o loop -t iso9660 <ISO Filename>.iso /<temp mount point>/
5. cp -R <temp mount point dir> <sandbox path>
6. mv isolinux (dir) syslinux (dir)
7. mv isolinux.bin -> syslinux.bin (in isolinux/syslinux directory)
8. mv isolinux.cfg -> syslinux.cfg (in isolinux/syslinux directory)
# Recreate teh iso file using below command:
"mkisofs -q -V <VolumeLabel> -b <location of syslinux.bin file> -c <boot.cat file> -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -R -J -T -o <Resulting ISO filename> . "

Now if i place this resulting Iso in the HTTP path and iPXE boot this recustom.iso, it always goes to hang state.
it hangs in the below state:
"[/i][/color][/b]Booting from sandevice 0x80"

Am i missing any steps? or committing mistake?
i am struck on this for a while.. any help would be highly appreciated..

Thanks again .. looking forward to have a solution.

[knatesan]

Reply for Post#2 :
RE: "If you start a windows or linux kernel it will lose access to the CDROM (that is completely normal behavior)"
hi Robin,
Can you please let me know what is the work around if l lose access to CDROM?

[robinsmidsrod]

You'll need to make the loaded ramdisk/initrd gain access to the network and then download the files from somewhere on the network. This is what the NFS/SMB option to casper is all about. You can see my ubuntu-install menu option in https://gist.github.com/robinsmidsrod/22...-ipxe-L324 which shows how to make the Ubuntu netinstall load its files over the network. There is also a bunch of iSCSI-related settings on that imgargs line, which you can totally ignore if you're installing to a local drive.