Windows PE freezes at splash screen using WIMBOOT

[epvergara]

We currently using ipxe.efi to netboot the windows pe environment through HTTP and for the most part it is working great. However on a few laptop models it sometimes freezes at the splash screen when loading the windows pe environment. It really frustrating as it works sometimes however most of the time it fails on certain models. When I use a usb stick to boot the wim it works everytime.

I am using the most current version of wimboot, the BCD, boot.sdi, and wim are from the Windows 10 ADK (1607). UEFI bios has been updated on clients. When I use a usb stick to boot the wim it works everytime.

Here is the ipxe script i'm using

:windows
echo "Booting from ${host_ip}"
sleep 5
kernel http://${host_ip}/wimboot || read void
initrd http://${host_ip}/winpe/amd64/boot/BCD || read void
initrd http://${host_ip}/winpe/amd64/boot/boot.sdi || read void
initrd http://${host_ip}/winpe/amd64/sources/Boot.wim || read void
boot || read void

Any help on how I should troubleshoot this issue would be great.

[NiKiZe]

My recommendation is to test with original boot.wim file from windows10 media and see if that works, if it does then it is likely drivers in the ATK generated wim that is causing the freeze.

Had a similar issues with a wim that had drivers for most nics, and mass storage controllers, after regenerating with only the nic drivers I have not had any issue since. If drivers for mass storage is needed they can be loaded with drvload, and even automatically with some cmd scripting.

[epvergara]

NiKize,

Thanks for the suggestion. I gave it a try with the original boot.wim from the Windows 10 media, however the problem still persists. Windows PE still freezes 8 out of 10 times at the splash screen. Since you think it is a driver issue I've also tried injecting the drivers for the laptop into the wim to no avail. When booting the same wim from USB it works everytime. I think the issue is with wimboot, but I can't find any error to try and diagnose. Here is my BCD contents and wimboot log, please let me know if anything looks wrong.

BCD

Code:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
flightsigning           Yes
default                 {default}
displayorder            {default}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {default}
device                  ramdisk=[boot]\sources\boot.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f}
path                    \windows\system32\boot\winload.efi
description             Windows Setup
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
isolatedcontext         Yes
osdevice                ramdisk=[boot]\sources\boot.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f}
systemroot              \windows
bootmenupolicy          Standard
detecthal               Yes
winpe                   Yes
ems                     No

Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier              {memdiag}
device                  boot
path                    \efi\microsoft\boot\memtest.efi
description             Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}

EMS Settings
------------
identifier              {emssettings}
bootems                 No

Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier              {dbgsettings}
debugtype               Serial
debugport               1
baudrate                115200

Global Settings
---------------
identifier              {globalsettings}
inherit                 {dbgsettings}
                        {emssettings}

Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier              {bootloadersettings}
inherit                 {globalsettings}
                        {hypervisorsettings}

Hypervisor Settings
-------------------
identifier              {hypervisorsettings}
description             Hypervisor Settings
hypervisordebugtype     Serial
hypervisordebugport     1
hypervisorbaudrate      115200

Device options
--------------
identifier              {7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f}
ramdisksdidevice        boot
ramdisksdipath          \boot\boot.sdi

Wimboot

[NiKiZe]

(2017-02-16 23:00)epvergara Wrote:  Thanks for the suggestion. I gave it a try with the original boot.wim from the Windows 10 media, however the problem still persists. Windows PE still freezes 8 out of 10 times at the splash screen. Since you think it is a driver issue I've also tried injecting the drivers for the laptop into the wim to no avail. When booting the same wim from USB it works everytime. I think the issue is with wimboot, but I can't find any error to try and diagnose. Here is my BCD contents and wimboot log, please let me know if anything looks wrong.

So it is random freezes, but works sometimes, use latest iPXE and wimboot,
For BCD try https://github.com/NiKiZe/wimboot-bcd/bl...gen/PXEBCD

also you might want to try adding gui at the end of the kernel wimboot line

Do not add _any_ drivers it is more likely to cause issues if you do, the only reason for adding drivers is if the network does not work, but first confirm that the original boot.wim does not cause freeze without added drivers. Meaning boot.wim fully unmodified.

You could try to run the following which should be the standard stuff as mentioned above: chain http://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmWhRKfSy9s3fRaNVTJN...eDbPdUREow (feel free to download the script and files to your own http server and modify the script to load the local files instead since ipfs is quite slow and gives timeouts a bit to often to be reliable, also if you are using EFI you might need to add some "-n name" to the initrd lines)

If that works you have a config issue, but if you still see random freezes we will need to look at what your exact hardware is and what could be the issue there.

Please provide:
* Which ipxe binary are you using some examples: undionly.kpxe, ipxe.pxe, ipxe.lkrn, ipxe.efi, snponly.efi
* version string for iPXE, something like 1.0.0+ (8585)
* full ipxe script you use to boot (in case it is changed from the one you already posted)
* output from the command ifstat in iPXE
* amount of memory in the machine
* CPU model
* output from the script if "pause" is added at the end of the wimboot line