wiki.mbirth.de/know-how/software/_posts/2016-03-05-ipxe-network-boot.md

title	layout	created	updated	toc	tags
iPXE Network Boot	default	2016-03-05 00:36:55 +0100	2016-03-05 00:36:55 +0100	true	know-how software ipxe network booting

I first stumbled upon iPXE because of a failing info monitor at my local train station:

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iPXE is an open source firmware, meant as a replacement for the very basic option ROM in ethernet cards. But you can also use that default option ROM to chainload iPXE without having to modify your device(s).

iPXE brings several features like loading boot images via HTTP, FTP, iSCSI, SMB, etc. and it also supports WiFi.

First Steps

Where do you get the binaries to boot from? The easiest way is to download ready-to-use binaries from their homepage.

However, if you want to use e.g. a different keyboard because your devices don't have a typical QWERTY one, you need to compile iPXE yourself. To do that, clone the source code to some directory and modify the files src/config/console.h and src/config/general.h.

For inspiration, you can take a look at [my settings]({% post_url 2016-03-05-my-ipxe-settings %}).

I also had a problem with iPXE not being able to fetch the URL to the boot.ipxe from dnsmasq. So I made the following boot.ipxe to be included in the binary:

#!ipxe
dhcp
chain http://diskstation/ipxe/boot.ipxe

After you're done with the files, you have to make the required binaries:

make bin/undionly.kpxe EMBED=boot.ipxe
make bin-x86_64-efi/ipxe.efi EMBED=boot.ipxe
make bin-i386-efi/ipxe.efi EMBED=boot.ipxe

And if everything goes well, you should find the files in those directories.

You have to rename them for further use:

bin/undionly.kpxe ➡️ undionly.kpxe.0
bin-x86_64-efi/ipxe.efi ➡️ ipxe.efi.0
bin-i386-efi/ipxe.efi ➡️ ipxe32.efi.0

Booting iPXE

So how do you get your computers to boot iPXE? You have to get your DHCP server to announce it to them. You can either do this in the DHCP directly, or just a DHCP proxy server, which adds the neccessary information. This can be done with dnsmasq.

I'm using this configuration in a file /etc/dnsmasq.d/pxeproxy.conf:

dhcp-range=172.16.0.0,proxy
dhcp-match=set:ipxe,175   # iPXE sends a 175 option
dhcp-vendorclass=set:bios,PXEClient:Arch:00000
dhcp-vendorclass=set:efi32,PXEClient:Arch:00002
dhcp-vendorclass=set:efi32,PXEClient:Arch:00006
dhcp-vendorclass=set:efi64,PXEClient:Arch:00007
dhcp-vendorclass=set:efi64,PXEClient:Arch:00008
dhcp-vendorclass=set:efi64,PXEClient:Arch:00009
tag-if=set:loadbios,tag:!ipxe,tag:bios
tag-if=set:loadefi32,tag:!ipxe,tag:efi32
tag-if=set:loadefi64,tag:!ipxe,tag:efi64
pxe-service=tag:loadbios,x86PC,"iPXE Network boot (BIOS)",undionly.kpxe
pxe-service=tag:loadefi32,IA32_EFI,"iPXE Network boot (EFI32)",ipxe32.efi
pxe-service=tag:loadefi32,BC_EFI,"iPXE Network boot (EFI32)",ipxe32.efi
pxe-service=tag:loadefi64,X86-64_EFI,"iPXE Network boot (EFI)",ipxe.efi
pxe-service=tag:loadefi64,IA64_EFI,"iPXE Network boot (EFI)",ipxe.efi
dhcp-boot=tag:ipxe,http://diskstation:80/ipxe/boot.ipxe
enable-tftp
tftp-root=/var/ftpd

This acts as a proxy for the 172.16.0.0/16 network - the one I use. And for each request, it detects whether there's the option 175 (=request comes from iPXE) set or not and which type or architecture is requested (legacy, 32bit, 64bit). According to those flags, either the appropriate iPXE binary is returned or - if the request is from iPXE - the URL to the boot script which is hosted on my Synology DiskStation's web server.

The last two lines enable the built-in tftp server of dnsmasq and set the path to it. That's where you have to put your undionly.kpxe.0, ipxe32.efi.0 and ipxe.efi.0 from the previous step.

Before the first boot

Now that iPXE is launched, it tries to fetch the boot script we compiled in. But this doesn't exist yet.

I used @robinsmidrod's extensive full iPXE native menu as a basis, removed all things I didn't need and added the things I needed.

In the beginning, this looked like this:

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Adding tools to boot

Most tools you want to boot are probably Linux systems. To boot them, you need a kernel and some (initial) filesystem. One way is to load an initrd (initial ramdisk) which contains only the basic stuff and mounts the big filesystem itself. Or you can mount the "big" filesystem directly and use that from the beginning.

SystemRescueCD

To boot the SysRescCD, you need the following files from the ISO image:

• sysrcd.dat --- "big" filesystem
• sysrcd.md5 --- checksum to validate the sysrcd.dat
• isolinux/rescue32 --- kernel for 32bit systems
• isolinux/rescue64 --- kernel for 64bit systems
• isolinux/initram.igz --- initial ramdisk

Copy those to a directory sysresccd on your web server (where the boot.ipxe is). Look at the menu.ipxe from the example configuration mentioned above for how to add new menu items.

A menu item for SysRescCD could look like this:

:srcd
echo Booting SystemRescueCD 32bit
set base-url http://diskstation:80/ipxe/sysresccd/
kernel ${base-url}isolinux/rescue32
initrd ${base-url}isolinux/initram.igz
imgargs rescue32 setkmap=de dodhcp netboot=${base-url}sysrcd.dat
boot || goto failed
goto start

As you can see, we instruct iPXE to boot the kernel rescue32 with the initrd initram.igz - both from the web server. And in the imgargs line, we tell SysRescCD where to look for the sysrcd.dat.

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Boot ALL the tools

You can find my current config here. It boots the following tools via the network - no CD or flash drive needed:

• System Rescue CD
• DFSee
• CloneZilla
• GParted Live
• g4u - ghost for unix
• G4L - Ghost for Linux
• AVG Rescue CD
• BitDefender Rescue CD
• F-Secure Rescue CD
• HDT - Hardware Detection Tool
• Memtest86 V6
• Memtest86+ V5

And this is what it looks like:

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