Boot Menu for WinPE 2.1 + DOS + PXE + TFTPD32

[painbreak]

The topic pretty much explains it... I've got WinPE 2.1 PXE booting, but some of my utilities (for setting asset tags, etc) only run on DOS, so I need to come up with a way to boot to my dos images from PXE.

Previously, I could just use 3com's el-junko pxe boot menu tool, but I have no idea how to make it work with WinPE.

If anyone has a tutorial on this, that would help tremendously.

[kyor]

i think you can't use the 3com pxe menu to boot into winpe.

Use the syslinux package. It includes pxelinux. It's freeware and you can make a boot menu

with the ability to boot to winpe and to dos floppy images.

http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php

But i haven't a step by step guide for that. But i am sure if you use the search function

of this board you will get it.

Edited May 10, 2008 by kyor

[kyor]

OK i have made a small Guide with Step by Step instructions.

Hope you enjoy it

kyor

How_to_multiboot_WinPE_2.pdf

Edited May 10, 2008 by kyor

[painbreak]

OK i have made a small Guide with Step by Step instructions.

Hope you enjoy it

kyor

You, my friend, are a god among men.

Thanks!

[geemail.email]

Kyor,

I have been using the 3Com boot services and I have bene able to successfully boot to my custom WinPE image. However, I would also like to add the WinPE image to a menu and add the choice to the meny to boot from hard disk. Since the 3Com services don't support boot WinPE from a menu, I found this thread which sounded like a solution to my issue.

I have followed your step by step guide for PXE boot with pxelinux but without much luck. First, I want to make sure, I can use a windows workstation as my TFTPD server?

Also, if I follow your step by step, what is acting as the PXE server? With 3Com, I have to start both the PXE server and TFTP server, but with your instructions, I would only be running TFTPD32. I am running DHCP on another server so I can't run the DHCP server from TFTPD32 and hence, I am not configuring TFTPD32 as a DHCP server. Do I need to somehow add the "pxelinux.0" boot file to my DHCP server?

Thank you in advance for any additional guidance you can provide

Geemail

[kyor]

Yes thats right. You have to configure dhcp options. If you use Windows Server add optition 66 and 67.

See my example.

[kns]

hello kyor

This might be something similar to what I have been looking for but please tell me if I have understood this correct.

- So using this guide, I could have a pxe boot image which gives menu choices of DOS, Linux, WinPE, Ghost (?), etc., when I a client is booted to the network via pxe, correct?

- And I could have a choice of ghost32.exe OR ghost.exe via DOS at the bootscreen, possible?

- And also I could add any other programs to the menu if I wanted to such as recovery softwares, antivirus, repair tools, etc. - can I have all these at the boot menu?

- which one is acting as the pxe server in this setup?

Thanks in advance.

[kyor]

you can boot DOS floppy images, Linux and WinPE over pxe.

you can use ghost.exe (16-bit) via a dos image or you can create a custom

winpe file with ghost32.exe

understand that you can boot most of your tools via pxe when it run's

under winpe, or when it can boot from a dos floppy disk.

you don't need a pxe server.

You need a tftp Server and a dhcp Server

I'm offline for the next two weeks so replies can take a bit

[kns]

Thanks kyor. Eventually, my idea is to have a point of network access for all the clients, where they can be booted into the network and get a screen of choices for running all possible helpdesk & admin tools - ghost, recovery tools, antivirus for boot sectors, etc, etc. - and to make all this possible without the help of any CDs, floppies or other removable medias. I really would not mind using any network/server method available for the whole setup, as long as it isn't too complex

you don't need a pxe server.

This is what I am trying to figure out, so why exactly would I need to use a "PXE" server - would one reason be that some of older machines do not support pxe boot? Or any other advantages in using a pxe server?

Sure kyor, anytime you are able to reply. Thanks.

Meanwhile anyone else feeling like adding some knowledge to the topic, please do so! Much appreciated.

[Tripredacus]

One advantage of using a PXE server is that you can keep all your software in one location. You also wouldn't need to manage or carry around a bunch of media from machine to machine. Let's say you use CDs or UFDs to have your software on it. What if you need to make a revision, upgrade the software or change anything? You'd have to make all new media again. And you also run the risk of having outdated copies still being used if you aren't the only one doing it. Also, what do you do for computers without CD drives or have CD drives but you need a DVD drive?

Basically, you need to figure out what your computers can handle. If 95% or higher can support PXE, then this should be your goal. I still have CDs and UFDs around to handle those older/oddball computers that can't boot to the server, or don't have enough RAM for the Ramdisk I use, etc. But these types of machines are in the minority for me.

Also, you may want to start off using media for now, but eventually migrate to using a centralized method. This would be a good method if you are having trouble understanding PXE, or more likely, getting it to work.

[kns]

thanks for the info Tripredacus. My question about 'why we need a pxe server' was based on kyor's reply where he says:

understand that you can boot most of your tools via pxe when it run's

under winpe, or when it can boot from a dos floppy disk.

you don't need a pxe server.

You need a tftp Server and a dhcp Server

I am not sure but maybe he was trying to say that "I do not need a pxe server when I boot from a floppy disk"

Although I do understand the "basic" concept of using a pxe media is so as to not having to carry around boot medias and instead make use of network boots. From what I understand so far, clients make use of the pxe protocol, hard coded into the nics and boots off a pxe master image stored on the server such as WDS, 3com pxe server - these are the only pxe options I know so far. And as I was looking for a solution to simultaneously run (as a choice, of course) other pxe boot images which also supports the older DOS-16 & related tools (eg., ghost.exe instead of ghost32.exe). Infact, Ghost was actually the main reason for me to look for something like a multi-boot pxe solution, since I have heard that ghost-32 using winpe has been found to be slower for imaging compared to the ghost-16 via DOS. And then came along the ideas to have the other "Support" tools for troubleshooting along with ghost. And as result of searching, I landed on this thread.

However, I am still all ears to anything & everything related to Deployment technologies (turning out to be a favorite subject of mine). So thanks so much for your information. Keep posting & I will try to do the same

[Tripredacus]

WDS allows you to have multiple boot images. I know it can do both 64 and 32bit (if you have a 64bit server OS), but I haven't tried a 16bit boot image. WDS can also have Linux boot images as well. WinPE (what I use so far) v2.1 comes in 32 and 64bit. There is an older version, v1.5 which was the Server 2003/XP PE (available to OEMs only) and also is what things like BartPE uses.

But honestly, if you are going to do this for imaging, you should check out Imagex. Its a file-based imaging solution as compared to Ghost, with is Volume based. One downfall is that Imagex won't capture the boot sector and/or MBR like Ghost does, and it only understands NTFS and FAT/32.

Basically, you will find a lot of different answers to this kind of question, because there are lots of different ways to do it. And we all do things a little differently than everyone else.