Using PXELINUX and MEMDISK to pxe-boot WinPE

[RickR]

I've got the latest version of WinPE, created using the Windows 2003 SP1 (RC1) files. It works fine, boots from CD, comes up on the X: drive, etc.

Here's my problem, however. I want to be able to pxe-boot WinPE from a Linux-based server.

I've tried using PXELINUX and MEMDISK to do the pxe-boot. What happens is that the boot process starts up, MEMDISK is pulled across to the client machine, then it in turn pulls over the gzip-compressed disk image, uncompresses it, and tries to boot it. At this point on my client machine I get a message which says "Loading boot sector... Booting...". And then it hangs. So it appears that there are problems when MEMDISK tries to boot the image it just pulled over. I believe my WinPE disk image has been constructed improperly. I've tried several different ways to create the image, but none seem to work. I get the feeling I haven't tried the ONE TRUE WAY yet.

Does *anybody* know the proper way to construct the hard disk image so that MEMDISK will boot it properly?

Thanks in advance to any one that can point me in the right direction or give me an outright answer.

- RickR

[ChrisBaksa]

Here's my problem, however. I want to be able to pxe-boot WinPE from a Linux-based server.

I am working on the same thing. But I'm not a linux guy so my Linux team is doing the work.

I'm told it's not hard.. But I'll let you know what I find.

It works off a Windows PXE server no problem.

Chris

[RickR]

Thanks Chris, any help you could send my way would really be appreciated!!

When you booted it off a Windows server, where did you get your setup information?

The link below looks like what you might use if you're pxe-booting off Windows:

From 911CD

[ChrisBaksa]

Thanks Chris, any help you could send my way would really be appreciated!!

When you booted it off a Windows server, where did you get your setup information?

The link below looks like what you might use if you're pxe-booting off Windows:

From 911CD

I got my data form the PE Docs.

It was fairy straight forward.

Copy the files, rename one, and edit the sif file.

Boot!

Worked like a champ.

Chris

[RickR]

Hi Chris,

I hope this won't come out as double reply, but I might have screwed up and accidentally sent you a partial reply.

Anyway, after my last post yesterday, I did some more experimentation and was able to get much farther along.

Most of the files got transferred, and the client screen displayed: "Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration...". However, then it displayed "NTDETECT failed". Not so good.

A similar topic came up on a different BB ( Look Here )

I looked at the log file for my atftpd server, and there were some entries there that look like the below:

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8954]: received ACK <block: 515>

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8954]: sent DATA <block: 516, size 512>

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8954]: received ACK <block: 516>

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8954]: sent DATA <block: 517, size 0>

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8954]: received ACK <block: 517>

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8954]: End of transfer

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8954]: Server thread exiting

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8970]: Serving BOOTFONT.BIN to 10.100.191.1:60687

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8970]: received RRQ <filename: BOOTFONT.BIN, mode: octet, tsize: 0>

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8970]: tsize option -> 30

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8970]: sent OACK <tsize: 30>

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8970]: received ERROR <code: 8, msg: Bad TFTP options>

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8970]: Aborting transfer

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8970]: Server thread exiting

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8971]: Serving ntdetect.com to 10.100.191.1:60688

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8971]: received RRQ <filename: ntdetect.com, mode: octet, tsize: 0>

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8971]: tsize option -> 47548

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8971]: sent OACK <tsize: 47548>

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8971]: received ERROR <code: 8, msg: Bad TFTP options>

Jan 20 17:09:35 rct tftpd[8971]: Aborting transfer

So what I'm thinking is that something's wrong with my tftp server. I'm using Debian atftpd version 0.6.2. Can you possible tell me which particular tftp service you're using and it's version. I think that's the source of my problems.

Thanks again for all your help.

Rick

[ribond]

Server Sp1 WinPE (2005) ships with RAMDISK support. One of the side benefits of booting from a RAMDISK is that you can boot from non-MS pxe servers without having to reinvent wheels, etc.

WinPE 2005, coming soon...