chunfungintel/pxe-server

title	created	modified
iPXE	2021-09-22T10:36:41.557Z	2021-09-22T14:01:50.051Z

iPXE

Overview

To create a iPXE network boot, you will need:

• Bootable USB with ipxe EFI
• http server for hosting ipxe boot commands
• NFS server for Ubuntu boot or Samba server for Windows boot.

EFI compile

1. Preparation

   sudo apt install -y liblzma-dev git
   

   More detailed packages: https://ipxe.org/download
2. Cloning

   git clone git://git.ipxe.org/ipxe.git
   

3. Turn on NFS support. In ipxe/src/config/general.h, add this line before #endif. Reference: https://ipxe.org/gsoc/nfs

   // Add this line
   #define DOWNLOAD_PROTO_NFS
   
   #endif /* CONFIG_GENERAL_H */
   

4. Create a auto run script when ipxe starts under ipxe/src with name "demo.ipxe". The command "chain" in "demo.ipxe" will look for file "ipxe" in the http server and continue to boot.

   #!ipxe
   
   prompt --key 0x197e --timeout 5000 Press F12 for the iPXE command line... || goto no_shell
   shell
   exit
   
   :no_shell
   dhcp
   show uuid
   set dns 10.248.2.1
   
   chain http://10.226.76.241:8080/ipxe?uuid=${uuid}
   #chain http://inats.intel.com/ipxe?uuid=${uuid}
   

5. Begin EFI compilation with USB ethernet support. Additional build target can refer to here: https://ipxe.org/appnote/buildtargets

   cd ipxe/src
   make bin-x86_64-efi/ecm--ncm--ipxe.efi EMBED=demo.ipxe
   

Bootable USB Creation

WARNING: The target drive will be erased

1. Assuming USB drive at /dev/sdc, new GPT and ESP partition will be created.

   export USB_DEVICE=/dev/sdc
   sudo parted -s ${USB_DEVICE} unit MiB mklabel gpt mkpart primary 1MiB 500MiB -- set 1 esp on
   sudo mkfs.fat -F32 ${USB_DEVICE}1
   

2. Mount and copy ipxe's EFI into USB's partition.

   # Mount USB drive partition 1
   EFI_MOUNT=/tmp/efidrive
   EFI_DRIVE=${USB_DEVICE}1
   sudo mkfs.fat -F32 $EFI_DRIVE
   sudo mkdir -p $EFI_MOUNT
   sudo mount $EFI_DRIVE $EFI_MOUNT
   
   sudo mkdir -p $EFI_MOUNT/efi/boot
   sudo cp ipxe/src/bin-x86_64-efi/ecm--ncm--ipxe.efi $EFI_MOUNT/efi/boot/bootx64.efi
   sudo umount $EFI_MOUNT
   

HTTP Server

After ipxe boot with demo.ipxe script, it will make a rest api call to the http server to get file name ipxe for next boot. Example:

chain http://10.226.76.241:8080/ipxe?uuid=${uuid}

Sample ipxe file for Ubuntu boot, note that the Ubuntu will boot through NFS:

#!ipxe

set server_ip 10.226.76.19
set nfs_path /src/Ubuntu20

kernel nfs://${server_ip}${nfs_path}/casper/vmlinuz || read void
initrd nfs://${server_ip}${nfs_path}/casper/initrd || read void
imgargs vmlinuz initrd=initrd root=/dev/nfs boot=casper netboot=nfs nfsroot=${server_ip}:${nfs_path} ip=dhcp splash quiet -- || read void
boot || read void

NFS Server for Ubuntu