iPXE + WDS + EFI Boot Menu

iPXE_WDS_EFI.md

A pre-boot menu for EFI that allows WDS by default and selection of others manually

I've moved this to a repo as it's easier to see what's going on:

https://github.com/mintsoft/iPXE-WDS-EFI-Boot-Menu

Hello @mintsoft,

Thank you for the useful article. I have WDS + DHCP + DNS+IIS+FTP services running on Windows Server 2019 all in Hyper-V VM, in BIOS mode on a hyper-V VM and I was able to only install Windows OS via WDS in BIOS mode (I could also install Windows OSs in UEFI mode before making the iPXE changes). I followed the steps mentioned above however, I couldn't load the iPXE setup in UEFI mode and it complains about the incorrect directory/URL (Boot\iPXE\iPXE.conf) with the "no such file or directory" error. It appears to download and load the \boot\PXE\snponly.efi file successfully but it can't find the /boot/iPXE/iPXE.conf file for some reason. I have also made the "Alter WDS TFTP to support both \ and / optional changes".
See attached screenshots for the actual error and the environment setup.

Do you think you could help? I am not sure what I am missing. Thanks!

@mahboobrahman I've not looked too closely there, however there is definitely a problem that I am aware of with netbooting + Hyper-V VM's. You can only netboot the VM with UEFI if it is Gen 2 (in my experience). I'm guessing you could be hitting into that.

@mintsoft Thanks for the help. MY Hyper-V VM is Gen 2 for testing the netbooting/PXE in UEFI mode. It can boot into WDS in UEFI mode using the WDS with dhcp option 3, 60, 66, & 67 (with no additional changes bieng made) and install Windows OSs just fine.
I have Gen 1 VM that I using for Legacy BIOS netbooting and that works well with Windows OSs too. But I am trying to use iPXE or any other utility that could help me install Linux OSs via network.

I am assuming that the server with WDS comes with TFTP path to "remoteinstall/" folder but I am not sure. I tried to change the dhcp policies option 67 (bootfilename) path to HTTP URL but it didn't work either.

@mahboobrahman I'd probably test with more devices (UEFI booting) to see what happens, try with other VM's (like VirtualBox or proxmox etc) so you can see if the issue is HyperV related or not.

Does this work with secure boot enabled on clients?

@arjanv no idea, try it and find out?

@mintsoft Would you be so kind as to share your full boot.ipxe.cfg file? I'm struggling getting Ubuntu 22.04 to install. Debian is fine.

Would be much appreciated.

@jkf1585 the whole config is in a repo here: https://github.com/mintsoft/iPXE-WDS-EFI-Boot-Menu/blob/main/REMINST/Boot/iPXE/boot.ipxe.cfg

@mintsoft That's where my original config file came from. Thank you. I'm asking how you, personally, have your setup to allow Ubuntu and Mint installs. Thank you.

@mintsoft You're good for two things: 1) No good & 2) good for nothin'
:)
I'll be nice & say thanks, anyway.