[ipxe-devel] Status Update: Booting VMWare ESXi 5.1 installer via iPXE native Multiboot

[Thomas Glanzmann]

Hello Brandon,

> It seems no matter what I try, including the raw chardevs.b00 (gzip'd,
> but does still boot), or unpacking it to just the chardevs file that
> Nautilus identifies as an Object Code file, I get the above error. 
> If I do not include this module at all, when it tries to load the
> user.b00 file, it fails on the chardevs namespace, indicating to me
> that it is required. 

I'll investigate further.

> I did come up with a workaround for a person in the IRC channel that
> chainloads to pxelinux.0 to load the installer via it's mboot.c32 file,
> so they could at least get ESXi installing. I can post that if there is
> interest. 

I also installed on Saturday three ESXi 5.1 machines using this chainload:

#!ipxe
dhcp net0
kernel -n mboot.c32 http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/mboot.c32
imgargs mboot.c32 -c http://10.10.10.1/ipxe/esxi5.1.cfg
boot mboot.c32

esxi5.1.cfg:
bootstate=0
title=Loading ESXi installer
kernel=http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/tboot.b00
kernelopt=ks=http://10.10.10.1/cgi-bin/esxi5.pl
modules=http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/b.b00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/useropts.gz --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/k.b00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/chardevs.b00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/a.b00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/user.b00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/s.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/ata_pata.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/ata_pata.v01 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/ata_pata.v02 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/ata_pata.v03 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/ata_pata.v04 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/ata_pata.v05 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/ata_pata.v06 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/ata_pata.v07 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/block_cc.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/ehci_ehc.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/weaselin.t00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/esx_dvfi.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/xlibs.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/ima_qla4.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/ipmi_ipm.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/ipmi_ipm.v01 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/ipmi_ipm.v02 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/misc_cni.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/misc_dri.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_be2n.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_bnx2.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_bnx2.v01 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_cnic.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_e100.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_e100.v01 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_enic.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_forc.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_igb.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_ixgb.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_nx_n.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_r816.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_r816.v01 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_s2io.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_sky2.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_tg3.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/net_vmxn.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/ohci_usb.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/sata_ahc.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/sata_ata.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/sata_sat.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/sata_sat.v01 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/sata_sat.v02 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/sata_sat.v03 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/sata_sat.v04 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_aac.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_adp.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_aic.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_bnx.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_fni.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_hps.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_ips.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_lpf.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_meg.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_meg.v01 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_meg.v02 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_mpt.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_mpt.v01 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_mpt.v02 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_qla.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_qla.v01 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/scsi_rst.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/uhci_usb.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/tools.t00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/xorg.v00 --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/imgdb.tgz --- http://10.10.10.1/esxi5.1/imgpayld.tgz
build=
updated=0

I think the first thing we should investigate is if ipxe is supposed to detect
that the files with the extension b00 are gzip compressed and compress them.
And of course what is it about chardevs.b00 that makes it so special.

My diff is:
--- a/src/config/general.h
+++ b/src/config/general.h
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ FILE_LICENCE ( GPL2_OR_LATER );
 //#define      IMAGE_PXE               /* PXE image support */
 //#define      IMAGE_SCRIPT            /* iPXE script image support */
 //#define      IMAGE_BZIMAGE           /* Linux bzImage image support */
-//#define      IMAGE_COMBOOT           /* SYSLINUX COMBOOT image support */
+#define        IMAGE_COMBOOT           /* SYSLINUX COMBOOT image support */
 //#define      IMAGE_EFI               /* EFI image support */
 //#define      IMAGE_SDI               /* SDI image support */

Cheers,
        Thomas