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<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><font face="Times New Roman, Times,
serif">As I have mentioned previously, using dd to clone the
.usb file to the usb key results in a blank usb key (sdc1). On
the off chance that the entire contents were invisible for some
reason, I tried to boot it anyway, and simply got a black screen
with nothing at all. Per your other email request, a little
more detail:<br>
<br>
We have a Windows DHCP server which passes PXE to our WDS
server.<br>
WDS has several boot and restore images available, which all
work fine when PXE booting a Dell system normally.<br>
The purpose of iPXE (previously gPXE) is to be able to PXE boot
Mac systems and use this restore functionality.<br>
This works perfectly when booting gPXE from CD made from the
ISO. As USB is more convenient, and not all Mac systems have an
optical drive, I tried to get this working on USB.<br>
<br>
When attempting to use the iPXE ISO on CD, you get as far as
choosing the PXE boot image to boot from, and then the boot
process (loading windows progress bar at the bottom) simply
never moves. This indicates an issue with iPXE that does not
exist with gPXE. I'm happy to go with iPXE if gPXE is simply
not going to be workable, but we may need to actually get iPXE
working on CD then before we move on to USB.</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><font face="Times New
Roman, Times, serif">When attempting to boot USB made via dd,
you get nothing at all, just black. If you try this same USB
on a Dell, you get non system disk or disk error, cntl+alt+del
to reboot. Both behaviors are consistent with a blank volume
which indicates the files aren't invisible, they just aren't
there. This would indicate to me either dd in Ubuntu 12LTS is
broken in some way, or the source .usb file is empty. A
utility on Windows that is supposed to be able to open .usb
files says it's corrupt or the wrong format.<br>
<br>
As a fallback, since you can copy the contents of a bootable
WinPE ISO to a USB stick and simply boot it, I thought I'd try
that with gPXE/iPXE.<br>
</font>When attempting to boot a USB device made by copying the
CD files to USB, you get a black screen with GRUB and a flashing
_ in the corner and that's it, nothing further happens. I'm
guessing this might be due to incorrect pointers for the device
type since they are CD files on USB?<br>
When attempting to boot a HD with the CD files copied to it,
you're told something like no system files found (I don't have
it in front me me this moment) which again I assume is some
device pointer issue.<br>
<br>
Hope this helps flesh out the issues and guide some ideas what
we might try to get things working.<br>
Cheers,<br>
Yadin<br>
<br>
</font>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-------------------------------------------------------------------
Yadin Flammer - Systems Administrator
College of Arts & Architecture, Penn State University
228 Borland Building Office Phone: 814-865-0990
University Park, PA 16802 Dept. Phone: 814-865-1571
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:yxf4@psu.edu">yxf4@psu.edu</a> Dept. Fax: 814-863-6227</pre>
On 6/13/13 8:17 PM, Michael Brown wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:912271d5-411b-4d69-9516-1eb31750bbd0@email.android.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Yadin Flammer <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:yxf4@psu.edu"><yxf4@psu.edu></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Thanks for the response. I have tried ipxe and it also does not work.
Trying to dd it to a drive under ubuntu 12 LTS results in a blank
drive. Copying the files from the ISO to the USB results in booting to
a black screen with GRUB and a flashing cursor and nothing else. I
tried posting to the ipxe forums but they appear to not be working as
no
post happens and no error is given as to why.
Any advice on getting a USB drive to work with ipxe, as well as getting
the forums to work so I can reach a wider audience, are appreciated.
Cheers,
Yadin
On 6/13/2013 1:01 PM, Michael Brown wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">On Thursday 13 Jun 2013 17:14:49 Yadin Flammer wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">I've been trying to get gpxe to boot from a USB drive, and even an
internal hard drive, but no luck. Using the ISO for a CD works
perfectly, but a USB key would be much more convenient. The .usb
</pre>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">and
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">.dsk files that download appear to be corrupt every time as no
application can open them (winimage says they are corrupt), or the
contents when dd to a disk under linux are corrupt. Copying the
contents of the .iso to a USB drive or internal HD does not result
</pre>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">in a
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">bootable system regardless of the format or setup of the drive.
Has anyone managed to make a bootable USB key or internal drive with
</pre>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">the
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">gpxe environment and if so precisely how?
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">gPXE has not been maintained for several years. Please upgrade to
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">iPXE, which
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">is the replacement for gPXE.
You won't be able to open the .usb image, since it doesn't contain a
filesystem. It's a raw disk image; you need to transfer it to the
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">USB key
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">using dd (or equivalent). Be aware that this will erase all existing
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">content
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">of the USB key.
Michael
</pre>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">
Use dd to transfer the iPXE .usb image to the USB key, then boot from that USB key. For example, assuming your USB key is /dev/sda, then use
dd if=bin/ipxe.usb of=/dev/sda
(Warning: /dev/sda is probably your main system disk. Find out which device represents your USB key and use that instead.)
Forum posts by new users are moderated to eliminate spam, which is why yours hasn't appeared yet.
Michael
</pre>
</blockquote>
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