[ipxe-devel] [gPXE] gpxe on USB or HD

[Michael Brown]

Yadin Flammer <yxf4 at psu.edu> wrote:

>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:
>> On Thursday 13 Jun 2013 17:14:49 Yadin Flammer wrote:
>>> 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
>and
>>> .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
>in a
>>> bootable system regardless of the format or setup of the drive.
>>>
>>> Has anyone managed to make a bootable USB key or internal drive with
>the
>>> gpxe environment and if so precisely how?
>> gPXE has not been maintained for several years.  Please upgrade to
>iPXE, which
>> 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
>USB key
>> using dd (or equivalent).  Be aware that this will erase all existing
>content
>> of the USB key.
>>
>> Michael

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