[ipxe-devel] Error "Could not select: Exec format error (2e008081)" while loading EFI images via HTTP/TFTP

[Felix Jacobi]

Hi Christian,

> My guess is that your server returns something other than what you
> expect it to - maybe because it is ipxe, and not a browser, and your
> server detects this. or something similar which "corrupts" the data.

I checked that the URL is correct, it definitely serves a Linux kernel
image:

felix.mein-iserv.de ~ # wget -q
https://felix.mein-iserv.de/tftpboot/efi64/install
felix.mein-iserv.de ~ # file install
install: Linux kernel x86 boot executable bzImage, version
5.0.0-27-generic (buildd at lgw01-amd64-016) #28-Ubuntu SMP Tue Aug 20
19:53:07 UTC 2019, RO-rootFS, swap_dev 0x8, Normal VGA

> use imgstat before boot
> verify that it says that it is an EFI image.
> Also verify that the filesize is correct.
> And that you have the correct url (that install is the actual image)
> Also used imgfetch and imgstat to verify that the image has the
correct size in bytes:

Broken notebook:
https://community.iserv.eu/upload/faepiegho7oosh9ut8zieshe2PhaavieVohF0cooxi8ahgho8aic6Aicee4eikee/broken.jpg
Other working device:
https://community.iserv.eu/upload/faepiegho7oosh9ut8zieshe2PhaavieVohF0cooxi8ahgho8aic6Aicee4eikee/working.jpg

Image on boot server:

felix.mein-iserv.de ~ # ls -la /srv/tftpboot/efi64/install

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 35 Sep  3 13:20 /srv/tftpboot/efi64/install ->
../opsi-linux-bootimage/x64/vmlinuz
felix.mein-iserv.de ~ # ls -la
/srv/tftpboot/opsi-linux-bootimage/x64/vmlinuz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Sep  3 13:20
/srv/tftpboot/opsi-linux-bootimage/x64/vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-5.0.0-27-generic
felix.mein-iserv.de ~ # ls -la
/srv/tftpboot/opsi-linux-bootimage/x64/vmlinuz-5.0.0-27-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8,4M Aug 20 21:25
/srv/tftpboot/opsi-linux-bootimage/x64/vmlinuz-5.0.0-27-generic
felix.mein-iserv.de ~ # du --bytes
/srv/tftpboot/opsi-linux-bootimage/x64/vmlinuz-5.0.0-27-generic
8711928	/srv/tftpboot/opsi-linux-bootimage/x64/vmlinuz-5.0.0-27-generic

> in your last image you can see that your imagefetch is not able to
> detect the fileformat.

The interesting point is that the broken notebook seems to does not
detect the image as EFI binary. The working reference device seems to
doesn't have this problem.

> And yes, disable secure boot, unless you have both ipxe, and the
> kernel signed by a certificate that has been added inside firmware
> config.

Yeah, I will try to research on that point. As already mentioned before
there is no such option in the firmware. That either implies that there
is no support for secure boot or secure boot is always active. I am not
sure if the latter case is even possible, as the iPXE binary itself is
loaded without problems at the beginning.

> You can follow the link to see each place in the sourcecode where this
> error can come from. (also, always include the link that are shown
> together with the error message to get help easier)

I will include the link to the error code here afterwards to ease
comprehending this thread for other ones:

http://ipxe.org/err/2e0080

Thank you for your time.

Regards, Felix

-- 
Best regards,

Felix Jacobi

IServ GmbH
Bültenweg 73
38106 Braunschweig

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