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

[Christian Nilsson]

On Tue, 10 Sep 2019 at 13:25, Felix Jacobi <felix.jacobi at iserv.eu> wrote:
>
> 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
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> 38106 Braunschweig
>
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>

I'm starting to suspect firmware here,
You might want to start an efi shell instead, from USB or similar, and
try to boot the kernel from there.