gPXE and the HTTP server that could

eBox 1.4 has support for serving a bootfile over TFTP.

Only it's broken. Oops.

Here's my quick fix:
sudo nano /etc/inetd.conf

Code:

tftp           dgram   udp     wait    root  /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd -s /var/lib/tftpboot

That /var/lib/tftpboot is where tftp will serve files from.
eBox expects it to be serving a file such as:
/var/lib/ebox/conf/dhcp/eth0/firmware

Code:

tftp           dgram   udp     wait    root  /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd -s /var/lib/ebox/conf/dhcp/eth0

Now when you 'upload' a new boot file to eBox's dashboard,
/var/lib/ebox/conf/dhcp/ethX/firmware
gets replaced with whatever you've uploaded.

But eBox won't set the dhcp-option 'filename' to serve it.

sudo nano /usr/share/ebox/stubs/dhcp/subnet.mas

Look for

Code:

% if(defined($info{'nextServer'})) {
                next-server <% $info{'nextServer'} %>;
% }
% if(defined($info{'filename'})) {
                filename "<% $info{'filename'} %>";
% }

And change it to

Code:

% if(defined($info{'nextServer'})) {
                next-server <% $info{'nextServer'} %>;
                # Filename entry added by Kamilion (dec 01 2009)
                filename firmware;
% }
% if(defined($info{'filename'})) {
                filename "<% $info{'filename'} %>";
% }

Now we need something to boot.

Go pick up the latest gPXE from here:
http://www.rom-o-matic.net/gpxe/gpxe-git/gpxe.git/contrib/rom-o-matic/build.php

Click Customize.

Change the following Settings:

[X] DOWNLOAD_PROTO_HTTPS
[X] DOWNLOAD_PROTO_FTP

[X] TIME_CMD
[X] DIGEST_CMD

And paste in the following Embedded Script: (Good base, but edit if you wish)

Code:

#!gpxe
echo "Greetings! Hit Ctrl-C to bail out."
sleep 5
echo "Going to DHCP on primary network adapter"
ifopen net0
dhcp net0
echo "Going to try http://netboot/default.gpxe"
chain http://netboot/default.gpxe
echo "Didn't work, we're still here. Falling back to http://boot/default.gpxe"
chain http://boot/default.gpxe
echo "Didn't work, we're still here. Falling back to BKO"
set 209:string pxelinux.cfg/default
set 210:string http://boot.kernel.org/bko/
echo "Here we go, off to boot.kernel.org!"
chain http://boot.kernel.org/bko/pxelinux.0
echo "Didn't work, we're still here. No Internet connection? Falling back to next BIOS Boot device"

You should get a single .pxe file back after clicking Get Image.

Go to DHCP -> Interface -> Advanced Options -> Thin Client.
Settings:
Next server: eBox
File Name [browse]
File path in next server:

Click "Change" to complete the settings, then Save Changes.

Place this file in the root of your HTTP server, named default.gpxe, and create a DNS alias to that machine named 'netboot'.

Code:

#!gpxe
imgfree
chain http://netboot/boot/menu.gpxe

Here's an example you can use to load Parted Magic:

Code:

#!gpxe
imgfree
kernel -n img http://bigblock/boot/pmagic/4.5/bzImage load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 keymap=us loglevel=0 rw sleep=4
initrd http://bigblock/boot/pmagic/4.5/initramfs
boot img

Here's an example you can use to boot from iSCSI.

Code:

#!gpxe
imgfree
#dhcp net0
set keep-san 1
sanboot iscsi:10.10.10.250::::iqn.bigblock:storage.iscsikarmic-one
chain http://10.10.10.250/boot/iscsi.gpxe

More examples here: http://boot.sllabs.com/boot/

How to use u3-tool in Lucid

As my few blog visitors may be aware, I've been using the U3 customizer for windows for a long time on my 4GB cruzers to make them bootable.

http://blog.sllabs.com/2008/05/booting-heron-from-u3.html


I came across the u3-tool sometime ago when I bought my Clarion MiND, but I've only actually used it recently.

The U3 Customizer tools were released somewhere in 2005 and won't work in anything but windows XP 32bit, and won't recognize U3s over 8GB.



Gonzor discovered TwinMOS's application version supported Larger drives, Vista, and was released in 2007. However, the copy from TwinMOS didn't work for me -- and yet Gonzor's copy from mediafire did, both are version 1.0.5.5

I just bought an open-box 16GB Contour EXtreme with AES from newegg for $40, and it came yesterday.

So I started searching on how to hack a 16GB U3 drive.

"Oh, right, u3-tool... Almost forgot about that!"

In searching for 'how to use u3-tool', I ran across ubuntu launchpad bug report #534070 and played around a little.

I had some issues trying to get the windows version to work, I could resize the CD domain, but 'burning' the ISO failed consistently at 4-5% with a scsi error.

In Ubuntu Lucid, you can just 'sudo apt-get install u3-tool' but:
I was *NOT* able to get /dev/sg* or /dev/sr* to work -- I had to address the disk device itself as /dev/sdf to get it to work.

Hope this helps others out, as I think the major problem people are having is trying to use one of the /dev/sg like the u3-tool help text mentions.

Here's the log of the CD domain resize and burn I ran.

kamilion@SonyRA840G:~$ sudo u3-tool -i /dev/sdf
Total device size:   14.95 GB (16051601408 bytes)
CD size:             7.69 MB (8060928 bytes)
Data partition size: 14.94 GB (16043474944 bytes)
kamilion@SonyRA840G:~$ sudo u3-tool -l UbuntuLucid3264.iso /dev/sdf
CD image(1874288640 byte) is to big for current cd partition(8060928 byte), please repartition device.
kamilion@SonyRA840G:~$ sudo u3-tool -p 1874288640 /dev/sdf

WARNING: Loading a new cd image causes the whole device to be whiped. This INCLUDES
 the data partition.
I repeat: ANY EXCISTING DATA WILL BE LOST!

Are you sure you want to continue? [yn] y
kamilion@SonyRA840G:~$ sudo u3-tool -l UbuntuLucid3264.iso /dev/sdf
|**************************************************| 100%

OK

kamilion@SonyRA840G:~$ sudo u3-tool -i /dev/sdf
Total device size:   14.95 GB (16051601408 bytes)
CD size:             1.75 GB (1874329600 bytes)
Data partition size: 13.20 GB (14177271808 bytes)

After I changed the ISO, I also had to open Disk Utility (palimpsest), "Format the Disk"  to create a new MBR geometry, and then create a new NTFS partition.

(Which I've subsequently copied Windows 7's bootmgr to the root of the flash partition and ran "bootsect /nt60 U:", then copied the contents of the 7 install cd to the flash)

Both sections of the device are now bootable, the CD boots ubuntu lucid 32/64 TORAM=Yes, and the flash boots the 7 preinstallation environment.

(Yeah, I know the picture's screwed up -- I'll edit the blogspot CSS later.)

So that all worked just fine for me. Hope it does for you, too!

(And for the person who emailed me to ask about the background... It's from SSDD.)