EFI – Erwan's Blog

PXE, WImboot and multi platform (pcbios/efi/i386/x86_64)

Boot, PXE, TinyPXE Server, WinPE 2 Responses »

Jan 082018

Sharing a iPXE script (using wimboot) I am using these days along with Tiny PXE Server to boot winpe over the network on multiple platform : pcbios i386, pcbios x86_64, efi i386, efi x86_64.

Tiny PXE Server is serving by default pcbios ipxe.pxe and also, depending on the client architecture, serving the matching ipxe efi version.

See below my config.ini and a custom wimboot.ipxe script.

Discuss it here.

[dhcp] proxydhcp=1 httpd=1 bind=1 root=\files filename=ipxe.pxe altfilename=wimboot.ipxe [arch] 00006=ipxe-i386.efi 00007=ipxe-x86_64.efi 00009=ipxe-x86_64.efi

#!ipxe #more about wimboot tips and tricks : http://ipxe.org/wimboot set boot-url http://${dhcp-server} #note : we are not going to use cpuid/arch cpuid --ext 29 && set arch x64 || set arch x86 echo ${arch} echo ${platform}_${buildarch} goto ${platform}_${buildarch} || goto unknown :pcbios_x86_64 kernel ${boot-url}/wimboot initrd ${boot-url}/BOOTMGR.EXE bootmgr.exe initrd ${boot-url}/BOOT/BCD BCD initrd ${boot-url}/BOOT/BOOT.SDI BOOT.SDI initrd ${boot-url}/SOURCES/x64/BOOT.WIM BOOT.WIM boot :pcbios_i386 kernel ${boot-url}/wimboot initrd ${boot-url}/BOOTMGR.EXE bootmgr.exe initrd ${boot-url}/BOOT/BCD BCD initrd ${boot-url}/BOOT/BOOT.SDI BOOT.SDI initrd ${boot-url}/SOURCES/x86/BOOT.WIM BOOT.WIM boot :efi_x86_64 kernel ${boot-url}/wimboot initrd ${boot-url}/bootx64.efi bootx64.efi initrd ${boot-url}/EFI/MICROSOFT/BOOT/BCD BCD initrd ${boot-url}/BOOT/BOOT.SDI BOOT.SDI initrd ${boot-url}/SOURCES/x64/BOOT.WIM BOOT.WIM boot :efi_i386 kernel ${boot-url}/wimboot.i386 initrd ${boot-url}/bootia32.efi bootia32.efi initrd ${boot-url}/EFI/MICROSOFT/BOOT/BCD BCD initrd ${boot-url}/BOOT/BOOT.SDI BOOT.SDI initrd ${boot-url}/SOURCES/x86/BOOT.WIM BOOT.WIM boot :unknown echo Unknown platform ${platform}_${buildarch}

Boot WINPE over PXE on a UEFI computer #2

Boot, network, PXE, TinyPXE Server, WinPE 2 Responses »

Fév 112017

Following a post from 2014 about booting Winpe over PXE on a UEFI computer, see below a different way to proceed.

-Disable secureboot (or else you’ll need to use a signed bootloader)
-Retrieve latest version of IPXE for UEFI, ipxe-snponly-x86-64.efi and rename it bootia64.efi
-run the following command against your BCD : bcdedit.exe /store BCD /set {bootmgr} nointegritychecks yes
-Use the below wimboot.ipxe script based on Wimboot
-set Tiny PXE Server as below screenshot

wimboot.ipxe

#!ipxe set boot-url http://${dhcp-server} kernel ${boot-url}/wimboot initrd ${boot-url}/bootmgfw.efi bootmgfw.efi initrd ${boot-url}/EFI/MICROSOFT/BOOT/BCD BCD initrd ${boot-url}/BOOT/BOOT.SDI BOOT.SDI initrd ${boot-url}/SOURCES/BOOT.WIM BOOT.WIM boot

Tiny PXE Server and UEFI booting

Boot, TinyPXE Server 19 Responses »

Sep 072014

Latest Tiny PXE Server now handles the client system architecture (BIOS, UEFI x32, UEFI x64, etc …).

This allows one to provide the right boot filename based on the client architecture.

Below Tiny PXE Server will send pxeboot.n12 as boot filename (which will chain to bootmgr) and will indicate 00000\bcd as BCD file in BIOS mode.
If UEFI x64 (00007) is detected, and [arch] section filled in the config.ini, it will send bootx64.efi as boot filename and will indicate 00007\bcd as BCD.

See the [arch] section in the config.ini

[arch] 00006=bootia32.efi 00007=bootx64.efi

Tiny PXE Server

Discuss it here.

Boot WINPE over PXE on a UEFI computer

Boot, TinyPXE Server, WinPE 78 Responses »

Jan 122014

Here below some drafts notes on how to boot WINPE on a UEFI computers.

1/Files you need from your windows x64 dvd

-\efi\boot\bootx64.efi file (1)
-\efi\boot\bcd file (2)
-\efi\boot\boot.sdi file (3)
-\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts folder (4)
-\sources\boot.wim (5)

If you dont find bootx64.efi, you can use bootmgfw.efi which is in install.wim on your dvd (sources folder).
Use 7zip to extract this file from the wim file and rename it to bootx64.efi

2/Files you need in your tftp root

-get in your tftp root
put bootx64.efi (from 1)
-create a SOURCES folder
put boot.wim in there (from 5)
-create a BOOT folder
put boot.sdi in there (from 3)
put bcd in there (from 2) / applies for Win8
-create a EFI/MICROSOFT/BOOT folder
put bcd in there (from 2) / applies for Win7
put the FONT folder in there (from 4)

You should end up with the following :
=>ROOT
-bootx64.efi
==>SOURCES
==boot.wim
==>BOOT
==boot.sdi
==bcd (for win8)
==>EFI/MICROSOFT/BOOT
==bcd (for win7)
===>FONTS
===*.ttf

3/Things you need to do on your boot.wim

Add the following winpeshl.ini (create it with notepad) file in your boot.wim (system32), making it a « cheap » winpe.

To modify your boot.wim, you can either mount/change/commit it with DISM (from the command line), or with CloneDisk or else modify it with wimlib :
wimlib-imagex update boot.wim 1 --command="add CustomWinpeshl.ini \Windows\System32\winpeshl.ini"

[LaunchApps] %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Windows\system32\startnet.cmd %SYSTEMDRIVE%\windows\system32\cmd.exe

4/Things you need to do in your PXE Server :

Set bootx64.efi as the bootp filename.

The UEFI + PXE boot process will be the following :
–pxe->bootx64.efi (from windows install dvd)->bcd (pointing to winload.efi)->boot.wim (x64 only)

as opposed to a legacy bios computer :
–pxe->pxeboot.n12 (from windows install dvd)-> bootmgr.exe -> bcd (pointing to winload.exe) -> boot.wim

Site note : you can use option dhcp 252 to decide which BCD file to load.
Can be handy when you want to switch from a UEFI computer to a legacy BIOS computer : efi\microsoft\boot or boot\bcd

side note : you can check if you booted on uefi with the following reg query HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control /v PEFirmwareType Will output 0x1 for bios, 0x2 for uefi.

Cheers,
Erwan

Note that the following would aso work : PXE-> IPXE.efi ->MS Bootx64.efi ->BCD (winload.efi) ->Boot.wim (x64).

Ipxe script
#!ipxe #change with you dhcp or proxydhcp server set next-server 192.168.1.11 set filename boot/x64/bootmgfw.efi chain tftp://${next-server}/${filename}

And changes to apply to your BCD : bcdedit.exe /store my.bcd /set {bootmgr} nointegritychecks yes