PXE Boot Ventoy

[TobStar]

Hi,

just wanted to now if it is possible to start ventoy by PXE Boot.

[GCMartin]

Hi,

just wanted to now if it is possible to start ventoy by PXE Boot.

Ventoy GRUB program is built/coded to look for ISOs on its "boot" drive (in the 1st partition). If you want Ventoy to find and list the ISOs for boot selection, I dont see how this can be done via PXE.

IFF you merely want to "PXE boot" the Ventoy v121 ISO which creates a Ventoy bootable USB, then I can see how this could be done via PXE. As this v121 is an ISO and PXE could be setup to boot an ISO, even Ventoy's ISO for creating a USB; then this is possible to boot the ISO for building a Ventoy bootable USB.

You'll need to search the internet for instructions on PXE setup where it presents an ISO for booting. Most instructions exist for deconstructing an ISO contents and placing them properly for TFTP use. But, buried there are instructions for how to get PXE to boot the ISO file directly; that is without deconstructing it.

Hope this helps

[PenguinJeff]

Curious is I could install ventoy on an iscsi drive and chain load it via ipxe?

[PenguinJeff]

I use the following urls to setup my environment

https://linuxhint.com/iscsi_storage_server_centos/
https://ipxe.org/howto/chainloading
downloaded
http://boot.ipxe.org/undionly.kpxe and http://boot.ipxe.org/ipxe.efi
placed them in my tftp share /var/lib/tftpboot

added these two options to the top of /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf

option client-architecture code 93 = unsigned integer 16;
option iscsi-initiator-iqn code 203 = string;

added this if block code to the subnet section

########## start of if block ############
if exists user-class and option user-class = "iPXE" {
    filename "";
    option iscsi-initiator-iqn "iqn.2022-10.com.example.iscsi:init1";
    option root-path "iscsi:iscsi.example.com::::iqn.2022-10.com.example.iscsi:ventoy";
} elsif option client-architecture = 00:00 {
    filename "undionly.kpxe";
} else {
    filename "ipxe.efi";
}
############ end of if block #################

installed ventoy to iqn.2022-10.com.example.iscsi:ventoy

edited /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi to set
InitiatorName=iqn.2022-10.com.example.iscsi:init1

iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2022-10.com.example,iscsi:ventoy -p iscsi.example.com -l

used VentoyGUI.x86_64 to install ventoy to the iscsi disk it was labeled ventoy to me.

I mounted the ventoy partition and copied my Fedora install iso to it

tested booting via ipxe and I get all the way to the ventoy menu select screen
I was able to select my Fedora install iso

then I get stuck  it loops on similar messages to as follows. The beginning numbers differ from reality.

[ 123.123456 ] dracut-initqueue[756]: Warning: dracut-initqueue: timeout, still waiting for following initqueue hooks:
[ 234.234567 ] dracut-initqueue[756]: Warning: /lib/dracut/hooks/initqueue/finished/devexists-\x2fdev\x2froot.sh: "[ -e "/dev/root" ]"
[ 345.345678 ] dracut-initqueue[756]: Warning: /lib/dracut/hooks/initqueue/finished/devexists-\x2fdev\x2ventoy.sh: "[ -e "/dev/ventoy" ]"
[ 456.456789 ] dracut-initqueue[756]: Warning: dracut-initqueue: starting timeout scripts
[ 567.567890 ] dracut-initqueue[5524]: Busybox v1.31.0 (2019-06-10 15:54:54 CEST) multi-call binary.
[ 678.678901 ] dracut-initqueue[5524]: Usage: mknod [-m MODE] NAME TYPE [MAJOR MINOR]
[ 789.789012 ] dracut-initqueue[5524]: Create a special file (block, character, or pipe)
[ 890.890123 ] dracut-initqueue[5524]:  -m MODE Creation mode (default a=rw)
[ 901.901234 ] dracut-initqueue[5524]: TYPE:
[ 012.012345 ] dracut-initqueue[5524]:  b           Block device
[ 123.123456 ] dracut-initqueue[5524]:  c or u    Character device
[ 123.123456 ] dracut-initqueue[5524]:  p           Named pipe (MAJOR MINOR must be omitted)

[nguyen ha thai trong]

I have ventoy boot from iso file (ventoy.iso), does that solve your problem?

[samirdealmeida]

Hi,

just wanted to now if it is possible to start ventoy by PXE Boot.

In the "default" file of your pxe, put this:

LABEL  Ventoy
MENU LABEL ^1. Ventoy
KERNEL ventoy/memdisk
INITRD ventoy/ventoy.dd
APPEND harddisk


memdisk and ventoy.dd files are in my google drive:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qdexz6s...share_link


Only boot works, .ISO files must be on a flash drive.

A suggestion for the community, put a mount point over the network (smb for example)