Boot system rescue cd

[alh]

Hello,

   I have PXE boot working with iVentoy, but boot of SystemRescueCD fails because media isn't found after kernel load. I expected this because it's normal for the kernel to not have access to the PXE virtualized media after loading. I've solved this in other PXE environment by adding kernel parameters to point to HTTP location for media. In iVentoy, I tried to solve this with file injection, but there isn't enough documentation on the file injection feature to understand how or where in the boot process the injection happens. Is there a better way to get this ISO bootable over PXE with iVentoy?

[sklerder]

Hi alh.
I managed to have it working, in BIOS Legacy mode (MBR), by editing the Syslinux boot-menu, adding "ip=dhcp archiso_http_srv=http://${pxeserver}:16000/eiso/id/<eiso_ID>/" (pay attention to having the last slash after the eiso ID, else it won't find "<eiso>airootfs.sfs").

I didn't try in UEFI/GPT mode up to now, it should consist in adding the equivalent to Grub's config, but what I'm sure, the "${pxeserver}" variable isn't available in Grub, it perhaps have an other name.

[alh]

Hi alh.
I managed to have it working, in BIOS Legacy mode (MBR), by editing the Syslinux boot-menu, adding "ip=dhcp archiso_http_srv=http://${pxeserver}:16000/eiso/id/<eiso_ID>/" (pay attention to having the last slash  after the eiso ID, else it won't find "<eiso>airootfs.sfs").

I didn't try in UEFI/GPT mode up to now, it should consist in adding the equivalent to Grub's config, but what I'm sure, the "${pxeserver}" variable isn't available in Grub, it perhaps have an other name.

I thought I'd be able to do that also, but I think what's happening is that my (test laptop) screen is blank during the display of the syslinux boot menu. I've seen the syslinux menu booting from USB (Ventoy), but not when booting from iPXE or iVentoy. That makes it impossible to do anything but the default boot with default kernel parameters (although, still possible on hardware without this specific issue). I don't see a way to change boot parameters from iVentoy. The file injection framework in iVentoy makes me think there are hooks in place that could potentially be used to solve this though.

[sklerder]

Perhaps should you try to force resolution on iVentoy side ?

[alh]

Perhaps should you try to force resolution on iVentoy side ?

The screen problem is definitely the hardware (old laptop). Tried all resolution values, most either fail or turns iVentoy's menu into unreadable garbage. Same happens with my own iPXE, so it isn't unique to iVentoy. I tested the same on a VM and the rescue CD's grub menu does display. 

For now, I put my own iPXE in front of iVentoy so my iPXE can boot system rescue (using the needed kernel parameters) or chain to iVentoy. 

I was also able to get it to boot from iVentoy by using my own ipxe script instead of the iventoy generated one, changing:

:MENU_FILE_<nn>
echo -n -s Preparing for boot, please wait...
sanboot -d 0xe0 -n ${HTTP_URL}/viso/id/<nn>/mac:${mac}/bus:${bustype}:${busid} ||
goto MENU_DIR_<n>

to

:MENU_FILE_<nn>
echo -n -s Preparing for boot, please wait...
imgfree
kernel ${HTTP_URL}/eiso/id/<nn>/sysresccd/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz archisobasedir=sysresccd ip=dhcp net.ifnames=0 archiso_http_srv=${HTTP_URL}/eiso/id/<nn>
initrd ${HTTP_URL}/eiso/id/<nn>/sysresccd/boot/x86_64/sysresccd.img
boot
goto MENU_DIR_<n>

Neither solution is perfect. Hopefully more OS ISO's will be supported soon in iVentoy.