Windows & UEFI Boot Issue

[Error404NotFound]

I seem to be having a strange issue when booting iVentoy using UEFI mode. I'm unsure if it a bug or if I'm missing something but for example when booting a stock Windows image using iVentoy in UEFI, I end up with a garbled image.

I have tested this on multiple physical machines and also using Virtual box. Unsure if it's related or not but when booting the same image in UEFI mode using Ventoy (USB version) everything works fine. When testing on Virutalbox in UEFI mode it hangs at the message "Preparing for boot, please wait..." and then eventually restarts.

My iVentoy server is running as a Proxmox virtual machine (Debian 12) in a different VLAN than my PXE clients. I am using iVentoy in the "ExternalNet" mode with OPNSense being my DHCP server (I have network booting enabled & allowed through Firewall), but I have also tried changing this to "External" and even using the built in DHCP server on the same subnet. I also tried the Windows version of iVentoy but all yield the same garbled image.

Interestingly booting a Linux based ISO in UEFI mode seems to work ok (I tried GParted).

I can reach the iVentoy menu fine, but when I select an image I get the garbled image.

I have attached some images to help explain things, although I can only attach 5...

• Image 1 - UEFI Windows boot using Ventoy USB version (Works)
  
• Image 2 - UEFI iVentoy boot (Can access menu fine)
  
• Image 3 - UEFI Windows boot using iVentoy (Garbled image)
  
• Image 4 - UEFI Windows boot using iVentoy with Virtualbox (Hangs at message screen, then restarts)
  
• Image 5 - UEFI Linux boot using iVentoy (Seems to work fine)
  
• BIOS Windows boot using iVentoy (Works)
  
• OPNSense DHCP network booting options (Next server = iVentoy IP address, BIOS image name = iventoy_loader_16000_bios, UEFI image name = iventoy_loader_16000_uefi)
  

Hopefully someone can help with this issue.
Many thanks.

[sklerder]

Hi.
Did you try setting different video resolutions ?
Normally, it should be OK by selecting the real resolution of your screen (eg 1920x1080 for a screen with normal resolution of 1920x1080).

[Error404NotFound]

Hi.
Did you try setting different video resolutions ?
Normally, it should be OK by selecting the real resolution of your screen (eg 1920x1080 for a screen with normal resolution of 1920x1080).

Thanks for the reply. I've just tried with varying resolutions but sadly, the same issue. I also tried switching from GUI to CLI on the bot menu background, but no go.

[sklerder]

Well, maybe you could (should) use the "unattended mode".
I have an old Dell E6410 on which, depending of the Windows version I attempt to install, the screen doesn't display anything with iVentoy, though it works well from the USB key (and probably CD).

[Error404NotFound]

Well, maybe you could (should) use the "unattended mode".
I have an old Dell E6410 on which, depending of the Windows version I attempt to install, the screen doesn't display anything with iVentoy, though it works well from the USB key (and probably CD).

Thanks, I do have some unattended scripts linked to the Windows ISO which do work (Even if the screen is garbled). I was still hoping to get it working without the unattended scripts.

[sklerder]

I've met this kind of issue too in the evening.
Most of them are solved by setting the screen in the "good" (nominal) resolution (or an accepted one) before starting PXE lauch of Windows install ...
The issue, if you don't have the "graphic view" while executing the unattended install, can remain if you are asked some answer (disk, licences, ...) while installing.
In this case, you are like blind, because you can't answer to the eventual questions ...
Be sure to try all the possible resolutions ... even if they don't work while booting, they could work when installing 

[thestraycat]

Yup this.

I forced mine to 1280x800 after having the same issues (my monitor is 1440p native)... there's 2 resolutions that work reliably for me.. the others are garbled.

Additionally, I also had more luck movinng from 'external-net' to 'external' and letting iventoy auto-decide on the best bootfile name for the machine connecting.. it's nice to just give it: 'boot_loader_16000' rather than having to create a more complicated and specifically set list of bootfiles when using the external-net mode. I believe swtiching to DHCP 'external' started matching me up with a better matched bootfile which helped aid driver support for the video output throughout OS installation, i went on to test this in UEFI, Legacy BIOS and VM creation (KVM) and it works a treat across all 3 with Windows 10 and Windows 11 ISO's from Rufus.

[Error404NotFound]

Thank you to all that have replied. I've gone through all of the resolution options and have finally found one that seems to work!

Hopefully this may be fixed in an upcoming update as it's a bit of a pain to keep changing the resolution depending on what client is booting.

Many thanks again

[thestraycat]

Good stuff! Yeah i think a more robust and reliable video method needs to be implemented (if its possible?)