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PXE boot CentOS LiveDVD results in timeout

Posted: 2017/11/07 05:34:56
by beta-tester
hello,

this is my very first time here in this forum.
and i am absolutely new to CentOS at all...

i have made a project, where i have setted up an PXE server, where i can PXE boot a PC straignt into different linux LiveDVD distributions.
for that, i use the ISO files of each linux distribution and mounted them on the PXE server, and made its content available via NFS and TFTP.

i realized, that all (or most) of the debian like linux distribution are working perfect in this way to be able to PXE boot.
but all Red Hat like distributions like CentOS i cant get it work to PXE boot this way.

all i get is at PXE boot into CentOS a timeout error message and CentOS wount boot properly,
where the debian distributions are mounting the squashfs images sucessfully.

now i hope somebody can help me to get it work.

see attached some log files i could get from the broken CentOS PXE boot.
rdsosreport.txt
mount

and the last part of the error message:

Code: Select all

[  191.917825] localhost dracut-initqueue[378]: Warning: dracut-initqueue timeout - starting timeout scripts
[  191.919629] localhost dracut-initqueue[378]: Warning: Could not boot.
it makes no difference if i try to pxe boot CentOS LiveDVD on a virtual machine or on a real PC with real hardware.

here the link to my project: RPi-PXE-Server
the PXE server itself is working well, because i can PXE boot debian like distributions from that server pretty well.

here, the file structure relative to TFTP root on the PXE server:
/nfs/centos-x64/<content of centos LiveDVD>

here, the file structure relative to the PXE boot menu:
/nfs/centos-x64/<content of centos LiveDVD>

here, the file structure relative to nfs:
/srv/nfs/centos-x64/<content of centos LiveDVD>

and here the PXE menu entry (KERNEL & APPEND boot options) i tried for CentOS:

Code: Select all

...
########################################
## INFO: http://people.redhat.com/harald/dracut.html#dracut.kernel
##       https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/installation_guide/chap-installation-server-setup
## NOT WORKING
LABEL CentOS x64
    KERNEL /nfs/centos-x64/isolinux/vmlinuz0
    APPEND initrd=/nfs/centos-x64/isolinux/initrd0.img root=nfs:192.168.1.101:/srv/nfs/centos-x64 ro rootfstype=auto ro rd.live.image rhgb rd.lvm=0 rd.luks=0 rd.md=0 rd.dm=0 rd.shell rd.break console=tty0 loglevel=7
    TEXT HELP
        Boot to CentOS Live GNOME
        User: ...
    ENDTEXT

########################################
## INFO: http://people.redhat.com/harald/dracut.html#dracut.kernel
## NOT WORKING
LABEL Fedora x64
    KERNEL /nfs/fedora-x64/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz
    APPEND initrd=/nfs/fedora-x64/images/pxeboot/initrd.img root=nfs:192.168.1.101:/srv/nfs/fedora-x64 root-path=/LiveOS/squashfs.img ro rd.live.image rd.lvm=0 rd.luks=0 rd.md=0 rd.dm=0 rd.shell rd.break console=tty0 loglevel=7
    TEXT HELP
        Boot to Fedora Workstation Live
        User: liveuser
    ENDTEXT
...
here the PXE boot options i use successfully for debian Live DVD:

Code: Select all

...
########################################
LABEL Debian x64
    KERNEL 192.168.1.101/debian-x64/live/vmlinuz-4.9.0-3-amd64
    APPEND initrd=192.168.1.101/debian-x64/live/initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64 netboot=nfs nfsroot=192.168.1.101:/srv/nfs/debian-x64 ro boot=live config
    TEXT HELP
        Boot to Debian x64 Live LXDE
        User: user, Password: live
    ENDTEXT

########################################
LABEL Ubuntu x64
    KERNEL /nfs/ubuntu-x64/casper/vmlinuz.efi
    APPEND initrd=/nfs/ubuntu-x64/casper/initrd.lz netboot=nfs nfsroot=192.168.1.101:/srv/nfs/ubuntu-x64 ro file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper
    TEXT HELP
        Boot to Ubuntu x64 Live
        User: ubuntu
    ENDTEXT

...
the LiveDVD iso is mounted with this parameters on PXE server;

Code: Select all

# /etc/fstab
...
/srv/iso/centos-x64.iso  /srv/nfs/centos-x64  auto  ro,nofail,auto,loop  0  10
/srv/iso/fedora-x64.iso  /srv/nfs/fedora-x64  auto  ro,nofail,auto,loop  0  10
...
/srv/iso/debian-x64.iso  /srv/nfs/debian-x64  auto  ro,nofail,auto,loop  0  10
/srv/iso/ubuntu-x64.iso  /srv/nfs/ubuntu-x64  auto  ro,nofail,auto,loop  0  10
...
and its content is exported for nfs like:

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# /etc/exports
...
/srv/nfs/centos-x64  *(ro,async,no_subtree_check,root_squash,mp)
/srv/nfs/fedora-x64  *(ro,async,no_subtree_check,root_squash,mp)
...
/srv/nfs/debian-x64  *(ro,async,no_subtree_check,root_squash,mp)
/srv/nfs/ubuntu-x64  *(ro,async,no_subtree_check,root_squash,mp)
...
as CentOS LiveDVD, i used "CentOS-7-x86_64-LiveGNOME-1708.iso"
(by the way, with Fedora i have the exact same problems as with CentOS LiveDVD)
see https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/question/113280

it would be great, if somebody could give me hints, how i can get my project to work to be able to PXE boot CentOS LiveDVD in the similar easy way as with Debian LiveDVDs.

Re: PXE boot CentOS LiveDVD results in timeout

Posted: 2017/11/14 07:05:11
by beta-tester
bump...

is there really nobody who can help me... ?!

Re: PXE boot CentOS LiveDVD results in timeout

Posted: 2017/11/23 19:45:18
by beta-tester
I am disappointed that no one can offer me a solution here

is nobody using CentOS Live DVD in that way like me?!

Re: PXE boot CentOS LiveDVD results in timeout

Posted: 2018/01/04 05:09:52
by beta-tester
still no luck with that issue...

some additional info.

at boot, after initrd0.img is fully loaded, the PC is newly requesting successfully an IP address from the server.
but i can not see a request for an nfs share where the squashfs (live root filesystem) is located.
(at this stage, on debian, i normally see a request for nfs share on the server log).

playing around with the boot parameter, i see that there are also complains about "/dev/mapper/live-rw" does not exist. maybe dracut is expecting a physical dvd drive and is not handling nfs root file system as a live OS.

Re: PXE boot CentOS LiveDVD results in timeout

Posted: 2018/03/05 19:20:00
by Jalical
I to have found this to be non-funcitonal with every configuration i've tried.


If you're still looking for a solution to this, i'd be willing to work together on this, i've been at this for months.

Re: PXE boot CentOS LiveDVD results in timeout

Posted: 2018/03/20 20:06:05
by beta-tester
i am still looking for a solution...
would be great when you'll get it work.

for fedora there is a solution, but it needs a http server to load the squashfs.
and because it is not mounting squashfs on the fly, like debian does, it takes a relative long time to complete loading squashfs.

Code: Select all

LABEL Fedora x64
    KERNEL /nfs/fedora-x64/isolinux/vmlinuz
    APPEND initrd=/nfs/fedora-x64/isolinux/initrd.img root=live:http://192.168.1.1/fedora-x64/LiveOS/squashfs.img ro rd.live.image rd.lvm=0 rd.luks=0 rd.md=0 rd.dm=0 vga=794 --
    TEXT HELP
        Boot to Fedora Workstation Live
        User: liveuser
    ENDTEXT
(https://lukas.zapletalovi.com/2016/08/h ... -boot.html)

but this is not working for CentOS

Re: PXE boot CentOS LiveDVD results in timeout

Posted: 2018/05/12 06:02:48
by beta-tester
CentOS 7 1804 still is not bootable via PXE...

is thete nobody responsable available who can tell me how to archive PXE netbooting...?

Re: PXE boot CentOS LiveDVD results in timeout

Posted: 2018/05/12 14:34:03
by hunter86_bg
Can you try with:
inst.repo=nfs:[options:]server:/path
Note:
This option uses NFS protocol version 3 by default. To use a different version, add +nfsvers=X to options.
Note2:
In previous releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, there were separate options for an installable tree accessible by NFS (the nfs option) and an ISO image located on an NFS source (the nfsiso option). In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, the installation program can automatically detect whether the source is an installable tree or a directory containing an ISO image, and the nfsiso option is deprecated.

Source: Red Hat Documentation

Re: PXE boot CentOS LiveDVD results in timeout

Posted: 2018/05/13 20:08:01
by beta-tester
thank you, but the option inst.repo=... didn't work.
i tried

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LABEL CentOS x64
    KERNEL /nfs/centos-x64/isolinux/vmlinuz0
    APPEND initrd=/nfs/centos-x64/isolinux/initrd0.img [here the inst.repo option] ro rd.lvm=0 rd.luks=0 rd.md=0 rd.dm=0 vga=794 -- vconsole.font=latarcyrheb-sun16 vconsole.keymap=de-latin1-nodeadkeys locale.LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
    TEXT HELP
        Boot to CentOS LiveGNOME
        User: liveuser
    ENDTEXT
with those combinations as inst.repo options...

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inst.repo=nfs:[ip-of-nfs-server]:/srv/iso/centos-x64.iso
inst.repo=nfs:[ip-of-nfs-server]:/srv/nfs/centos-x64/
inst.repo=nfs:[ip-of-nfs-server]:/srv/nfs/centos-x64/LiveOS/
inst.repo=nfs:[ip-of-nfs-server]:/srv/nfs/centos-x64/LiveOS/squashfs.img
inst.repo=nfs:[ip-of-nfs-server]:/srv/nfs/centos-x64-squashfs-root-content/LiveOS/
inst.repo=nfs:[ip-of-nfs-server]:/srv/nfs/centos-x64-squashfs-root-content/LiveOS/ext2fs.img
i run into the emergency console because root could not be found...
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Screenshot from 2018-05-13 22-14-09.png (15.86 KiB) Viewed 6460 times
Screenshot from 2018-05-13 22-19-48.png
Screenshot from 2018-05-13 22-19-48.png (14.66 KiB) Viewed 6460 times
the link you gave i have to study and try out... thanks.

Re: PXE boot CentOS LiveDVD results in timeout

Posted: 2018/05/13 23:14:34
by TrevorH
[here the init.repo option]
Did you mean "inst.repo="?