Step One – Install WDSMike_Vainio_Thesis_final

This should be obvious and if you are reading this I imagine you’ve done it already. Ours is running on a Windows Server 2003 box but it should work fine with the latest, more secure, stuff.

• We will be adding bits to the folders within the \\WDS\REMINST share

Step Two – Install PXELinux

PXELinux is part of the SysLinux package

• Download SysLinux from here
• There’s quite a bit in SysLinux but you only need to extract the following files
  • ZIP\core\pxelinux.0
  • ZIP\com32\menu\vesamenu.c32
  • ZIP\com32\modules\chain.c32
• Copy the files into \\WDS\REMINST\Boot\x86
• Rename pxelinux.0 to pxelinux.com
• You also need to make copies of two original WDS files in this folder
  • Copy pxeboot.n12 and rename it to pxeboot.0
  • Copy abortpxe.com and rename it to abortpxe.0
• Create to new subfolders
  • \\WDS\REMINST\Boot\x86\Linux
  • \\WDS\REMINST\Boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg
• The pxelinux.cfgfolder is where you store the files that make up the PXE boot (F12) menu.
  • All the files we will put in there are text files, even though they don’t use a .txtextension
• First create a new text file called default.  This is the first menu that loads.
• Paste the following text into it

  01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

  DEFAULT      vesamenu.c32 PROMPT       0 MENU TITLE PXE Boot Menu (x86) MENU INCLUDE pxelinux.cfg/graphics.conf MENU AUTOBOOT Starting Local System in 8 seconds # Option 1 - Exit PXE Linux & boot normally LABEL bootlocal menu label ^Boot Normally menu default localboot 0 timeout 80 TOTALTIMEOUT 9000 # Option 2 - Run WDS LABEL wds MENU LABEL ^Windows Deployment Services KERNEL pxeboot.0 # Option 3 - Exit PXE Linux LABEL Abort MENU LABEL E^xit KERNEL abortpxe.0

• Now create a text file called graphics.conf
  • This file controls how the menu is displayed. It’s very versatile so have a play around until it looks as basic or as flashy as you like
• Paste the following text into it

  01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11

  MENU MARGIN 10 MENU ROWS 16 MENU TABMSGROW 21 MENU TIMEOUTROW 26 MENU COLOR BORDER 30;44     #00000000 #00000000 none MENU COLOR SCROLLBAR 30;44      #00000000 #00000000 none MENU COLOR TITLE 0      #00269B #00000000 none MENU COLOR SEL   30;47      #40000000 #20ffffff MENU BACKGROUND background.jpg NOESCAPE 0 ALLOWOPTIONS 0

• If you want to use a custom background, place it in the \\WDS\REMINST\Boot\x86folder.
  • The image should be a 640×480 jpeg file.
  • Make sure it has the same name as specified in the MENU BACKGROUND line in graphics.conf
• Now we need to change the default boot program in WDS
  • Open the Windows Deployment Services Console
  • Right Click on your Server and select Properties
  • From the Boot tab change the default boot program for x86 architecture to \Boot\x86\pxelinux.com
  • In Server 2008 R2 you have to use the wdsutil  command line to set the the default boot program with these commands

Step Three – Test it out

Before you go any further, do a test PXE boot to check everything is OK.

I use a Hyper-V VM to make this testing process quicker. Just make sure it’s set to boot to a legacy network adapter in the settings

If it doesn’t load make sure you have the following files and folders in the right place within the \\WDS\REMINST share

• \Boot\x86\pxelinux.com
• \Boot\x86\vesamenu.c32
• \Boot\x86\chain.c32
• \Boot\x86\pxeboot.0
• \Boot\x86\abortpxe.0
• \Boot\x86\background.jpg
• \Boot\x86\Linux\
• \Boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg\
• \Boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg\default
• \Boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg\graphics.conf

Step Four– Add new boot options

If you can boot into the new menu and still load WDS then we are ready to add our Linux distros and other tools. If not, go back to step one and check everything.

This stage is relatively easy. It is just a case of putting the relevant netboot files for your preferred distribution in to the \Boot\x86\Linux folder and then adding a menu option for them. You can find more info on where to get these from on the official WDSLinux wiki. I’ll show you a more generic way of doing things using Debian as an example

• Create a new subfolder
  • \Boot\x86\Linux\Debian\
• Download the netboot files (initrd.gz and linux) from a Debian mirror
• Copy them into the Debian subfolder
• Create a menu entry for them in \Boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg\default

  1 2 3 4 5 6

  LABEL debian6Netinstall menu label ^Debian 6-0 Net-install # Load the correct kernel kernel /Linux/Debian/Linux # Boot options append priority=low vga=normal initrd=/Linux/Debian/initrd.gz

That’s all there is to it. As long as you download the correct files and boot the correct boot options on the append line of the menu, you should be OK.

What if I need 64-bit options

This is easy too just replicate everything we did in \Boot\x86 into \Boot\x64. Don’t forget to change the WDS Server boot program for the x64 architecture (as shown in step 2) to \Boot\x64\pxelinux.com

Taking it further

Hopefully you are reading this because you have numerous ideas of what you could boot to. To help you along I’ve included my current default menu as well as adding sub-menus for Linux and Tools. Most of them were fairly straightforward as they had special PXE version with instructions on their website, e.g. GParted & Clonezilla

default

linux.menu (save in same place default)

tools.menu (save in same place default)

Conclusion

This is a really useful tool to have in our SysAdmin arsenal. I encourage you to give it a go. Let me know if your successful, or if you are having any problems getting it working, in the comments section. I’d also love to hear of any other tools you’ve added to the PXE menu.