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Re: Support Pack for Propellant Firmware Update over PXE

 
Gerardo_Arceri
Advisor

Support Pack for Proliant Firmware Update over PXE

Anyone knows if the SPP iso image can be booted over PXE just like the old Firmware DVD?

 

78 REPLIES 78
Gerardo_Arceri
Advisor

Re: Support Pack for Proliant Firmware Update over PXE

The following PXE boot menu entry did the trick

 

label vsos
  MENU LABEL Interactive Firmware Update Version 2011.09
  kernel vmlinuz.FW11
  append initrd=initrd.img.FW11 media=cdrom rw root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=257144 init=/bin/init loglevel=3 ide=nodma ide=noraid pnpbios=off vga=791 splash=silent showopts TYPE=MANUAL iso1=nfs://kickstart.nfs/osbuild/extra/install_packages/hp_firmware/SPP2011090.2011_0930.13.iso iso1mnt=/mnt/bootdevice pci=bfsort
  ipappend 2

 

We had to patch the initrd.img to allow the DVD to be booted from interfacees other than eth0.

Let me know if you are interested in the patch.

chuckk281
Trusted Contributor

Re: Support Pack for Proliant Firmware Update over PXE

Yes it can.

Voodoo66
New Member

Re: Support Pack for Proliant Firmware Update over PXE

Hi, I am interested in this patch. I am trying to set up PXE boot for firmware deployments. It would be nice if you can post it here.

 

Thankx and happy new year.

Peter Waller_1
Senior Member

Re: Support Pack for Proliant Firmware Update over PXE

Hello, I'm very interested in this patch.

 

I'm going to integrate the service pack into our boot menu, but it does not work. Can you give me this patch?

 

Thank You and regards from Switzerland

Michael Pye
Occasional Advisor

Re: Support Pack for Proliant Firmware Update over PXE

The main Support Pack for Proliant page states "Simplified delivery of HP ProLiant systems software and firmware into PXE bootable ISO images to reduce customer Qualification cycles Resource usage Maintenance windows Downtime".

 

No where that I can find is it detailed about how you pxeboot SPP. The release notes state:

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1/doc/p1822529277/v72723/SPP2011.09.0ReleaseNotes.pdf

there are only 2 methods to depoly, mount and boot iso image  offline, or mout iso and run SUM online.

 

If it is pxe bootable it's not offcially documnted like the 9.30 fw dvd was.

 

 

Chris-Smith
New Member

Re: Support Pack for Proliant Firmware Update over PXE

Any chance I can get a copy of the modified initrd.img also :)

 

sreitemeyer
New Member

Re: Support Pack for Proliant Firmware Update over PXE

Hi,

 

we have the same problem. The service pack is only using eth0.

 

It would be nice if you can send us the patch.

shocko
Honored Contributor

Re: Support Pack for Propellant Firmware Update over PXE

I have the same issue. I can't find documentation for the PXE boot params. This is so infuriating.

If my post was helpful please award me Kudos! or Points :)
odenbach
Occasional Advisor

Re: Support Pack for Propellant Firmware Update over PXE

 

Hi,

 

we had the same problem with SPP just using eth0 and had a deep dive into the SPP ISO. Let me explain the details:

 

There is already a function that loops over every network adapter and tries to get an address via DHCP. The problem is that if the dhcpcd client does not get an address via DHCP it makes a fallback to APIPA, so it gets an address like 169.254.x.x and then returns OK. The looping function then thinks that DHCP worked and skips the other interfaces.

 

The simple trick is now to disable APIPA in dhcpcd. This is done with the '-L' switch.

 

So just do the following:

 

- Extract the original initrd:

# mkdir /tmp/initrd

# cd /tmp/initrd

# gunzip -c /tftp/hp/initrd.img | cpio -i

 

- Extract the root filesystem:

# mkdir rootfs

# cd rootfs

# busybox unlzma -c ../fs.tar.lzma | tar xvf -

 

- Apply the small patch (the -L switch to dhcpcd) to root/compaq/netconfig.sh:

 

root@kitty[compaq]# diff -c netconfig.sh /tmp/initrd/root/compaq/netconfig.sh
*** netconfig.sh    Fri Mar  2 08:36:47 2012
--- /tmp/initrd/root/compaq/netconfig.sh    Fri Apr 27 17:06:29 2012
***************
*** 40,46 ****
          fi
          if [ $PROTOCOL == "dhcp" ]; then
                  echo Attempting to configure $1 using DHCP
!                 dhcpcd -t 45 $1
                  TEMP=$?
                  echo return from dhcpcd $TEMP
                  if [ $TEMP != 0 ]; then
--- 40,46 ----
          fi
          if [ $PROTOCOL == "dhcp" ]; then
                  echo Attempting to configure $1 using DHCP
!                 dhcpcd -L -t 45 $1
                  TEMP=$?
                  echo return from dhcpcd $TEMP
                  if [ $TEMP != 0 ]; then

 

(if you like you can decrease the timeout of 45 seconds to a lower value to make the boot process faster)

 

- repack the rootfs and remove the unpacked data:

# tar cf - . | lzma -c > ../fs.tar.lzma

# cd ..

# rm -rf rootfs

 

- repack the initrd:

# find . | cpio --create --'format=newc'  | gzip > /tftp/hp/initrd.img

 

 

So this helps servers boot from _any_ network device that has DHCP configured.

 

Christopher