PXE Boot Image from an ISO

[Reggie Washington]

Cam,

I've been trying to figure out my userid/passwd since you posted your last comment. I've been really busy at work, but I will put your suggestions to the test when I get a chance. Thanks for continuing to provide support in this area.

Reggie

[CamScott]

Hi All,

Version 7.80 of the HP Smartstart Firmware Maintenance CD has been released with a few new features, so I thought it would be a good time to update the instructions/script that create a PXE bootable image based on the CD (What the original poster was requesting).

The instructions/script are attached. They have been updated for this new version and include the steps required to get NFS support to work, as alot of people wanted this functionality.

Please let me know if you have any issues.

Email:Cameron.Scott@hp.com

Cheers,
Cam.

[willbrown]

Hello all.
I would like to be able to PXE boot the FW Maintenance CD(s). I have an existing PXE server, used to download winpe images,
so that side of thing will hopefully be ok.

I have no Linux experience so I installed ubuntu on a PC.
I have started with the script by Arco van Geest because it is more idiot proof for a Linux newbie.
It produces both the image and the vmlinuz file.

Unfortunately, when I tried it on a Proliant DL360 G4 (1GB Ram) it reboots after the image file is loaded.
My raw source was a downloadable iso of ver 7.80. The PC loads the CD version fine.

Here is the section from my pxelinux.cfg\default file:

kernel ProFWMan/vmlinuz-fw780
append initrd=ProFWMan/initrd-fw780.img rw root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=290000 init=/bin/init loglevel=3 ide=nodma ide=noraid pnpbios=off acpi=off

I am going to try the instructions by CamScott next. The append info (for example) is very different between the two scripts.
Are two different methods documented here?

I would appreciate any additional ideas or tips

Thank you

[CamScott]

Hi willbrown,

The script Arco van Geest wrote will probably only work with version 7.50 of the Smartstart Firmware Update CD because changes were made to certain files in later releases. If I were you I would downloaded the 7.50 iso and try to get that working first.

Cheers,
Cam.

[Arco van Geest]

I copy the firmware files into the extra tree of an older version. I use the 7.70 version.

If wanted I can change the build script with the procedure Cam posted.

[willbrown]

Thank you CamScott and Arco van Geest for you very quick replies.

CamScott - I will try your suggestion of using the 7.50.iso, thankyou.
Arco van Geest - I would appreciate your offer of an updated buildscript.

Thanks
Will Brown

[willbrown]

As CamScott suggested Arco van Geest script worked first time on FW750 THANK YOU.

I have so many questions but I am conscious of not outstaying my welcome. I would really be interested in a FW780 script but also for future work any pointers on how to work with new releases.

I would like to ask a couple of additional questions:
-My FW750 size is approx 172M, the setting ramdisk_size is 290000. I will experiment by reducing this but could anyone explain the optimum size?

- I will want to inject additional/updated fw files, could it be clarified (in respect of Arco van Geest script) where this would be?

Being (absolutely) new to Linux is an additional challenge but I'm always keen on learning.

Once again thanks for sharing this, there is no way I could have done this with out the info from this thread.

Once I have the FW sorted I will then try SmartStart itself.

Regards,
Will Brown

[CamScott]

Hi Arco van Geest,

If you could provide an updated build script I at least would be very appreciative. I'm sure many users will find it much easier and quicker to use.

Cheers,
Cam.

[Madis Rehepapp]

CamScott has certainly done a great job putting together the HowTo's, but I don't understand why it should be so complicated. May be I'm missing something?


Both SmartStart and Firmware Update CDs have NFS support built in, although not documented. All you have to do is make the contents of the CDs available via NFS and boot the appropriate initrd images through PXE using correct options.

I have attached a quick HowTo that works for me with SmartStart 7.92, FWUpdate 7.91, FWUpdate 8.00. Does not cover the specifics of setting up TFTP, NFS or DHCP, all that is well documented elsewhere.

Hopefully this works for others as well. Comments and feedback is appreciated.

[CamScott]

Hi Madis,

Thank you for the feedback and updates for the latest versions of the firmware update cd.

To answer your questions, there were a couple of reasons for not using the NFS method to point to the ISO.
1. When I first started out the versions of smartstart available at the time didn't have network or NFS support.
2. I needed something that could download an image completely and once the download was completed use the network cable for another machine. NFS obviously requires the cable to be plugged in during the whole process. Mostly specific to my site.
3. Most importantly, I needed a quick way to update the repository of firmware files for firmware's that were updated after the CD was released. Our site requires the latest firmware available to be used. I know my method is overly complicated, but once it is set up it makes updating the firmware repository pretty easy.

I hope that clears up some of your questions.

I am by no means a linux guru and therefore I may do things that other people would consider unnecessary, but I am eager to learn. The feedback by users such as yourself and Arco van Geest is invaluable in contributing to such projects and helping everyone understand a better/easier way of doing things.

Again, thanks for your help. :)

Cheers,
Cam

[Madis Rehepapp]

Hi Cam,

If you need to remove the network after the server has booted then your method makes perfect sense.

As for updating the repository of firmware files, it is even easier with the NFS method - any updates (.scexe files) can simply be copied to the /nfsroot/fwupdate/compaq/swpackages directory. Just have to make sure these files are given execute permissions.

So now we have two different methods of providing access to the CDs over network and hopefully everyone can get it working according to their requirements :)

Regards,

Madis

[Ron Nash]

I would like to thank you guys for your hard work. I really appreciate the post.
I wanted to share my experience in case someone else runs into the same issue and to see if I could have an issue resolved.

I tried to use the latest version of the firmware CD 8.0. I ran into an error with a kernel panic using Madis method. I had to change size ramdisk_size=127464 to ramdisk_size ramdisk_size=227464. I am not sure if this is correct, but it seemed fixed the kernel panic.

The system boots up and shows the Firmware Maintenance CD GUI. When I go to the Firmware Update and select Install Firmware. I get and Error Unable to start HP Smart Update Manger. I was wondering if anyone else has run into this error and if you have how you fix it?
Thank you,

Ron Nash

[Ron Nash]

I would like to thank you for your hard work. I really appreciate the post.
I wanted to share my experience in case someone else runs into the same issue and to see if I could have an issue resolved.

I tried to use the latest version of the firmware CD 8.0. I ran into an error with a kernel panic using Madis method. I had to change size ramdisk_size=127464 to ramdisk_size ramdisk_size=227464. I am not sure if this is correct, but it seemed fixed the kernel panic.

The system boots up and shows the Firmware Maintenance CD GUI. When I go to the Firmware Update and select Install Firmware. I get and Error Unable to start HP Smart Update Manger. I was wondering if anyone else has run into this error and if you have how you fix it?
Thank you,

Ron Nash

[Madis Rehepapp]

Hi Ron,

I am not sure why the kernel panic happened, it has worked for me with the default ramdisk_size values.

As for the error starting SUM, did you change the bootrun script as specified on the second page of my instructions? That script change is needed to fix just that problem.

For further troubleshooting you can also go to the bash shell by pressing ctrl+alt+F1 after the Firmware Maintenance CD GUI has loaded. From there check to see if /tmp/cdrom.js file has been created correctly and if you can run /root/compaq/swpackages/hpsum manually. Alt+F2 gets you back to the GUI.

[D-W]

I have been attempting this very method to update firmware via PXE and sadly, I have yet to get it to work.

I have tried Cam's walkthrough, on every version made available through his script. One thing I have noticed is the size of the initrd.img is way off in his later write-ups. My Trimmed directory, after removing all files listed in the script, is roughly 270meg when using the 8.0 firmware, and is 250m when using the 7.8. The writeup says it should be ~170. In any case, I just make the new-initrd large enough to encapsulate the larger Trimmed directory. I don't know if the size of my initrd (which is roughly 380megs compressed) is the reason I fail, if I am doing something wrong, or if the write-up is outdated.

When using the NFS option and walkthrough recently provided I get the Failed to start SUM as well.

One would think that HP would have a white-paper on how to do this. I have on-site HP support and have requested assistance for this method. If and when I get HP's support I'll provide an updated step-by-step howto.

All of the previous methods are GREATLY appreciated as they have been the only source I could find any information on this subject. Would it be possible for one of you that already have this working bundle up your initrd and make it available?

[Arco van Geest]

This is what I use for the original firmware cd.

pxelinux.cfg:

label fw800
MENU LABEL Proliant firmware 8.0 (original)
kernel 10.1.170.221::/hp/fw800/vmlinuz
append initrd=10.1.170.221::/hp/fw800/initrd.img rw root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=127464 init=/bin/init ide=nodma ide=noraid pnpbios=off media=cdrom iso1=nfs://10.1.170.221/dist/hp/fw800/fw800.iso ip=dhcp PROTOCOL=DHCP

the nfs/tftp server is 10.1.170.221
the vmlinuz and initrd are extracted from the system folder of the fw800.iso.
The iso itself is exported on /dist/hp/fw800/fw800.iso

Is this what you need?

[Ron Nash]

Madis & Community,

Thank you for your quick response. I followed your steps and did not leave anything out, but I did try to pass different parameters like VNC options because I wanted to see if VNC would work with this, but unfortunately this did not work. I took these parameters out and still had problems with the SUM, but your suggestion to manually start it worked. The bootrun script did create the /tmp/cdrom.js. Thank you, for your help. The ramdisk problem went away once I took out those extra parameters. The only thing that was different was the location of the hpsum, which I found in /mnt/boot/device/compaq/swpackages.

The final solution I went with was Arco van Geest solution of using the ISO and this worked with-out any problems.

Thank you to all for your quick responses and willingness to help out.

I was wondering if the experts on these solutions could share with the rest of us where they find their solutions. I am only an intermediate Linux user and would like to learn about the options that you are finding. Some-thing that would be helpful for me would to include a VNC session for the firmware installs. I have this setup for our normal Linux installs, but this would be a nice option since we do not have full access to iLO. Any help would be really appreciated!

Thank you,

Ron

[D-W]

Arco, your solution worked perfectly! The only thing I was doing different was mounting the .iso and copying the files into an NFS export. It seems just pointing it straight to the .iso file works!

Now to get the exports working over http :)

Brilliant stuff, this will save a LOT of work.

[D-W]

Has anyone figured out how to do an unattended Firmware Update using this method, forcing all of the latest updates and rebooting the machine?

[Arco van Geest]

If I remember correct hpsum is described in the pdf files. I had no time to try it myself. What bothers me about the automatic method is the lack of remote reporting.

[D-W]

Yes, hpsum is well documented, and has the capabilities to automatically install updates using the -express_install option, but navigating through this iso there's quite a bit of fluff.

I suppose one could take a knoppix-type live cd and just dump the swpackages folder along with the hpsum utility and create an rc script to execute it... but that seems like duplication of effort since we already have the means to update firmware.

I wonder if there is some sort of "NO_PROMPT" kernel option that allows for automated installs? I've not found a kernel config file to check. It would be nice to have a full list of append options, and hopefully there's one that allows for this.

There is a call in inittab to the /etc/init.d/boot script, which in turn executes all of the scripts in /etc/init.d/boot.d so perhaps it would be feasible to create another script there to execute hpsum.sh -express_install

All of you have been extremely helpful, and I appreciate your input.

[D-W]

Ok... automation taken care of. For anyone interested I have attached a .txt to this message.

I would like to thank everyone who has made suggestions in this forum and I hope this automated install helps!

[wenyibing]

Hi Madis,

I tried run SmartStart v7.91 and v8.0 through PXE, and the SmartStart runs but some images are missing(check attach). I found there no difference if I add "iso1=nfs://..." or not. The linux has an apache server and runs the firefox. I tried to access other website in firefox, but failed. Seems the network is not enabled. Any suggestion?

Yibing

[CamScott]

Hi all,

I've created and attached a new bash script for the Smartstart firmware update CD V8.10.

This is for those who do not or can not have NFS support on their servers.

Place the script in the same working directory as the v8.10 ISO file on your linux machine and execute.

The script will produce an initrd.img file of ~200MB along with the vmlinuz file. It took less than 2 minutes to finish executing on the server I am using.

I've documented what is happening within the script to help understand what is actually going on.

Please let me know if you have any issues.

Cheers,
Cam.

[D-W]

Dan,

I have ran your script but keep getting a kernel panic: unable to mount root fs on /dev/ram0.

Anyone else having this issue?