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Tutorial Linux PXE on Windows Deployment Services

Windows Deployment Services (WDS) is a server technology from Microsoft for network-based installation of Windows operating systems. It is the successor to Remote Installation Services. WDS is intended to be used for remotely deploying Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2012, but also supports other operating systems because unlike its predecessor RIS, which was a method of automating the installation process, WDS uses disk imaging, in particular the Windows Imaging Format (WIM). WDS is included as a Server Role in all 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008, and is included as an optionally installable component with Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2. (source wikipedia)
In this tutorial Windows 2012 server is used, but the concept stay the same on older version.

Requirement

WDS is using Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE)

In computing, the Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE, sometimes pronounced as pixie) specification describes a standardized client-server environment that boots a software assembly, retrieved from a network, on PXE-enabled clients. On the client side it requires only a PXE-capable network interface controller (NIC), and uses a small set of industry-standard network protocols such as DHCP and TFTP (source wikipedia).
PXE diagram

WDS require DHCP & TFTP

In order to have WDS operational, you need first to install and configure a DHCP server with TFTP (this part is not shown in this tutorial)
TFTP is included in Windows DHCP, you just need to enable PXE Client in DHCP console in server options. dhcp PXE Client server option

Client requirement

- Clients require at least 256 Mo of RAM & a network card.
- Client Computer require Network booting option.
Network booting, shortened netboot, is the process of booting a computer from a network rather than a local drive. This method of booting can be used by routers, diskless workstations and centrally managed computers (thin clients) such as public computers at libraries and schools. (source wikipedia)
To enable Network booting on client computer you have (in most of case) to configure it in the BIOS

1. To enter in the BIOS you need to hit a specific key at the computer power up (most of the time the key is F1,F2 or DEL, some BIOS display a splash screen and you will need to use ESC key to see BIOS keys options)
2. Enable network booting in the BIOS (some BIOS have this option set as disable by default and some other have it enable by default sithout possibility to disable it)
3. Configure boot order, set network boot as first bootable device

Note 1 :
Some network card (most of the time really old and low cost card) don't have network boot option.
In this case Network booting is impossible without changing the network card.
Note 2 :
Some BIOS (most of the time really old and low cost motherboard) don't have network boot option.
In this case you can try to update BIOS or give up with it !

WDS Installation

Add role wizard

Server selection

WDS role selection

Adding features

Adding role confirmation

WDS Configuration

Start WDS console

Server type selection

Note :
I use the stand alone option cause i don't have Active Directory installed on my domain.
If you have Active Directory enabled, you may choose the first option.

WDS files path selection

Note 1 :
For the next part of tutorial "E:\RemoteInstall" will be used as WDS file folder, but you can adapt it according to your configuration.
Note 2 :
You will need a big amount of place to store OS installation files, best practices are to use a dedicated hard drive with at least 200Go of free space

DHCP configuration

Note :
Thoose options are checked because DHCP and WDS are on the same host, uncheck thoose options if the DHCP is running on another server.

PXE secutiry settings

Note :
Respond to all client computers is not advisable in most of networks for security reason, as i use it in home local network enough securized i can choose this option.
Most of the time for security reason only know client computers or require administrator approval options should be selected.

Adding Boot image

By default, even with WDS PXE enabled, it won't works, a default bootable Windows Imaging Format (.wim) file (most of the time called "boot.wim") is required.
To add a boot image you have to use WDS console.

Adding a boot image

Then select a boot.wim from the folder \sources\boot.wim of any recent Microsoft Windows OS

Note 1 :
you need to add a boot.wim for each architecture you need (x86 and x64 for example), select the boot.wim from an Microsoft OS with the desired architecture type.
Note 2 :
you can use for example Windows 7 files or even Windows 2012 files, the difference will be the menu displayed

Configuration Linux PXE

Syslinux

The Syslinux Project covers lightweight bootloaders for MS-DOS FAT filesystems (SYSLINUX), network booting (PXELINUX), bootable "El Torito" CD-ROMs (ISOLINUX), and Linux ext2/ext3/ext4 or btrfs filesystems (EXTLINUX). The project also includes MEMDISK, a tool to boot legacy operating systems (such as DOS) from nontraditional media; it is usually used in conjunction with PXELINUX and ISOLINUX (source syslinux wiki)

downloading Syslinux packages

This is the link where Syslinux files are available : https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/
for this tutorial i use the package syslinux-6.03.zip, i also tested syslinux-4.07.zip and both works the same way, so this tutorial should works also for old version.

copying Syslinux files to WDS server

Extract Syslinux-{version}.zip file
then copy the following files to the WDS file folder

copying x84 syslinux-{version}\ files to server folder E:\RemoteInstall\

copy bios\core\pxelinux.0 to boot\x86\pxelinux.0
copy bios\com32\elflink\ldlinux.c32 to boot\x86\ldlinux.c32
copy efi32\com32\menu\menu.c32 to boot\x86\menu.c32
copy efi32\com32\menu\vesamenu.c32 to boot\x86\vesamenu.c32
copy efi32\com32\chain\chain.c32 to boot\x86\chain.c32
copy efi32\com32\modules\reboot.c32 to boot\x86\reboot.c32
copy efi32\com32\modules\poweroff.c32 to boot\x86\poweroff.c32
copy efi32\com32\lib\libcom32.c32 to boot\x86\libcom32.c32
copy efi32\com32\libutil.c32 to boot\x86\libutil.c32
copy bios\memdisk\memdisk to boot\x86\memdisk
copy E:\RemoteInstall\boot\x86\pxeboot.n12 to boot\x86\pxeboot.0
copy E:\RemoteInstall\boot\x86\abortpxe.com to boot\x86\abortpxe.0
Create boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg\default

copying x64 syslinux-{version}\ files to server folder E:\RemoteInstall\

copy bios\core\pxelinux.0 to boot\x64\pxelinux.0
copy bios\com32\elflink\ldlinux.c32 to boot\x64\ldlinux.c32
copy efi64\com32\menu\menu.c32 to boot\x64\menu.c32
copy efi64\com32\menu\vesamenu.c32 to boot\x64\vesamenu.c32
copy efi64\com32\chain\chain.c32 to boot\x64\chain.c32
copy efi64\com32\modules\reboot.c32 to boot\x64\reboot.c32
copy efi64\com32\modules\poweroff.c32 to boot\x64\poweroff.c32
copy efi64\com32\lib\libcom32.c32 to boot\x64\libcom32.c32
copy efi64\com32\libutil.c32 to boot\x64\libutil.c32
copy bios\memdisk\memdisk to boot\x64\memdisk
copy E:\RemoteInstall\boot\x64\pxeboot.n12 to boot\x64\pxeboot.0
copy E:\RemoteInstall\boot\x64\abortpxe.com to boot\x64\abortpxe.0
Create boot\x64\pxelinux.cfg\default

copy to clipboard Edit the pxelinux.cfg\default and add :

DEFAULT menu.c32

Files description

sources : http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Modules

pxelinux.0 is used to start linux PXE boot.
menu.c32 is a comboot module for Syslinux that renders a menu on the screen.
vesamenu.c32 is a comboot module for Syslinux that renders a customizable menu on the screen (i think it work only on x64 system, i didn't had it works for x86 computers).
chain.c32 is a COM32 module for Syslinux. It can chainload MBRs, partition boot sectors, Windows bootloaders (ntldr, setupldr.bin and bootmgr), MS-DOS and PC-DOS io.sys, Freedos kernel.sys, isolinux.bin (only from ISOLINUX), grldr of grub4dos or a bootsector saved to a file. It can also swap BIOS drive numbers or hide partitions.
reboot.c32 (optional) is a COM32 module for Syslinux that is able to reboot the PC.
It supports cold and warm rebooting.
poweroff.c32 (optional) is a COM32 module for Syslinux that is able to shut down the PC.
MEMDISK (optional) is meant to allow booting legacy operating systems. MEMDISK can boot floppy images, hard disk images and some ISO images
pxeboot.0 is the WDS file used to start WDS PXE boot
abortpxe.0 (optional) is the WDS file used to cancel PXE boot

Result

Note 1 :
In old Syslinux version like 4.07, syslinux-{version}\efiXX\com32 files are in syslinux-{version}\com32 folder
Note 2 :
If you need only x86 or x64, you will need only to add the wanted version stuff

Add Linux PXE boot to WDS

copy to clipboard Code for x86 (to launch in a cmd)

wdsutil /set-server /bootprogram:boot\x86\pxelinux.0 /architecture:x86
wdsutil /set-server /N12bootprogram:boot\x86\pxelinux.0 /architecture:x86

copy to clipboard Code for x64 (to launch in a cmd)

wdsutil /set-server /bootprogram:boot\x64\pxelinux.0 /architecture:x64
wdsutil /set-server /N12bootprogram:boot\x64\pxelinux.0 /architecture:x64

Note :
PXE Linux boot should now works, you can test it using a client computer with network boot.
But the menu isn't configured, so you still won't be able to load things a message will appear :
"Initial menu has no LABEL entries!"

Configuration

Configuration file

copy to clipboard the basis :

#
# PXE configuration file
#
DEFAULT menu.c32

###[ Boot on WDS ]###
LABEL WDS
	MENU LABEL WDS (Windows Deployment Services)
	KERNEL pxeboot.0
	
###[ Boot on local drive ]###
LABEL Local
	MENU LABEL Back to boot proccess
	LOCALBOOT 0

###[ Exit PXE ]###
LABEL Exit
	MENU LABEL Exit PXE boot
	KERNEL abortpxe.0

###[ Reboot computer ]###
label Reboot
	MENU LABEL Reboot computer
	KERNEL reboot.c32
	
###[ Shutdown computer ]###
label Shutdown
	MENU LABEL ^Shutdown computer
	KERNEL poweroff.c32

Note 1 :
# are used as comments
Note 2 :
As you can see some file we added are not important, they just are there to offer more options like reboot.c32 to reboot computer from the menu

Adding Images

There around 3 ways to add bootable operating system.
In this part, I will use some common free operating system as example.

Tutorial Linux PXE on Windows Deployment Services

Requirement

WDS is using Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE)

WDS require DHCP & TFTP

Client requirement

WDS Installation

WDS Installation

Add role wizard

Server selection

WDS role selection

Adding features

Adding role confirmation

WDS Configuration

Start WDS console

Server type selection

WDS files path selection

DHCP configuration

PXE secutiry settings

Adding Boot image

Adding a boot image

Configuration Linux PXE

Syslinux

downloading Syslinux packages

copying Syslinux files to WDS server

copying x84 syslinux-{version}\ files to server folder E:\RemoteInstall\

copying x64 syslinux-{version}\ files to server folder E:\RemoteInstall\

Files description

Result

Add Linux PXE boot to WDS

Configuration

Configuration file

Adding Images

Using memdisk

Using initrd & nfsroot

Using initrd & fetch

Advanced Configuration

PXE advanced configuration file option

LABEL

MENU BEGIN

MENU EXIT

INCLUDE

MENU SEPARATOR

PXE screen customization

Result :

PXE advanced configuration file sample

pxelinux.cfg/default

pxelinux.cfg/com_conf.cfg

pxelinux.cfg/menu_main.cfg

pxelinux.cfg/menu_ctools.cfg

pxelinux.cfg/menu_ftools.cfg

pxelinux.cfg/menu_linux.cfg

pxelinux.cfg/menu_stools.cfg

Sample of images configuration

Debian installer

Lubuntu live

Ubuntu live

mfs BSD

Gparted live

Clonezilla live

Refracta

Hardware Detection live

Memory Test live

Comodo rescue disk live

AVG rescue disk live

System Rescue disk live

Kali live

Troubleshooting

stuck on copyright "Peter Anvin et Al"

MENU DEFAULT won't works

xxx.c32 not a com32r image

Download stop when i use fetch

Can't download images stuff using http

PXE screen customization won't work on x86 computer

Is There A Way To Define Constants Or Variables?

How to enable NFS on Windows ?

NFS not available from Linux PXE

Can i change WDS boot option for clients ?

Any other questions...?

References