### Netbooting into iPXE from a MacOS X Netboot Server I spent the last few days trying to figure out how NetBooting works on a Mac which is different from traditional PXE netbooting. The goal was, to be able to boot from a number of recovery boot images like acronis, clonezilla etc. I started by using a bootable iso created with [rom-o-matic](https://rom-o-matic.eu) on a virtual machine for testing. The menu settings are coming from a http-server, and are built from php logic. I tested the setup to be working on any type of computer, by putting a boot image on a normal PXE server as well. After a NetBoot on my macbook, I discovered the keyboard does not work when you’re in the menu. That s\#ck\$! For now I just put in a workaround. The boot logic in PHP detects the vendor, and boots directly to a specific boot image when booting a Mac. Too bad this isn’t working correctly on a mac. Maybe in the future…I hope. [​](​)Special thanx go out to [Andreas Fink](http://www.fink.org/), as he provided an almost perfect script for building the nbi image, which I adapted and edited to a working state, and [skunkie](https://github.com/skunkie/ipxe-phpmenu), for a wonderful PHP-to-ipxe menu system for ease of management.   #### Step 1: you need a NetBoot Server. I use a MacOS X Server which is next to it. You can also use [BSDPy](https://bitbucket.org/bruienne/bsdpy) under Linux. Also very useful tended to be [Deploy Studio](http://www.deploystudio.com/) as it allowed me to boot into a mini OS X and then remote control the Mac via RemoteDesktop to set up a startup volume or do things like partitioning etc.   #### Step 2: download IPXE sources You should do this on a Linux machine as the current version of IPXE doesnt build under OS X due to some GCC compiler flags which make the OS X compiler spill out errors. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ git clone git://git.ipxe.org/ipxe.git ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   #### Step 3: Edit the build configuration To use ipxe-phpmenu, uncomment these options in the header files: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ config/general.h #define IMAGE_PNG /* PNG image support */ #define PARAM_CMD /* Form parameter commands */ #define CONSOLE_CMD /* Console command */ config/console.h: #define CONSOLE_FRAMEBUFFER /* Graphical framebuffer console */ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   #### Step 4:Install dependencies ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Debian/Ubuntu: apt-get install binutils-dev curl libiberty-dev zip under Fedora/Redhat/CentOS it's probably something like yum install binutils-devel curl libiberty-devel zip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   #### Step 6:Install PHP menu Save the contents of this repository to a subfolder **iPXE** on your webserver, so the boot url will be something like **http://192.168.2.100/iPXE/boot.php** I changed the PHP logic to be working from a subfolder.   #### Step 5: Download and run my build script and run it ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ cd ipxe/src wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mikesmth/macos-netboot-ipxe/master/build/build_ipxe_nbi.sh #bash ./build_ipxe_nbi.sh ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This would build the 64bit ipxe efi binary and bundle it with the needed files to make up a netbootable nbi folder as OS X Server requires it, however, we want to build a IPXE booter which automatically loads an URL and executes the IPXE script there, so we pass it on the command like like this: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ bash ./build_ipxe_nbi.sh http://bootserver/boot.php ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The output you get is now a ipxe.nbi.zip which you can copy on to your OS X server, unpack it there and put it into /Library/NetBoot/NetBootSP0/   ipxe-phpmenu ============ This is a PHP based iPXE menu with submenus and with authentication and access restriction. Set the *067 Bootfile Name* option in the DHCP *Server Options* to the file *boot.php*, e.g. `http://ipxe.domain.corp/boot.php`. More information about configuring the DHCP Server Options can be found at http://ipxe.org/howto/chainloading. ### Features of ipxe-phpmenu - Authentication menu - iPXE main menu and its submenus are easily generated by PHP - Users see only those menu items that they have access to (set by a character marker-sequence) - Kickstart file installation of CentOS 6 with configurable network settings and hostname   ### Users and access groups Users and access groups are set in the file *config.php*.   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'm', # user1 'admin:admin' => 'a', # user2 ); # # to allow a user to see a menu item, it would be specified as: # # title("Disk Utilities", "ma"); # item("GNOME Partition Editor (GParted)", "gparted", "gparted.php", "ma"); # item("Clonezilla", "clonezilla", "clonezilla.php", "a"); # item("Acronis ...", "acronis", "submenu_acronis.php", "a"); # in above example the Disk Utilities title will be visible to user and admin # user will see just the first menu item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~