Booting Windows 7 From Ubuntu 15.04

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I wanted to be able to use iPXE to boot Windows 7 over iscsi, This turned out to be a very very hard project, as the documentation is VERY sparse.

I am starting with a 60GB Ubuntu 15.04 server image in VMware Fusion, so have something similar to this ready to go.

First install the required Packages:

sudo su - root
apt-get -y install tftpd-hpa isc-dhcp-server build-essential samba liblzma-dev mkisofs unzip iscsitarget

Download syslinux as of 2015-10 (check syslinux site)

cd /usr/src
mkdir pxe
cd pxe
wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/6.xx/syslinux-6.03.tar.gz
tar -zxvf syslinux-6.03.tar.gz
cd syslinux-6.0.3
make #this will fail, it's ok
cp ./bios/core/pxelinux.0 /var/lib/tftpboot/
cp ./bios/com32/elflink/ldlinux/ldlinux.c32 /var/lib/tftpboot/
cp ./bios/com32/libutil/libutil.c32 /var/lib/tftpboot/
cp ./bios/com32/menu/menu.c32 /var/lib/tftpboot/
cp ./bios/memdisk/memdisk /var/lib/tftpboot/

So I have a second eth device because I need to run isc dhcp
First thing will be configuring eth1

auth eth1
iface eth1 inet static
address 192.168.69.1
netmask 255.255.255.0

Turn up the interface

ifup eth1

Configure DHCP you will need to add these lines (/etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf)
Right after

#authoritative;

add

next-server 192.168.69.1;

Then add a new range

subnet 192.168.69.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        range 192.168.69.10 192.168.69.254;
        option routers 192.168.69.1;
        filename "pxelinux.0";
        option domain-name-servers 192.168.69.1;
}

Start DHCP

/etc/init.d/isc-dhcp-server start

install iPXE

cd /usr/src
git clone git://git.ipxe.org/ipxe.git
cd ipxe/src
make
cp ./bin/undionly.kpxe /var/lib/tftpboot/

Get wimboot

cd /usr/src
wget http://git.ipxe.org/releases/wimboot/wimboot-latest.zip
unzip wimboot-latest.zip
cp wimboot-2.5.1-signed/wimboot /var/lib/tftpboot/

Create your iPXE script

cd /var/lib/tftpboot
nano win7.ipxe

Here is the file:

#!ipxe
    dhcp
    set keep-san 1
    sanhook iscsi:192.168.69.1::::iqn.2013-10.net.thebugshop:windows7
    set boot-url tftp://192.168.69.1
    initrd ${boot-url}/distros/windows/winpe4_amd64.iso
    kernel ${boot-url}/memdisk iso raw
    boot

create the distro directory:

cd /var/lib/tftpboot
mkdir -p distros/windows
cd distros/windows

fix up tftpd-hpa

/etc/default/tftpd-hpa

Make it look like this

# /etc/default/tftpd-hpa
 
TFTP_USERNAME="tftp"
TFTP_DIRECTORY="/var/lib/tftpboot"
TFTP_ADDRESS=":69"
TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure"

Start the tftp service:

/etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa start

Make our lkrn (kernel), this will take awhile

wget --no-check-certificate "https://rom-o-matic.eu/build.fcgi?BINARY=ipxe.lkrn&BINDIR=bin&REVISION=master&DEBUG=&EMBED.00script.ipxe=&general.h/PXE_STACK:=1&general.h/DOWNLOAD_PROTO_NFS:=1&general.h/SANBOOT_PROTO_ISCSI:=1&" -O /var/lib/tftpboot/ipxe.lkrn

Create out default pxelinux.cfg

cd /var/lib/tftpboot
mkdir pxelinux.cfg
cd pxelinux.cfg
nano default

Here is the default file

DEFAULT menu.c32
 
LABEL Windows 7 Install
    MENU LABEL Windows 7 Install
    KERNEL ipxe.lkrn
    INITRD win7.ipxe

If you were to boot now you would see this:

Screen Shot 2015-10-10 at 10.45.16 PM

Create our empty Windows7 Image

cd /var/lib/tftpboot
dd if=/dev/zero of=/var/lib/tftpboot/windows7.img bs=1M count=20000

Edit our iscsi target

nano /etc/default/iscsitarget

Make the file look like this:

ISCSITARGET_ENABLE=true 
ISCSITARGET_MAX_SLEEP=3
 
 
# ietd options
# See ietd(8) for details
ISCSITARGET_OPTIONS=""

edit the /etc/iet/ietd.conf

Target iqn.2013-10.net.thebugshop:windows7
    IncomingUser
    OutgoingUser
    Lun 0 Path=/var/lib/tftpboot/windows7.img,Type=fileio
    Alias Windows7

Start the iscsitarget

/etc/init.d/iscsitarget start

We are now ready for the Windows Part of our journey… Grab a beer, this is going to take awhile. From a fresh Windows install:

First Download and install the ADK

http://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=39982

Now after your 6th beer you should be ready for the AIK, Download and Install it

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5753

I think.. You are probably 12 beers in now, best to take a break…

Right click on my computer > properties > Advanced system settings > Environment Variables > System Variables > Path > edit

Add this to the end of Variable value why didn’t Microsoft do this when they installed this… Email Satya@microsoft.com to ask why 🙂

;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Windows Preinstallation Environment

Open up: Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment Under “Windows Kits” > “Windows ADK”
I am using amd64 change to x86 when necessary

cd \
copype amd64 C:\WinPE_amd64
cd WinPE_amd64
mkdir ISO
copy "c:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\amd64\winpe.wim" c:\WinPE_amd64\ISO\
copy "C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\amd64\Imagex.exe" C:\Winpe_amd64\ISO\
MakeWinPEMedia /ISO C:\WinPE_amd64 C:\WinPE_amd64\winpe4_amd64.iso

Get C:\WinPE_amd64\winpe4_amd64.iso to /var/lib/tftpboot/distros/windows/, I use WinSCP, and copy the file to the server.

Now if you boot your pxe machine you should see this:

Screen Shot 2015-10-10 at 11.21.27 PM

Followed (after awhile) By this:

Screen Shot 2015-10-10 at 11.25.04 PM

And then After awhile longer:

Screen Shot 2015-10-10 at 11.27.31 PM

And then after awhile LONGER

Screen Shot 2015-10-10 at 11.50.37 PM

Lets do our samba stuff:
First get your iso of Windows 7 on the Linux Server

mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot/windows/win7
mkdir /mnt/cdrom
mount -o loop win7.iso /mnt/cdrom
cp -R /mnt/cdrom/*

Edit your smb file:
nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

[global]
   workgroup = WORKGROUP
   server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)
   dns proxy = no
   log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
   max log size = 1000
   panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
   server role = standalone server
   passdb backend = tdbsam
   obey pam restrictions = yes
   unix password sync = yes
   passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
   passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
   pam password change = yes
   map to guest = bad user
   usershare allow guests = yes
 
[win7]
   path = /var/lib/tftpboot/windows/win7
   comment = Windows 7 Installation DVD
   valid users = "bugshop"
   writeable = no
   browseable = yes
   read only = yes

Set a Password

useradd bugshop
smbpasswd -a bugshop

Start the services

service smbd start
service nmbd start

Create a couple of new files:
nano /var/lib/tftpboot/win7.iscsi

#!ipxe
dhcp
set keep-san 1
sanboot iscsi:192.168.69.1::::iqn.2013-10.net.thebugshop:windows7
boot

nano /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

DEFAULT menu.c32
 
LABEL Windows 7
    MENU LABEL Windows 7
    KERNEL ipxe.lkrn
    INITRD win7.iscsi
 
 
LABEL Windows 7 Install
    MENU LABEL Windows 7 Install
    KERNEL ipxe.lkrn
    INITRD win7.ipxe

Start the Windows Install:

Screen Shot 2015-10-10 at 11.52.59 PM

Screen Shot 2015-10-10 at 11.53.24 PM

The machine is going to reboot and do it’s thing… Let it… (More Beer?)

When the machine reboots select Windows 7 (Not Windows 7 Install)

There you have it a diskless PXE booting Windows 7, Next step might be to try and upgrade it to windows 10

Thanks!

–John

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