Additional configuration is required to make WinPE works well with PXE.

Prepare Boot Configuration file: BCD

Boot Configuration Data (BCD) contain information required by Windows boot kernel how to load Windows operating system. The following batch script shows how to prepare a single BCD that may boot from 4 available WinPE images:

vista_x86.wim
vista_x64.wim
win7_x86.wim
win7_x64.wim

These files should be keep in TFTP’s folder: /windows_pe/

@echo off
Del BCD_PXE
bcdedit /createstore BCD_PXE

bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /create {ramdiskoptions}
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {ramdiskoptions} ramdisksdidevice boot
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {ramdiskoptions} ramdisksdipath \windows.pe\boot.sdi

bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /create {88C83FCF-809E-4B72-8921-D91E37DCD052} /application osloader /d "Windows Vista 32-bit PE"
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {88C83FCF-809E-4B72-8921-D91E37DCD052} systemroot \Windows
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {88C83FCF-809E-4B72-8921-D91E37DCD052} detecthal Yes
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {88C83FCF-809E-4B72-8921-D91E37DCD052} winpe Yes
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {88C83FCF-809E-4B72-8921-D91E37DCD052} osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\windows.pe\vista_x86.wim,{ramdiskoptions}
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {88C83FCF-809E-4B72-8921-D91E37DCD052} device ramdisk=[boot]\windows.pe\vista_x86.wim,{ramdiskoptions}

bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /create {7A213FBD-69BE-4B3F-B08C-B9A94CD929AC} /application osloader /d "Windows Vista 64-bit PE"
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {7A213FBD-69BE-4B3F-B08C-B9A94CD929AC} systemroot \Windows
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {7A213FBD-69BE-4B3F-B08C-B9A94CD929AC} detecthal Yes
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {7A213FBD-69BE-4B3F-B08C-B9A94CD929AC} winpe Yes
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {7A213FBD-69BE-4B3F-B08C-B9A94CD929AC} osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\windows.pe\vista_x64.wim,{ramdiskoptions}
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {7A213FBD-69BE-4B3F-B08C-B9A94CD929AC} device ramdisk=[boot]\windows.pe\vista_x64.wim,{ramdiskoptions}

bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /create {A5A5F300-04D4-4D98-9FD3-57E2E00E58D0} /application osloader /d "Windows 7 32-bit PE"
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {A5A5F300-04D4-4D98-9FD3-57E2E00E58D0} systemroot \Windows
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {A5A5F300-04D4-4D98-9FD3-57E2E00E58D0} detecthal Yes
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {A5A5F300-04D4-4D98-9FD3-57E2E00E58D0} winpe Yes
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {A5A5F300-04D4-4D98-9FD3-57E2E00E58D0} osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\windows.pe\win7_x86.wim,{ramdiskoptions}
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {A5A5F300-04D4-4D98-9FD3-57E2E00E58D0} device ramdisk=[boot]\windows.pe\win7_x86.wim,{ramdiskoptions}

bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /create {0341BB74-EF1A-463C-8AFB-4025472EC7DB} /application osloader /d "Windows 7 64-bit PE"
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {0341BB74-EF1A-463C-8AFB-4025472EC7DB} systemroot \Windows
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {0341BB74-EF1A-463C-8AFB-4025472EC7DB} detecthal Yes
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {0341BB74-EF1A-463C-8AFB-4025472EC7DB} winpe Yes
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {0341BB74-EF1A-463C-8AFB-4025472EC7DB} osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\windows.pe\win7_x64.wim,{ramdiskoptions}
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {0341BB74-EF1A-463C-8AFB-4025472EC7DB} device ramdisk=[boot]\windows.pe\win7_x64.wim,{ramdiskoptions}

bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /create {bootmgr}
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /set {bootmgr} timeout 10
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /displayorder {88C83FCF-809E-4B72-8921-D91E37DCD052} {7A213FBD-69BE-4B3F-B08C-B9A94CD929AC} {A5A5F300-04D4-4D98-9FD3-57E2E00E58D0} {0341BB74-EF1A-463C-8AFB-4025472EC7DB}
bcdedit /store BCD_PXE /default {0341BB74-EF1A-463C-8AFB-4025472EC7DB}

Execute the batch file should yield a new file: BCD_PXE. We need this file in later stage

Files required by Windows PXE Boot Kernel

Windows PXE kernel requires the following files to boot WinPE properly:

# ls -l windows.pe
total 829716
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root     24576 Nov  3 16:55 BCD
-r-xr--r-- 1 root root    523328 Jul 14  2009 bootmgr.exe
-r-xr--r-- 1 root root   3170304 Jun 10  2009 boot.sdi
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root      4096 Nov  3 17:12 fonts
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root        11 Nov  4 16:33 pxeboot.0 -> pxeboot.n12
-r-xr--r-- 1 root root     25772 Jun 11  2009 pxeboot.n12
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root 201179410 Nov  3 13:46 vista_x64.wim
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root 182745379 Jan 23  2008 vista_x86.wim
-r-xr--r-- 1 root root 168390841 Jul 14  2009 win7_re_x64.wim
-r-xr--r-- 1 root root 145287084 Nov 20  2010 win7_re_x86.wim
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root 148246498 Nov  3 18:04 win7_x64.wim

File: BCD

BCD file should configure via BCDEdit tool. The above batch script generate a BCD file with file name BCD_PXE. Rename it to BCD and keep in TFTP folder

File: bootmgr.exe, pxeboot.n12

Obtain from mounted WinPE image: <mount-dir>\Windows\Boot\PXE

File: boot.sdi

Obtain from mounted WinPE image: <mount-dir>\Windows\Boot\DVD\PCAT

Folder: fonts

Obtain from mounted WinPE image: <mount-dir>\Windows\Boot\Fonts

File: *.wim

WinPE images. Prepared by WAIK tools.

Configure PXE Service

Windows PXE boot kernel file

The default Windows PXE boot kernel file has named as “pxeboot.n12”. PXELinux requires Windows PXE boot kernel with suffix of .0 instead of .n12, use

# ln -s pxeboot.n12 pxeboot.0

PXE menus

Add a menu entry in pxelinux configuration that boot Windows PXE boot Kernel:

$ cat /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
...
LABEL WINDOWS_PE
        menu label ^Windows Preinstallation Exnvironment
        kernel windows.pe/pxeboot.0
...

TFTP server file name remapping: /var/lib/tftpboot/rules

Windows PXE boot kernel requires files in specific location, use TFTP server file name remapping option to remap the file name to actual location.

Locate TFTP rules file:

# cat /etc/xinetd.d/tftp
service tftp
{
        disable = no
        socket_type             = dgram
        protocol                = udp
        wait                    = yes
        user                    = root
        server                  = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd
        server_args             = -v -m /var/lib/tftpboot/rules -s /var/lib/tftpboot
        per_source              = 11
        cps                     = 100 2
        flags                   = IPv4
}

Enable remapping as follow:

$ cat /var/lib/tftpboot/rules
rg \\ /         # convert backslashes to slashes (useful for windows file names)
r ^bootmgr\.exe /windows.pe/bootmgr.exe
r ^/Boot /windows.pe

Try boot a bare bone machine with network PXE enabled and see if the Windows PXE kernel and WinPE files boot properly

Reference

http://solitudo.net/blah/posts/Create_Windows_PE_rescue_and_installation_images_using_WAIK_for_Windows_7_and_configure_Linux_boot_server_for_PXE_booting_the_images/

Chau Chee Yang Technical Blog

Friday, November 04, 2011

WAIK: Deploy WinPE via PXE