So in the Console, Go to Distribution | OS Deployment

Click All other scripts (if you don't do this the icon for a Secure PXE Rep is disabled)

Click the 'Build the secure PXE representative deployment scripts' icon and make a new PXE Rep.

Deploy that PXE rep.

Now go to the PXE Rep.  Check out the differences in the installed structure.

Each item in the F8 menu has its own pxelinux.cfg\default configuration.

Problems are:
1. All items are password protected, and this breaks the PXE Holding Queue as devices won't auto boot.

2. We are not setup to reduce down to only one F8 option and have PXELINUX handle the rest.

muellejo, I do believe i understand what you are talking about.  I use syslinux & landesk pxe menu to launch other things than the default LANDesk provides, like dell diagnostics and Disk WIPE utilities.

Here is an example of one of my PXE menus:

syslinux running with my custom vesamenu

I'll try my best to explain my process:

The boot folders are stored here ON the PXE server -

C:\Program Files\LANDesk\PXE\System\images\x86pc\undi

Now if you want to create a special entry, just create a folder in this directory.   For my example.  I created a folder called dell

In this folder you put all your syslinux files,pxelinux.cfg folder and .img files.  Here is a screenshot:

I did not use the LANDesk initrd boot file, i used my own initrd.gz which came with my syslinux/pxelinux version that i download

Next I configured my default (menu) file:

Here is mine:

default vesamenu.c32
MENU WIDTH 80
MENU MARGIN 14
MENU COLOR BORDER 30;44       #00000000 #00000000 none
MENU COLOR TABMSG 1;36;44     #00000000 #00000000 none
MENU COLOR TITLE 1;36;44     #00000000 #00000000 none
MENU COLOR SEL   30;47       #40000000 #20ffffff
MENU BACKGROUND hdsmenu.jpg
MENU TABMSG
MENU TITLE HD Supply Imaging Utility
prompt 0


LABEL Dell Diagnostics - D600, D610, D620, D420, D820
KERNEL memdisk
APPEND initrd=latitudes.img

LABEL Dell Diagnostics - D630, D430, Opt745
KERNEL memdisk
APPEND initrd=delld630.img

LABEL Dell Diagnostics - GX620
KERNEL memdisk
APPEND initrd=dellgx620.img

LABEL Reboot System
KERNEL reboot.c32

So that should get your syslinux/pxelinux setup, Now we have to add the menu items to the PXE menu

On the PXE server browse to :

c:\Program Files\LANDesk\PXE\System

• open up PxeConfig
• Highlight Boot Server
• Right Click on choose Add/Remove Boot Server Type
• pick a Boot Server Type ( I choose the next availble one which was 32)
• name it - I named it dell (to match the folder, also don't use spaces)
• Highlight your boot server (dell in my example)
  
• Right Click on choose Add Client Support
• in Boot File Base Name = pxelinux
• should look like this:

• Click OK
• Restart the LANDesk PXE MTFTP Service

Phew almost done...now to add the menu on the F8 menu during PXE

• Now Click on Client Boot Menu
• Click on X86PC (UNDI)
• Right Click and Choose Add boot server to this menu...
• Boot Server Type - Type in the number that you created the boot server with ( mine was 32 so i put 32, also it may not show up in the list of available boot server types, that is ok)
• Add your Description ( this is what the user will see when they hit F8 - screenshot of mine:

Now one more final step: you need to define the bootserver discovery list

• Right Click on proxyDHCP Server
• Choose Configure proxyDHCP Server
• Go to Client Options tab and click Add to Bootserver Discovery List
• Now in the Bootserver List, Click on your bootserver that you created
  
• add the IP Address - (use the same address as the other bootservers that are listed on the right)
• Click OK and your done...

I know that's alot of info to suck in and def not supported by LANDesk but if you are familiar with syslinux/pxelinux this should get you on your way to achieving what you were trying to accomplish.

muellejo,

Bootserver type 11 was already reserved for linuxpe.  I'm not sure how that will have a conflict with you choosing the same boot server, i think those numbers are embedded in the registry.

try a higher number...

on a default LANDesk pxe server installation here the numbers that are available:

21-29

32-65533

muellejo wrote:

 

Another pitfall was that  I can't use any Boot Server Description for

"proxyDHCP Server -> Client Boot Menu -> X86PC (UNDI)", only shot descriptions work.

 

 

Do you mean short decriptions?  I can understand that, I would recommend keeping them short as well..because some hardware ( i know Lenovo's are know for this) actually have a maximum total number of characters allowed in the boot menu.  So keeping it short will prevent pxe errors.

Great work. I was impressed with they way you helped him reach a solution.  I thought I was the only one willing to help manhandle the PXE Rep. I am glad there are more of us out there.

I want to explain the reason you have a short description only.

The PXE F8 menu is actually limited in size by the BIOS. Every BIOS has a limited size, though some are bigger than others and recently we think some BIOS (Lenovo) may have just shrunk the size a bit more.

When I first started working at LANDesk, we only had two items in the F8 Menu.

• LANDesk(R) Menu
• LANDesk(R) Manageged Boot

If you look at each character as a byte, this is not that big.

However, then we added WinPE and Linux PE and have something like this (probably not exact)

• WinPE Menu
• WinPE Managed
• LinuxPE Menu
• LinuxPE Managed
• DOS PE Menu
• DOS PE Managed
  

At one point, whenever I added an item, I only have a about 4 to 7 characters of space.  However I think we shortened a few of the words, so I am not sure exactly how many there are now.  I think a character is a byte so I asume that only a handful of bytes are available.

Almost nobody is using DOS PE anymore so if you follow this article to remove them from the list, then you should have more space.

Not authorized to view the specified document 1434

EMiranda,

Could you provide more information on which syslinux/pxelinux version that you download?

I want to extend our PXE server to offer the various Dell Diags, and some other useful tools such as the f_secure rescue CD, DBAN etc.

Thanks

would you mind posting what your default file looks like in your prelinux.cfg directory.

having some difficulty getting this to work.