Clonezilla UEFI - stuck at grub prompt
A partition and disk imaging/cloning program
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steven_shiau
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For years we had been using Clonezilla with PXE booting and it worked great. However, due to more modern PC's and Windows, we are moving to UEFI instead of legacy BIOS booting. As part of this, we updated Clonezilla (the amd64 version) and stopped using PXE boot (PXE via TFTP)...we are now trying to use TFTP boot for UEFI.
We tried grubx64.efi from Clonezilla, Debian, Ubuntu etc...and the only one we've ever gotten to work is from Fedora. Any other grubx64.efi just boots to a grub prompt and we get no farther.
The only files we put into /var/lib/tftpboot are:
grubx64.exe
grub.cfg
and a clonezilla-gfs directory with these in it:
under the clonezilla-gfs directory is:
filesystem.squashfs
sshfiles.tgz
Xboot2Boot.png
initrd.img
vmlinuz
xboot-local.sh (this is our own script with some IP and related stuff in it)
Again, if we use grubx64.efi from Fedora (Fedora 33 or 34 or 35)...we can boot a PC, it hits our grub.cfg menu, we can pick which PC name off menu, and it will restage from a Windows 10 Clonezilla image OK and be that PC name when done. (for example a PC name might be "svc1" or "svc2")
Any other grubxt64.efi we 've used just gets grub prompt and doesn't get any farther.
The issue with the Fedora is it seems to have "limited capabilities" - for example, it doesn't seem to use "net_default_mac" in the grub.cfg - so we can't force a PC to do something on boot like we'd like.
For the grubx64.efi.....is there any reason you can think of that only Fedora's version hits our grub.cfg?
Have you tried the lite server of Clonezilla live?
https://clonezilla.org/show-live-doc-content.php?topic=clonezilla-live/doc/11_lite_server
You can give it a try first. It supports both PXE and uEF netboot clients.
Once you have followed the doc to setup the lite server, you can check the file /tftpboot/nbi_img/bootx64.efi.info to see how the bootx64.efi was created.
Steven
We have tried the Clonezilla Lite files....only able to boot the PXE and it gets a grub prompt. But again, we're not sure if we need more files from Clonezilla and where to put them under /var/lib/tftpboot. Was hoping to hear from someone who has actually done this...but alas....
"only able to boot the PXE and it gets a grub prompt. "?
Please take some photos or a video then post the whole booting process, for both uEFI and PXE mode.
It's easier for us to understand that.
Thanks.
Steven
Well a video would show our IP information - and we're not going to share that.
With any other grubx64.efi (besides a Fedora one) that we have tried, PC will boot, get it's IP info via DHCP....then stops at grub prompt. If we use the Fedora grubxt64.efi, the PC boots, gets it's IP info, loads our grub menu, and we can then use the menu to pick what PC name will be and kick off a Clonezilla restore.
So, we have a Redhat 8 Linux server, providing DHCP and housing TFTP files under /var/lib/tftpboot. It also has the Clonezilla image we call.
If someone here has done this similar thing successfully, what files did you put on your Linux server and where did you put them?
If you use private IP address, then nothing will leak.
Or maybe you can try to disable the secure boot in the uEFI client to see if it works with the grubx64.efi. The one comes with Clonezilla lite server does not support secure boot.
Steven
We've tried this with Secure Boot and without Secure Boot - we can only get this to work so far with Secure Boot off and using that Fedora EFI file. If we turn Secure Boot on, no EFI file we've tried works yet.
We've tried this with Secure Boot and without Secure Boot - we can only get this to work so far with Secure Boot off and using that Fedora EFI file. If we turn Secure Boot on, no EFI file we've tried works yet.
In that case, too few info and since I can not diagnose remotely, so it's very unlikely I can do anything to help you. I can only say the lite server works well here, no matter it's for PXE or uEFI netboot client.
Steven
Last edit: Steven Shiau 2022-02-11
if you have similar working......what files are on your Linux server and where do you put them all? That's what we trying to confirm with someone that's actually done this "in the real world".
All the files are from Clonezilla live 2.8.1-12.
Just find a PC to boot Clonezilla live 2.8.1-12 from a USB flash drive, and follow
https://clonezilla.org/show-live-doc-content.php?topic=clonezilla-live/doc/11_lite_server
to start the Clonezilla lite server. Boot the uEFI netboot client which has disabled the secure boot in the BIOS.
That's all. Not any file from any other GNU/Linux distribution is used in the real world here.
Steven
We have like 200 remote retail locations....we need to do this with DHCP/PXE booting - we don't want to boot from USB media as store manager lose USB sticks etc.
Sure.
What I meant is, if you use the method I have mentioned to test it locally, and if it works, then you can use that as a template server to build the one you have. It's open source, so definitely you can find how it works there.
Steven