Booting to Network

[Sue_1234]

I am trying to boot the Stream to the Network using IPV4 using a USB Network adapter.  How do I get that option to show up in the Boot Options.

[kyle_b]

Hi, I see the BIOS has the option to enable a network adaptor boot but since the Stream 11 has no built-in ethernet network adaptor, I wonder if this is a viable option. To use a USB LAN adaptor, it seems it would have to load a specific driver to support it which I would not think the BIOS could do.

[Sue_1234]

The adapters I was using are not recognized by the BIOS - I finally found one that is - TrendNet USB3.0. 

[doughjohn]

Hi

PXE booting is booting from a network server (or similar) usually over ethernet cable, and so Wi-Fi is trickier.  I found some articles on this and post them, they are not mine and I can't take any credit or blame.

I hope this helps you to formulate a strategy, and perhaps ask more specific questions.

There are apps to possibly help, like…

Aomei PXE boot

CCBoot

http://pxe.winsite.com/

##############################################################

HP Notebook PCs - Network Boot (F12)

This document pertains to HP Notebook PCs with the HP Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) beginning in late-2008.

To access the Network Boot option that allows the computer to boot directly from the network, turn on the computer and immediately press the esc key to display the Startup Menu, and then press the F12 key.

This is an option only found on HP computers designed for businesses. The Network Boot option allows you to boot from a network driver before trying to book from the hard drive on the computer. This option only affects the current boot process, and all subsequent boots will revert to the default boot order. For information about permanently altering your computer's boot order, see HP Notebook PCs - BIOS Setup (F10).

######################################################

From Peter Van Dorp et al

Hey Everyone,

It is possible to network boot (pxe boot) these devices.

Two things need to be taken into consideration when you do so.

1. You need an HP usb ethernet adapter that is compatible with the tablet. I have found that the XZ613AA#ABA adapter works well with the HP Stream 7 5709's that we have. In order to use this adapter, you will also require a micro usb to usb adapter. I found the startech micro usb to usb adapter worked well in this situation.

2. You will need to pxe boot from a 32bit source. These tablets do NOT support 64bit installs of windows. So if you're using windows deployment services, just make sure to create a boot image from a 32bit version of windows 8.1 and you'll be fine.

Steps to boot from the network:

1. Power off the tablet

2. Plug in the usb network adapter

3. Power on the table holding down the power button and the volume down button

4. Select F12 to network boot

That's about it. Hopefully this helps everyone!

##################################################

IPXE – Quick start -The easiest way to start experimenting with iPXE is to use the bootable ISO image. Burn the ISO image to a CD-ROM (or DVD-ROM) and boot from it. You should soon see a welcome banner such as:

  iPXE -- Open Source Network Boot Firmware -- http://ipxe.org
  Features: HTTP iSCSI DNS TFTP AoE FCoE TFTP COMBOOT ELF PXE PXEXT
  
  Press Ctrl-B for the iPXE command line...

Press Ctrl-B at this point, and you should reach the iPXE command line:

  iPXE>

You can list the network devices that iPXE has detected using the ifstat command:

  iPXE> ifstat
  net0: 52:54:00:12:34:56 using rtl8139 on PCI00:03.0 (closed)
    [Link:up, TX:0 TXE:0 RX:0 RXE:0]

and acquire an IP address using the dhcp command:

  iPXE> dhcp
  DHCP (net0 52:54:00:12:34:56).... ok

You can examine the IP configuration and other DHCP options:

  iPXE> route
  net0: 10.0.0.155/255.255.255.0 gw 10.0.0.1
  iPXE> show dns
  net0.dhcp/dns:ipv4 = 10.0.0.6

You can boot something over the network. Unlike a traditional PXE ROM, iPXE is able to boot over a wide area network such as the Internet. If the machine you are testing is connected to the Internet, you can boot the iPXE demonstration script:

#!ipxe
kernel vmlinuz-3.16.0-rc4 bootfile=http://boot.ipxe.org/demo/boot.php fastboot initrd=initrd.img
initrd initrd.img
boot

  iPXE> chain http://boot.ipxe.org/demo/boot.php

start.txt · Last modified: 2015/04/29 23:29 by mcb30