PXE support for image loading in Mass Production

peoplenn

I need to burn dozens of up-boards with the same image. What options do I have to do that at scale?

I am using clonezilla, but I still have to image them one-by-one. I saw that clonezilla has the option to burn multiple images by using network boot, but from what I see the upboard doesn't have network boot.

What are my options?

Thanks!

Aling

Hi,

UP board supports PXE booting.

peoplenn

Is PXE supported in the BIOS it comes from the factory, or do we need to flash a new BIOS?

Thanks!

peoplenn

I don't see an obvious way to enable network boot from the BIOS menu. My upboard's BIOS version is 2.17.1249

rogertsai(AAEON)

Hi, please update your BIOS to Ver. UPC1BM0X, and you will find that PXE function in BIOS menu. UP Board UEFI Bios UPC1BM0X_EFI
like below

ooglyboogly

Hello,

I recently upgraded the BIOS to a version that supports PXE booting. I am unable to see any PXE boot related traffic from my PXE boot server when running tcpdump. I have other devices that PXE boot from this server and I see PXE boot traffic when i run a tcpdump from the PXE server. Am I doing something wrong with the upboard which is why I'm not seeing any traffic from my PXE server?

When running this command while manually or automatically PXE booting via IPv4 I don't see any output

pxeserver@pxe0:~$ sudo tcpdump -i em0 udp port 69
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on em0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 262144 bytes

^C
0 packets captured
0 packets received by filter
0 packets dropped by kernel

When running this command from my PXE server while PXE booting a "working" embedded device i see the expected traffic:

pxe0:/var/lib/tftpboot$ sudo tcpdump -i em0 udp port 69
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on em0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 262144 bytes
16:21:45.804539 IP 172.16.100.174.3335 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 39 RRQ "enabled" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:45.859371 IP 172.16.100.174.3380 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 65 RRQ "pxelinux.cfg/01-12-ae-4e-22-13-42" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:45.903477 IP 172.16.100.174.3431 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 53 RRQ "pxelinux.cfg/AC1064AE" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:45.947479 IP 172.16.100.174.3475 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 52 RRQ "pxelinux.cfg/AC1064A" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:45.991499 IP 172.16.100.174.3519 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 51 RRQ "pxelinux.cfg/AC1064" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:46.035459 IP 172.16.100.174.3563 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 50 RRQ "pxelinux.cfg/AC106" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:46.079498 IP 172.16.100.174.3607 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 49 RRQ "pxelinux.cfg/AC10" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:46.123454 IP 172.16.100.174.3651 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 48 RRQ "pxelinux.cfg/AC1" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:46.166548 IP 172.16.100.174.3694 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 47 RRQ "pxelinux.cfg/AC" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:46.210624 IP 172.16.100.174.3737 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 46 RRQ "pxelinux.cfg/A" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:46.254483 IP 172.16.100.174.3784 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 62 RRQ "pxelinux.cfg/default-arm-sunxi" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:46.298655 IP 172.16.100.174.3827 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 56 RRQ "pxelinux.cfg/default-arm" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:46.342536 IP 172.16.100.174.3870 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 52 RRQ "pxelinux.cfg/default" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:46.420188 IP 172.16.100.174.3922 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 70 RRQ "pcd3n/rootfs.cpio.uboot" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:52.437714 IP 172.16.100.174.3821 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 49 RRQ "pcd3n/uImage" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468
16:21:53.230638 IP 172.16.100.174.1544 > 172.16.5.5.tftp: 70 RRQ "pcd3n/device.dtb" octet timeout 5 blksize 1468

The device download the files and boots successfully... I can not get the Upboard to do the same.

Please see below Upboard BIOS settings:

Advanced BIOS Settings:

Network Stack: Enabled
Ipv4 PXE Support: Enabled
PXE boot wait time: 1
Media Detect count: 1

Boot BIOS Settings:

Quiet Boot: Disabled
OS IMAGE ID: Windows

Boot Option Priorities:

Boot Option 1: [ UEFI: IP4 Realtek P...]
Boot Option 2: [Debian]

eduncan911

Btw, I am in nearly the same boat. Except it's for my home on a dedicated IoT VLAN. We have about 12 to 15 various UP and RPi projects and boards I want to convert to PXE.

I'm working on the router now (Arch Linux + Xen on UP Squared with 5 or so VMs + small Kubernetes node). Next steps will be the VLANs and then the Router/DHCP/PXE daemons in docker.

But that's still a ways off.. so I am unable to test out the UP board PXE just yet. But soon! (My current router is dying, daily, requiring reboots)

My plan is to run a full remote kernel over PXE with tftp, set to read-only on all my UP devices - to save the eMMC writes and ship all metrics and logs off to my home server. Then eMMC will only be fore pure storage on each device. So it is a bit different than your idea, but still the same with PXE booting some type a kernel.

I'll keep you up to date as I progress, sooner than later now.