[syslinux] Problems booting WinPE ISO

[Andrew Bobulsky]

Hello Greg,

Some time ago, I encountered the same issue as you, but due to time
constraints, I ended up using GRUB4DOS as my kernel, with appropriate
arguments to map the initrd to a ramdisk and boot it.  If no one can
suggest a workaround, I could look up the string if you like.

Alternatively, because WinPE 2 and 3 "unwrap" into RAM anyway, you'd
see a faster boot using iPXE's HTTP sanboot option if your environment
allows.  Windows bootmgr can do everything it needs to get the PE
online within the context of the bootloader, so you can really boot it
from just about any medium you desire ;)

Cheers,
Andrew Bobulsky

On Aug 3, 2011, at 5:14 PM, Bernd Blaauw <bblaauw at home.nl> wrote:

> Op 3-8-2011 16:05, Greg Treantos schreef:
>> I have set up a RHEL 5.7 PXE server and trying to get a WinPE ISO to work.
>> Currently PXE seems to handle the image properly but the process stops after
>> Loading boot sector... booting... Full list of what is going on.
>>
>> Ramdisk at 0x72b9c00, length 0x0a680000
>> command line: iso initrd=../images/windows/winpe_x86.iso
>> BOOT_IMAGE=../memdisk
>>
>> Disk is hard disk 0, 170496 K C/H/S = 340992/1/1
>> Total size needed = 2091 bytes, allocating 3K
>> Old dos memory at 0x9bc00 (map says 09c00), loading at 09b00
>> 1588: 0xffff 15E801: 03c00 0x71b9
>> INT 13 08: Success, count = 1, BPT = 0000:0000
>> old: int13 = f000827c  int15  = f000cebe
>> new: int13 = 9b000008  int15  = 9b000290
>> Loading boot sector... booting...
>>
>> I burned the WinPE ISO onto a CD and was able to boot the server fine.
>> I'm using syslinux.x86_64 3.11-4 that came with RHEL 5.7
>
> For me often the 'iso raw' options work. Windows is a protected mode operating system (as most modern OS's are) so you'd need some kind of mass storage driver for Windows to recognise the ISO.
>
> I think the Syslinux wiki mentions MEMDISK and the WinVBlock driver.
> [ http://reboot.pro ] is an entire forum dedicated to booting Windows, Linux and DOS in various ways (network, memory, USB etc).
>
> Boot.kernel.org , ipxe.org netboot.me also offer some internet-based options, but that's unrelated to your subject likely.
>
>
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