SCCM 2012 RC - Step by Step Install / Setup Tutorial and Configuration

Create A WinPE 4.0 Disc using WADK For Windows 8

Step 1:

Download Windows ADK For Windows 8

http://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=30652

Step 2:

Install Windows ADK For Windows 8, remember you can install in windows vista or windows 7 too

Step 3:

Using the ADK For Windows 8 Terminal type:

"Copype *amd64* *c:\location*"

The information that is between *stars* is changable to meet your needs. amd64 means you will be making a 64bit disc, x86 means 32bit. "c:\location" is a destination for the pe working files.You can change it to whatever drive or folder you want to use. Do not include the * symbol in your typing. After you are finished and have burned the iso you will need to manually delete c:\location, unless you want to keep it?

Step 4:

Using the ADK For Windows 8 Terminal type (This is optional):

"imagex /mountrw *c:\location\*media\sources\boot.wim 1 *c:\location\*mount"

Step 5:

Copy any additional files you want or make any changes you wish to the mounted directory (This is optional)

Step 6:

commit your changes using the ADK For Windows 8 terminal by typing (This is optional):

"imagex /unmount *c:\location\*mount /commit"

Step 7:

Generate the ISO file. Type into ADK For Windows 8 Terminal:

"MakeWinPEMedia /ISO *c:\location* *c:\location*\*winpe4x8664*.iso

Step 8:

Burn the iso file to a dvd or cd using whatever software you normally burn iso files with (I recommend Ashampoo Burning Studio 6 Free Edition)

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Some useful commands you can use in winpe 4 for capturing and deploying images:

Capture an image:
"dism /Capture-Image /Compress:max /CaptureDir:*D:\* /ImageFile:*E:\windows*.wim /Name:"*windows*" " (the first set of " " around windows must be included)

Apply an image:

"dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:*E:\Windows*.wim /Index:*1* /ApplyDir:*W:\*" (a .wim file can have mulitple images in it, labled as sperate indexes)

Combining Windows Deployment Services & PXELinux for the ultimate network boot

Step One – Install WDS

This should be obvious and if you are reading this I imagine you’ve done it already. Ours is running on a Windows Server 2003 box but it should work fine with the latest, more secure, stuff.

• We will be adding bits to the folders within the \\WDS\REMINST share

Step Two – Install PXELinux

PXELinux is part of the SysLinux package

• Download SysLinux from here
• There’s quite a bit in SysLinux but you only need to extract the following files
  • ZIP\core\pxelinux.0
  • ZIP\com32\menu\vesamenu.c32
  • ZIP\com32\modules\chain.c32
• Copy the files into \\WDS\REMINST\Boot\x86
• Rename pxelinux.0 to pxelinux.com
• You also need to make copies of two original WDS files in this folder
  • Copy pxeboot.n12 and rename it to pxeboot.0
  • Copy abortpxe.com and rename it to abortpxe.0
• Create to new subfolders
  • \\WDS\REMINST\Boot\x86\Linux
  • \\WDS\REMINST\Boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg
• The pxelinux.cfgfolder is where you store the files that make up the PXE boot (F12) menu.
  • All the files we will put in there are text files, even though they don’t use a .txt extension
• First create a new text file called default.  This is the first menu that loads.
• Paste the following text into it

  01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

  DEFAULT      vesamenu.c32 PROMPT       0   MENU TITLE PXE Boot Menu (x86) MENU INCLUDE pxelinux.cfg/graphics.conf MENU AUTOBOOT Starting Local System in 8 seconds   # Option 1 - Exit PXE Linux & boot normally LABEL bootlocal       menu label ^Boot Normally       menu default       localboot 0       timeout 80       TOTALTIMEOUT 9000 # Option 2 - Run WDS LABEL wds      MENU LABEL ^Windows Deployment Services      KERNEL pxeboot.0 # Option 3 - Exit PXE Linux LABEL Abort     MENU LABEL E^xit     KERNEL abortpxe.0

• Now create a text file called graphics.conf
  • This file controls how the menu is displayed. It’s very versatile so have a play around until it looks as basic or as flashy as you like
• Paste the following text into it

  01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11

  MENU MARGIN 10 MENU ROWS 16 MENU TABMSGROW 21 MENU TIMEOUTROW 26 MENU COLOR BORDER 30;44     #00000000 #00000000 none MENU COLOR SCROLLBAR 30;44      #00000000 #00000000 none MENU COLOR TITLE 0      #00269B #00000000 none MENU COLOR SEL   30;47      #40000000 #20ffffff MENU BACKGROUND background.jpg NOESCAPE 0 ALLOWOPTIONS 0

• If you want to use a custom background, place it in the \\WDS\REMINST\Boot\x86folder.
  • The image should be a 640×480 jpeg file.
  • Make sure it has the same name as specified in the MENU BACKGROUND line in graphics.conf
• Now we need to change the default boot program in WDS
  • Open the Windows Deployment Services Console
  • Right Click on your Server and select Properties
  • From the Boot tab change the default boot program for x86 architecture to\Boot\x86\pxelinux.com
  • In Server 2008 R2 you have to use the wdsutil  command line to set the the default boot program with these commands

1 2	wdsutil /set-server /bootprogram:boot\x86\pxelinux.com /architecture:x86 wdsutil /set-server /N12bootprogram:boot\x86\pxelinux.com /architecture:x86

Step Three – Test it out

Before you go any further, do a test PXE boot to check everything is OK.

I use a Hyper-V VM to make this testing process quicker. Just make sure it’s set to boot to a legacy network adapter in the settings

If it doesn’t load make sure you have the following files and folders in the right place within the\\WDS\REMINST share

• \Boot\x86\pxelinux.com
• \Boot\x86\vesamenu.c32
• \Boot\x86\chain.c32
• \Boot\x86\pxeboot.0
• \Boot\x86\abortpxe.0
• \Boot\x86\background.jpg
• \Boot\x86\Linux\
• \Boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg\
• \Boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg\default
• \Boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg\graphics.conf

Step Four– Add new boot options

If you can boot into the new menu and still load WDS then we are ready to add our Linux distros and other tools. If not, go back to step one and check everything.

This stage is relatively easy. It is just a case of putting the relevant netboot files for your preferred distribution in to the \Boot\x86\Linux folder and then adding a menu option for them. You can find more info on where to get these from on the official WDSLinux wiki. I’ll show you a more generic way of doing things using Debian as an example

• Create a new subfolder
  • \Boot\x86\Linux\Debian\
• Download the netboot files (initrd.gz and linux) from a Debian mirror
• Copy them into the Debian subfolder
• Create a menu entry for them in \Boot\x86\pxelinux.cfg\default

  1 2 3 4 5 6

  LABEL debian6Netinstall     menu label ^Debian 6-0 Net-install     # Load the correct kernel     kernel /Linux/Debian/Linux     # Boot options     append priority=low vga=normal initrd=/Linux/Debian/initrd.gz

That’s all there is to it. As long as you download the correct files and boot the correct boot options on the append line of the menu, you should be OK.

What if I need 64-bit options

This is easy too just replicate everything we did in \Boot\x86 into \Boot\x64. Don’t forget to change the WDS Server boot program for the x64 architecture (as shown in step 2) to \Boot\x64\pxelinux.com

Taking it further

Hopefully you are reading this because you have numerous ideas of what you could boot to. To help you along I’ve included my current default menu as well as adding sub-menus for Linux and Tools. Most of them were fairly straightforward as they had special PXE version with instructions on their website, e.g. GParted & Clonezilla

default

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

DEFAULT      vesamenu.c32 PROMPT       0   MENU TITLE PXE Boot Menu (x86) MENU INCLUDE pxelinux.cfg/graphics.conf MENU AUTOBOOT Starting Local System in 8 seconds   # Option 1 - Exit PXE Linux & boot normally LABEL bootlocal       menu label ^Boot Normally       menu default       localboot 0       timeout 80       TOTALTIMEOUT 9000 # Option 2 - Run WDS LABEL wds      MENU LABEL ^Windows Deployment Services      KERNEL pxeboot.0 # Go to Linux sub-menu LABEL linux     MENU LABEL ^Linux Distros     KERNEL vesamenu.c32     APPEND pxelinux.cfg/graphics.conf pxelinux.cfg/linux.menu # Go to Tools sub-menu LABEL tools     MENU LABEL ^Tools     KERNEL vesamenu.c32     APPEND pxelinux.cfg/graphics.conf pxelinux.cfg/tools.menu # Exit PXE Linux LABEL Abort     MENU LABEL E^xit     KERNEL abortpxe.0

linux.menu (save in same place default)

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

MENU TITLE Install a Linux Distro   LABEL debian6.0-amd64-Netinstall     menu label ^Debian 6-0 amd64-Net-install:     kernel /Linux/Debian-Net-Install-amd64/Linux     append priority=low vga=normal initrd=/Linux/Debian-Net-Install-amd64/initrd.gz   LABEL Centos5.0-Install     menu label ^Centos 5-0 32bit install:     kernel /Linux/Centos-5.0-32-bit/vmlinuz     APPEND ks initrd=Linux/Centos-5.0-32-bit/initrd.img ramdisk_size=100000   LABEL Debian-5.08-Installer     menu label ^Install 5.08 (Lenny)     kernel /Linux/debian-installer/i386/linux     append vga=normal debian-installer/allow_unauthenticated=true  initrd=/Linux/debian-installer/i386/initrd.gz   LABEL Main Menu       MENU LABEL ^Back to Main Menu       KERNEL vesamenu.c32       APPEND pxelinux.cfg/default

tools.menu (save in same place default)

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

MENU TITLE Tools   LABEL memtest     menu label ^Memory Test: Memtest86+ v4.20     kernel \Linux\memtest\memtestp LABEL Clonezilla Live     MENU LABEL ^Clonezilla Live     kernel \Linux\Clonezilla\vmlinuz     append initrd=\Linux\Clonezilla\initrd.img boot=live live-config noswap nolocales edd=on nomodeset ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param="" ocs_live_keymap="" ocs_live_batch="no" ocs_lang="" vga=788 nosplash fetch=http://192.0.0.24:81/RemoteInstall/Boot/x86/Linux/Clonezilla/filesystem.squashfs LABEL gparted     MENU LABEL ^GParted Live     kernel \Linux\gparted\vmlinuz     append initrd=\Linux\gparted\initrd.img boot=live config  noswap noprompt  nosplash  fetch=http://192.0.0.24:81/RemoteInstall/Boot/x86/Linux/GParted/filesystem.squashfs     TEXT HELP         GParted live version: 0.8.1-3. Live version maintainer: Steven Shiau         Disclaimer: GParted live comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY         ENDTEXT LABEL Main Menu     MENU LABEL ^Back to Main Menu     KERNEL vesamenu.c32     APPEND pxelinux.cfg/default

Conclusion

This is a really useful tool to have in our SysAdmin arsenal. I encourage you to give it a go. Let me know if your successful, or if you are having any problems getting it working, in the comments section. I’d also love to hear of any other tools you’ve added to the PXE menu.