Updates in experimental: uefi / win8 / netboot-products
We published some packages on http://download.uib.de/opsi4.0/experimental/uefi-win8/
They include the following features:
- UEFI / GPT support
- Windows 8 support
- Further improvements of the netboot products
These packages are experimental!
This means, that they worked well at our testings resp. our testing environment, but they aren't as stable as they have be, to be declared as testing or stable.
Details see below.
UEFI / GPT support
Some important informations about UEFI:
- UEFI boot works only with 64-bit systems
- The UEFI BIOS' that are actually available on the market may exhibit different behavior
- The use of GUID Partition Table (GPT) on the boot disk only works with UEFI
First a description of the UEFI opsi-linux-bootimage boot:
At the moment a boot from USB-Stick works.
The opsi-linux-bootimage-uefi-64.zip includes a special 64 Bit opsi-linux-bootimage.
To use it, unzip this file and copy the content onto a USB-stick.
Plug the stick in your UEFI-computer.
Change the computers BIOS-settings to UEFI boot from USB-Stick.
Reboot the computer.
According to BIOS, hardware etc. the boot takes up to 10 minutes.
After successfully booting, the input-mask known from opsi-client-boot CD opens.
Now you may logon at the opsiserver as a member of the opsiadmin group and choose a suitable netboot product.
The suitable netboot products are described as follows:
UEFI support in netboot products:
An UEFI boot works only with 64 bit OS, so the following description is only for the 64 bit variant of the netboot products released in experimental.
The setup.py used by the bootimage detects automatically whether there is a UEFI boot.
With a UEFI boot, GPT will be used for partitioning.
Besides the current partitions an UEFI- and a 'Microsoft Reserved' partition will be applied.
The installation data will be copied as usual and the UEFI BIOS will be advised, that the next boot has to be from the winpe partition.
The further installation continues as already known.
Notice:
For Win7x64 resp. 2008-r2 the install files directory must be at the state servicepack 1.
Win8-x64 and server 2012 work out-of-the-box.
2008-x64 is not tested yet.
Our testing environment was a Dell Optiplex 390 BIOS A07 with 3 TB Seagate ST3000DM
This is experimental yet:
The code of setup.py sends pretty 'confused' messages.
We are going to build in lots of the here called functions into the opsi-python library, to keep the code clear.
An opsi UEFI netboot didn't already work.
But it might basically work.
Further references and every kind of progress report is welcome.
Windows 8 support:
The difference between the Windows 8 / Server 2012 products and the other NT6 products is, that there are changes in unattend.xml
Win8(x64) is tested with Win8 Professional.
Win2012 is tested with Server 2012 Standard.
This is experimental yet:
The opsi-client-agent means, that a user is logged in.
Here some changes have to be done.
Some more improvements concerning the netboot products:
A new property data_partition_create (default=true). If this property is set to false, no data partition will be created, even if there is any space on disk.
A new property use_raid1 (default=false). If this property is set to true, two existing discs will be treated identically.
This is used before building a SATA RAID 1.
This feature is very experimental, but is not disturbing, while using the default (default=false).
Regards,
B. Hubal