Getting Started - Full Config

Configuring ONB-Classic to Load with a GUI and Boot iPXE

1. Install JRE 21 or above

   – Builds have historically been tested and worked well with Microsoft JDK: (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/java/openjdk/download)

2. Create an empty folder

3. Go to Github Releases and download the latest onb-classic-all.jar

4. We need to run the app as Admin to bind to the DHCP + TFTP + HTTP ports:

   – For Windows, go to Github and download onb.bat and put it in the same folder

   —For Linux/Mac, go to Github and download onb.sh and put it in the same folder

5. Click the script for your platform

6. ONB-Classic will open, go to “Options” in the top right

7. Its best practice to select the enable check box next to the interface you want to set, and click it twice. If this isnt done, it will send DHCP requests out all interfaces.

8. Go to (https://boot.ipxe.org/)

   – x32 or x64 Intel / AMD devices: download ipxe.efi, and put it in the newly created tftpboot folder

   —ARM64 (Macbooks) devices: go to (https://boot.ipxe.org/arm64-efi/) folder, and download ipxe.efi, put it in the newly created tftpboot folder

   – Note the architecture of the end device booting matters, not the server itself, you can boot a Windows Intel machine from an Apple Macbook.

9. Now create a menu.ipxe the system will boot, below is an example Rocky 10 menu.

   – To use this menu go to (https://rockylinux.org/download) and download the latest ISO for your platform

   —ONB-Classic has a neat feature where you can live extract files from an image, if it sees http://your-server/image.iso?/image.img, then it will read the ISO file table and extract the subfile. This feature needs enabled, in “Options”, select “Allow ISO/ZIp Live Extraction”. Otherwise you will see “EXEC format error” loading images.

   –

   #!ipxe
   set menu-default generic
   set boot-server http://${proxydhcp/next-server}/
   
   # Some menu defaults
   set menu-timeout 20000
   set submenu-timeout ${menu-timeout}
   
   :start
   menu System Services
   item --gap --           ------------------------- Linux Images -----------------------------------
   item rocky              Rocky
   item --gap --           ------------------------- iPXE -------------------------------------------
   item shell              Drop to iPXE shell
   item boot-local         Boot to local system
   item reboot             Reboot system
   choose --timeout ${menu-timeout} --default ${menu-default} selected || goto cancel
   set menu-timeout 0
   goto ${selected}
   
   :rocky
   set repo ${boot-server}Rocky-10.1-aarch64-boot.iso?
   
   initrd --name initramfs ${repo}/images/pxeboot/initrd.img
   kernel ${repo}/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz inst.zram=1 initrd=initramfs inst.stage2=${repo} inst.repo=${repo} ip=dhcp
   boot || imgfree
   goto start
   boot
   
   :shell
   echo Type 'exit' to get the back to the menu
   shell
   set menu-timeout 0
   set submenu-timeout 0
   goto start
   
   :boot-local
   echo Booting Local System
   sanboot --no-describe --drive 0x80
   
   :reboot
   reboot
   

10. If everything is in place, boot a client!