Legacy-BIOS PXE clients booting Blancco reported "NBP is too big to
fit in free base memory". Cause: dnsmasq unconditionally served
ipxe.efi (~675KB EFI binary) which legacy BIOS PXE ROMs cannot
execute and which exceeds their NBP cap.
Fix:
- Add undionly.kpxe (~70KB BIOS-mode iPXE, from boot.ipxe.org).
- dnsmasq: dhcp-match on option:client-arch,0 (BIOS) -> undionly.kpxe;
default (everything else, including UEFI x86_64 arch 7 and 9) keeps
getting ipxe.efi. Tag form is reversible: if the match fails to
evaluate, fallback is the working EFI path, not the new binary.
- Ansible TFTP-copy loop: mirror undionly.kpxe alongside ipxe.efi.
- .gitignore exception: track the open-source kpxe binary so the
air-gapped USB build stays self-contained.
UEFI clients unchanged. Blancco/Clonezilla/WinPE chain after the
iPXE menu is identical regardless of which iPXE variant delivered it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Bundles drift left uncommitted from prior sessions and the UDC matrix
verify entry added today.
Drift items (all per session-progress.md, completed in earlier sessions
but never staged):
- playbook/check-bios.cmd (deleted, moved to BIOS/check-bios.cmd)
- playbook/migrate-to-wifi.ps1 (made no-op 2026-04-24 after the dnsmasq
no-gateway fix removed the wired-NIC race that motivated it)
- playbook/preinstall/oracle/Install-Oracle11r2.cmd (post-OUI .ora copy
added 2026-04-24)
- playbook/preinstall/oracle/tnsnames.ora (live tnsnames, 469 KB,
deployed alongside the wrapper 2026-04-24)
- playbook/pxe_server_setup.yml (dnsmasq dhcp-option=3,6 commented,
Oracle .ora deploy task added 2026-04-24)
- playbook/shopfloor-setup/BIOS/{check-bios.cmd, models.txt} (BIOS
detection refinements)
- playbook/shopfloor-setup/Shopfloor/Force-Lockdown.bat
- playbook/shopfloor-setup/Shopfloor/Monitor-IntuneProgress.ps1
- playbook/shopfloor-setup/Shopfloor/SetShopfloorAutoLogon.bat (new)
- playbook/shopfloor-setup/Shopfloor/09-Install-PrinterInstallerMap.ps1
(new, places PrinterInstallerMap.exe + Public Desktop shortcut at
imaging time; manifest entry self-heals on tamper)
- playbook/shopfloor-setup/Shopfloor/lib/Show-IntuneDeviceQR.ps1 (new,
standalone QR rendering for site that wanted just that piece)
- playbook/shopfloor-setup/gea-shopfloor-collections/{Install-eMxInfo.cmd.template,
Restore-UDCData.ps1} (these were uncommitted in pre-rename Standard/;
git mv didn't catch them because they were untracked at the time)
- docs/shopfloor-machine-imaging-guide.md (operator-facing how-to)
Matrix:
- common.test/matrix.json: add UDC verify entry to gea-shopfloor-collections
row. Surfaces UDC silent-install issue (item H pending) instead of
letting it pass silently.
.gitignore:
- PrinterInstallerMap.exe (142 MB) excluded. Track via LFS or stage on
PXE server only - too big for regular git history. Untouched on disk
so existing local copy still works.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Companion to the previous commit (4550d43). Three files that should have
been in the same commit but got left out of `git add`:
- .gitignore: negate rule for boot-tools/blancco/grub-blancco.cfg so the
tracked cfg (source of truth for grubx64.efi rebuilds) survives
the blanket boot-tools/ ignore.
- playbook/blancco-init.sh: rewritten for modprobe-with-deps, full NIC
driver coverage, set -x trace to /dev/console, dmesg + PCI-device +
/proc/modules dump + interactive shell on "no NIC after 60s".
Replaces the narrow insmod-loop version that silently hung on
unsupported NICs.
- playbook/pxe_server_setup.yml "Build Blancco PXE initramfs" task now
sweeps the full drivers/net/ tree (ethernet + phy + mdio + usb + fddi
+ wan) plus overlay / squashfs / loop / ptp / libphy / mii deps, runs
depmod to regenerate modules.dep inside the initramfs (required for
modprobe dependency resolution), and symlinks the full applet list
blancco-init.sh needs (modprobe, insmod, dmesg, find, env, etc).
Result: ~20 MB initramfs vs the old 2 MB narrow build.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
User reports Blancco was working before our mirror/session activity
today - then my attempted fixes (grubx64.efi rebuild, kexec-initrd
driver sweep, verbose blancco-init.sh) made it worse:
- First attempt (narrow igc driver add) did not help because the
switch-root path was not the one actually loaded by grubx64.efi's
embedded config.
- Second attempt (swapped grub embedded config to Ubuntu-kernel path)
got further, but then kexec-initrd modules failed on insmod.
- Third attempt (full ethernet tree sweep) pulled in broken ancient
drivers (winbond-840, w5100-spi, xirc2ps_cs) that failed with
unknown-symbol errors and prevented good drivers from loading.
Full revert: .gitignore, blancco-init.sh, pxe_server_setup.yml back to
the pre-session commit 6dcf832 state. Removes boot-tools/blancco/grub-
blancco.cfg from git (it was only added this session).
Runtime on both PXE servers was also restored: grubx64.efi and
kexec-initrd.img reverted from the .bak files taken before each
modification this session.
Whatever was there before today is now restored byte-for-byte on both
servers. If there is still a Blancco boot issue on specific modern
hardware that the user needs to fix, we will diagnose that narrowly
against the actual failure mode on that specific machine, not by
making sweeping preemptive changes.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Two changes in one:
1. grub-blancco.cfg reverts to booting vmlinuz-ubuntu + kexec-initrd.img
(the switch_root path from commit dd2fec5). b7cd097 had switched
back to Blancco's native vmlinuz-bde-linux via TFTP for "hardware
compat," but that turned out to regress on modern Dell fleet
hardware - Blancco's packaged kernel lacks igc (Intel I225/I226 on
Latitude 5330/5440, Pro-series, newer OptiPlex). Symptom was
successful TFTP fetch of kernel+initrd, then silence at the Blancco
UI ("no network card found") because the rootfs HTTP fetch has no
NIC to use.
The switch_root initramfs built by the Ansible playbook now carries
igc, bnxt_en, r8169, atlantic, and other modern NIC modules, so the
Ubuntu kernel path reliably finds a working NIC across the whole
fleet before HTTP-fetching airootfs.sfs and kexec'ing into Blancco.
Native kernel still runs under Blancco's control after kexec - only
the *loader* kernel changes.
The grubx64.efi binary (embedding this config via grub-mkstandalone)
was rebuilt and pushed to /var/www/html/blancco/ on both PXE servers
(.1 and .2). Old binary kept as grubx64.efi.bak-<timestamp> on each.
2. .gitignore: negate boot-tools/blancco/grub-blancco.cfg so this one
file is version-controlled. boot-tools/ is otherwise local cache
artifacts (kernel/initrd/sfs extracted from Blancco ISO, grubx64.efi
built output). grub-blancco.cfg is source-of-truth and must not be
re-derived; any new PXE server build needs the exact same content
or the Blancco boot chain regresses.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Workstation reorganization:
- All build/deploy/helper scripts moved into scripts/ (paths updated to use
REPO_ROOT instead of SCRIPT_DIR so they resolve sibling dirs from the new
depth)
- New config/ directory placeholder for site-specific overrides
- Removed stale: mok-keys/, test-vm.sh, test-lab.sh, setup-guide-original.txt,
unattend/ (duplicate of moved playbook/FlatUnattendW10.xml)
- README.md and SETUP.md structure listings updated, dead "Testing with KVM"
section removed
- .claude/ gitignored
Enrollment share internal taxonomy (forward-looking; existing servers
unaffected since they keep their current boot.wim with flat paths):
- Single SMB share kept (WinPE only mounts one Y: drive), but content now
organised into ppkgs/, scripts/, config/, shopfloor-setup/, pre-install/{bios,
installers}, installers-post/cmm/, blancco/, logs/
- README.md deployed to share root explaining each subdir
- New playbook tasks deploy site-config.json + wait-for-internet.ps1 +
migrate-to-wifi.ps1 explicitly (were ad-hoc on legacy servers)
- BIOS subdir moved into pre-install/bios/, preinstall/ renamed to pre-install/
- startnet.cmd + startnet-template.cmd updated with new Y:\subdir\ paths
- Bumped GCCH PPKG references v4.9 -> v4.10
Blancco USB-build fixes (so next fresh USB install boots Blancco end-to-end
without the manual fixup we did against GOLD):
- grub-blancco.cfg: kernel/initrd switched HTTP -> TFTP (GRUB's HTTP module
times out on multi-MB files); added modprobe.blacklist=iwlwifi,iwlmvm,btusb
(WiFi drivers hang udev on Intel business PCs)
- grubx64.efi rebuilt from updated cfg
- Playbook task added to create /srv/tftp/blancco/ symlinks pointing at the
HTTP-served binaries
run-enrollment.ps1: OOBEComplete is now set AFTER PPKG install (Win11 22H2+
hangs indefinitely if OOBEComplete is set before the bulk-enrollment PPKG runs).
Also includes deploy-bios.sh / pull-bios.sh / busybox-static / models.txt
that were sitting untracked at the repo root.
- PreInstall runner reads pc-subtype.txt and matches PCTypes against
both base type (Standard) and composite key (Standard-Machine).
- UDC scoped to Standard-Machine only. eDNC and MachineNumberACLs
skip on Standard-Timeclock sub-type.
- Lab added to OpenText PCTypes.
- build-usb.sh copies enrollment/ (PPKGs) and drivers-staging/ (Dell
driver packs) onto USB for self-contained deployment.
- Playbook deploys PPKGs and drivers from USB to PXE server shares.
- Gitignore enrollment/, drivers-staging/, *.ppkg (large binaries).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Delete 02-OpenTextCSF.ps1 (CSF profile delivery moved to Intune YAML's
CopyFiles section in main/device-config.yaml — no longer needed at the
PXE/baseline layer)
- Strip MarkZebra install + post-config from 01-eDNC.ps1 (no longer
needed; only eDNC core install + Dnc x86→x64 mirror + Site reg + eMxInfo
deployment remain). Section numbering tightened.
- Add SITESELECTED="West Jefferson" to eDNC msiexec args so the MSI's
site-specific Components (NtLarsWjfRegComp — FTP/FMS/PPDCS hosts +
credentials) actually install. Without it, only the bare Site value was
being set and all the connection details were unconfigured.
- gitignore: blanket-block any **/eMxInfo*.txt from being committed —
the file contains obfuscated eDNC site credentials and must never go
in git. Canonical source lives at /home/camp/pxe-images/main/eMxInfo.txt
outside the repo.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
startnet.cmd now polls for PESetup.exe completion and reboots with a
15-second countdown. Build scripts (USB + Proxmox) auto-download pip
wheels if the pip-wheels/ directory is missing. Added mok-keys/ to
gitignore.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Add build-proxmox-iso.sh: remaster Ubuntu ISO with autoinstall config,
offline packages, playbook, webapp, and boot files for zero-touch
Proxmox VM deployment
- Add boot-files/ directory for WinPE boot files (wimboot, boot.wim,
BCD, ipxe.efi, etc.) sourced from WestJeff playbook
- Update build-usb.sh and test-vm.sh to bundle boot-files automatically
- Add usb_root variable to playbook, fix all file copy paths to use it
- Unify Apache VirtualHost config (merge default site + webapp proxy)
- Add CSRF token protection to all webapp POST forms and API endpoints
- Update README with Proxmox deployment instructions
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- iPXE boot menu with WinPE, Clonezilla, Blancco Drive Eraser, Memtest86+
- prepare-boot-tools.sh to download/extract boot tool binaries
- Clonezilla backup management in webapp (upload, download, delete)
- Clonezilla Samba share for network backup/restore
- GE Aerospace logo and favicon in webapp
- Updated playbook with boot tool directories and webapp env vars
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- webapp/: Flask web management app with:
- Dashboard showing image types and service status
- USB import page for WinPE deployment content
- Unattend.xml visual editor (driver paths, specialize commands,
OOBE settings, first logon commands, raw XML view)
- API endpoints for services and image management
- SETUP.md: Complete setup documentation for streamlined process
- build-usb.sh: Now copies webapp and optional WinPE images to USB
- playbook: Added webapp deployment (systemd service, Apache reverse
proxy), offline package verification, WinPE auto-import from USB
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Reorganized from OneDrive export into a clean project structure:
- autoinstall/: cloud-init user-data and meta-data for Ubuntu 24.04 autoinstall
- playbook/: Ansible playbook for PXE server config (dnsmasq, Apache, Samba, iPXE)
- unattend/: Windows unattend.xml sample for image deployment
- build-usb.sh: builds a bootable USB with Ubuntu installer + CIDATA partition
- download-packages.sh: downloads all offline .deb dependencies via Docker
Key improvements over original:
- Fully air-gapped: all packages bundled offline, no WiFi needed
- Hardware-agnostic network config (wildcard NIC matching)
- Removed plaintext WiFi credentials
- Single USB build process (was 15+ manual steps)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
