Netboot issue

scharman
New Contributor

Hi I am trying to get Netboot to work with no avail.
I have a netboot and SUS server running on a Unbuntu linux box with a .nbi folder uploaded created with Casper Netinstall creator.
I have the DHCP helper pointing to the netboot server configured on a Casper Guest vlan.
When I run a policy for a computer to reboot to the Netboot server the screen just goes black on the Macbook for ages and just goes to the login screen as normal.
Anyone experienced this issue before?

4 REPLIES 4

scharman
New Contributor

OK Ive made some headway on this when I press the Option key I get a Faux NetBoot Option yet if I click it it freezes and just loads up the the original disk

scharman
New Contributor

does that mean theres something wrong with my image?

m_entholzner
Contributor III
Contributor III

have you tried to manually restart the machine, hit the alt-key, select the NetBoot image and press cmd+v to get a verbose boot? perhaps the verbose output will lead you in the right direction.
BTW, NetBoot images, even if created successfully via SIU, could fail sometimes so you could try to simply re-create them.

davidacland
Honored Contributor II
Honored Contributor II

There's a number of possible causes but as you can see the netboot image when you hold down alt, I would suspect the nbi.

Common issues are either an incompatible build of the OS, or things like the kernel cache size.

To confirm if its the NBI or something else I would try Ben Tom's AutoCasperNBI tool. You could even try using deploystudio just to create a basic NBI to see if the client Mac can boot that way. If either of these work, you know the issue is with the image, not the server or networking.

Generally speaking (for our Casper deployments), I just use AutoCasperNBI, it takes about 5 mins of input and I can get on with other things. It hasn't let me down yet.