[Dnsmasq-discuss] Windows PXE boot only works with a single pxe-service option set

[Lance Hathaway]

Hi all,

I have a setup with dnsmasq providing DHCP / TFTP / PXE service for network clients booting Windows PE. These are the relevant lines from the configuration:

enable-tftp
tftp-root=/srv/tftpboot
pxe-service=X86-64_EFI, "WinPE UEFI PXE - 2011", Boot/bootmgfw.efi
pxe-service=X86-64_EFI, "WinPE UEFI PXE - 2023", Boot/bootmgfw_EX.efi
pxe-prompt="Press ENTER to select PXE boot option.",5

Individually, both of these pxe-service lines work correctly—they both boot the desired systems (depending on which Secure Boot certificate the target system has installed). But that's only in an individual state (that is, with the second pxe-service line commented out). If both lines are uncommented, I see the pxe-prompt, and I can trigger the menu and select an option, but then the Windows PE boot loader throws an error message that seems to indicate the BCD (a separate file served via TFTP) is not accessible.

I'm not looking for help troubleshooting Windows-specific boot behavior. The thing that is weirding me out a bit is that the boot works perfectly with both options, so long as there's only one option active (and the other one commented out). They both use the same BCD file, loaded via TFTP, without any complaints at all. Why would changing dnsmasq's configuration to have both options enabled change the behavior of the boot loader's execution?

If there's any sort of packet capture or additional information I can provide, I'm happy to do so. Appreciate everybody's time and any suggestions people might have!

 -Lance
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Lance Hathaway

Senior Network Engineer

,

Adaptive Technical Inc.



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