Syslinux - Feb 2016 - Building a http query string including SMBIOS Serial Number to load a specific kernel

Hello folks,

There is a way to get the system serial number from SMBIOS and pass it
as HTTP query string to get the kernel and initrd?
Something like this:

LABEL OS Download
      MENU LABEL Clonezilla
      MENU INDENT 1
      KERNEL http://192.168.10.10/kernel.php?type=kernel (
http://myserver/kernel.php?SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER&type=kernel
)&SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER
      APPEND
initrd=http://192.168.10.10/kernel.php?type=initrd&SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER
boot=live ...

I found that SYSAPPEND is able to get info from SMBIOS, but there is a
way to accomplish what I'm trying to do, i.e. replace
SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER somehow with the real serial number?
Maybe Menu.c32 have a feature to do something like this?

Best regards,

Leandro Becker

On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 06:07:15PM -0200, Leandro Becker via Syslinux
wrote:
> Hello folks,
> 
> There is a way to get the system serial number from SMBIOS and pass it
> as HTTP query string to get the kernel and initrd?
> Something like this:
> 
> LABEL OS Download
>       MENU LABEL Clonezilla
>       MENU INDENT 1
>       KERNEL http://192.168.10.10/kernel.php?type=kernel (
> http://myserver/kernel.php?SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER&type=kernel
> )&SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER
>       APPEND
>
initrd=http://192.168.10.10/kernel.php?type=initrd&SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER
> boot=live ...
> 
> I found that SYSAPPEND is able to get info from SMBIOS, but there is a
> way to accomplish what I'm trying to do, i.e. replace
> SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER somehow with the real serial number?
> Maybe Menu.c32 have a feature to do something like this?
I don't know.
This E-mail is to that Syslinux has lua.c32
That Lua intpreter can get SMBIOS information and boot a Linux kernel


Groeten
Geert Stappers
-- 
Leven en laten leven

On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 3:40 PM, Geert Stappers via Syslinux
<syslinux at zytor.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 06:07:15PM -0200, Leandro Becker via Syslinux
wrote:
>> Hello folks,
>>
>> There is a way to get the system serial number from SMBIOS and pass it
>> as HTTP query string to get the kernel and initrd?
>> Something like this:
>>
>> LABEL OS Download
>>       MENU LABEL Clonezilla
>>       MENU INDENT 1
>>       KERNEL http://192.168.10.10/kernel.php?type=kernel (
>> http://myserver/kernel.php?SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER&type=kernel
>> )&SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER
>>       APPEND
>>
initrd=http://192.168.10.10/kernel.php?type=initrd&SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER
>> boot=live ...
>>
>> I found that SYSAPPEND is able to get info from SMBIOS, but there is a
>> way to accomplish what I'm trying to do, i.e. replace
>> SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER somehow with the real serial number?
>> Maybe Menu.c32 have a feature to do something like this?
>
> I don't know.
> This E-mail is to that Syslinux has lua.c32
> That Lua intpreter can get SMBIOS information and boot a Linux kernel
menu.c32 (and vesamenu.c32) are documented in doc/menu.txt and no such
feature exists at this time.

A more universal answer would be enhancing linux.c32 to provide this
function.  Consider adding it as a feature-request bug in
http://bugzilla.syslinux.org/

--
-Gene

Leandro Becker via Syslinux <syslinux at zytor.com> writes:
> There is a way to get the system serial number from SMBIOS and pass it
> as HTTP query string to get the kernel and initrd?
> Something like this:
>
> LABEL OS Download
>       MENU LABEL Clonezilla
>       MENU INDENT 1
>       KERNEL http://192.168.10.10/kernel.php?type=kernel
(http://myserver/kernel.php?SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER&type=kernel)&SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER
>       APPEND
initrd=http://192.168.10.10/kernel.php?type=initrd&SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER
boot=live ...
>
> I found that SYSAPPEND is able to get info from SMBIOS, but there is a
> way to accomplish what I'm trying to do, i.e. replace
> SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER somehow with the real serial number?
> Maybe Menu.c32 have a feature to do something like this?
You can script it in Lua.  Try something like

LABEL OS Download
  COM32 lua.c32
  APPEND down.lua

where down.lua is something like

local sl = require "syslinux"
local dmi = require "dmi"
local dmi_table = dmi.gettable()
local serial = dmi_table.system.serial
sl.run_command ("http://192.168.10.10/kernel.php?SN=" . serial .
"...")

(untested)
-- 
Regards,
Feri.

"Leandro Becker" <Lbecker at positivo.com.br> writes:
> Tryied, but seems that command line does not support loading kernel
> using http :(
> Thanks anyway.
Works fine for me with lpxelinux.0.  String concatenation is .. though,
so fix that mistake of mine like

sl.run_command ("http://192.168.10.10/kernel.php?SN=" . serial .
"...")
-- 
Regards,
Feri.

On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 05:44:43PM +0100, Ferenc W?gner
wrote:
> 
> Works fine for me with lpxelinux.0.  String concatenation is .. though,
> so fix that mistake of mine like
> 
> sl.run_command ("http://192.168.10.10/kernel.php?SN=" . serial .
"...")
> -- 
> Regards,
> Feri.

My mistake :(
I was using pxelinux.0 instead of lpxelinux.0
Is now working fine.

For reference, this is my lua script:

-------------------------------------------------------------------
syslinux = require ("syslinux")
dmi = require ("dmi")

--get nice output
printf = function(s,...)
 return io.write(s:format(...))
end -- function

printf ("Getting SN from SMBIOS...\n")
dmi_table = dmi.gettable()
printf ("SN: %s\n", dmi_table.system.serial)

printf ("Loading kernel...\n")
kernel
syslinux.loadfile("http://192.168.10.10/boot.php?type=kernel&NS="..dmi_table.system.serial
(
'http://192.168.10.10/boot.php?type=kernel&NS="..dmi_table.system.serial')
)
printf("Ok. Kernel file size %d\n", syslinux.filesize(kernel))

printf ("Loading initrd...\n")
initrdPath
"http://192.168.10.10/boot.php?type=initrd&NS="..dmi_table.system.serial
(
'http://192.168.10.10/boot.php?type=initrd&NS="..dmi_table.system.serial')

initrd = syslinux.loadfile(initrdPath)
printf("Ok. Initrd file size %d\n", syslinux.filesize(initrd))

printf ("Booting...\n")
initramfs = syslinux.initramfs_init()
syslinux.initramfs_load_archive(initramfs, initrdPath)
syslinux.boot_it(kernel, initramfs, "boot=live config union=overlayfs
noswap edd=on nomodeset keyboard-model=abnt2 keyboard-layouts=br
locales=en_US.UTF-8 nosplash noeject
video=uvesafb:mode_option=800x600-16 i915.blacklist=yes
radeonhd.blacklist=yes nouveau.blacklist=yes vmwgfx.enable_fbdev=no
fetch=ftp://192.168.10.10/filesystem.squashfs ocs_live_batch=\"no\"
ocs_prerun1=\"mount -t cifs //192.168.10.10/Clonezilla /home/partimag -o
user=cifsuser,password=cifspwd,sec=ntlm\" ocs_live_run=\"ocs-sr -g
auto
-e1 auto -e2 -j2 -p true -batch restoredisk ask_user sda\"
ocs_live_extra_param=\"\"")
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you and my best regards to all!

Leandro Becker

On 02/19/16 12:07, Leandro Becker via Syslinux wrote:
> Hello folks,
> 
> There is a way to get the system serial number from SMBIOS and pass it
> as HTTP query string to get the kernel and initrd?
> Something like this:
> 
> LABEL OS Download
>       MENU LABEL Clonezilla
>       MENU INDENT 1
>       KERNEL http://192.168.10.10/kernel.php?type=kernel (
> http://myserver/kernel.php?SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER&type=kernel
> )&SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER
>       APPEND
>
initrd=http://192.168.10.10/kernel.php?type=initrd&SN=SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER
> boot=live ...
> 
> I found that SYSAPPEND is able to get info from SMBIOS, but there is a
> way to accomplish what I'm trying to do, i.e. replace
> SMBIOS_SERIAL_NUMBER somehow with the real serial number?
> Maybe Menu.c32 have a feature to do something like this?
> 
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	-hpa