Table of Contents
+-
+
- +
- +
-
+
-
+
- +
- +
- +
- +
- +
+ - +
- +
-
+
-
+
- +
- +
- +
- +
- +
- +
- +
+ - +
- +
wimboot
+
+wimboot is a boot loader for Windows Imaging Format (.wim) files. It enables you to boot into a Windows PE (WinPE) deployment or recovery environment.
+
+You can use wimboot with iPXE to boot Windows PE via HTTP. With a Gigabit Ethernet network, a typical WinPE image should download in just a few seconds.
+
Advantages
+
+
+
Speed
+
+wimboot can download images at the full speed supported by your network, since it can use HTTP rather than TFTP.
+
Efficiency
+
+wimboot allows Windows to reuse the memory that was used to hold the RAM disk image; there is no wasted memory.
+
Ease of use
+
+wimboot works directly with .wim image files; there is no need to wrap your .wim into an ISO or FAT filesystem image.
+
BIOS/UEFI compatibility
+
+wimboot allows you to use a single configuration and set of files to boot under both BIOS and UEFI environments.
+
Download
+
+You can download the latest version of the wimboot binary from https://github.com/ipxe/wimboot/releases/latest/download/wimboot. This is a hybrid binary that will work on both BIOS and 64-bit UEFI systems (including UEFI systems with Secure Boot enabled).
+
+You can also download alternative binaries (e.g. for 32-bit UEFI systems) from https://github.com/ipxe/wimboot/releases/latest. +
+ ++Older versions are available from https://github.com/ipxe/wimboot/releases. +
+ +
+The source code is maintained in a git repository at https://github.com/ipxe/wimboot.
+
Getting started
+
+If you have a Windows installation DVD-ROM (Vista, Server 2008, or more recent), and a web server (such as Apache or IIS), then you have everything you need to start using wimboot.
+
Extract the Windows boot files
+
+
+
+Copy the contents of the Windows installation DVD-ROM to a directory on your web server (e.g. /var/www/win7 for Apache, or C:\inetpub\wwwroot\win7 for IIS).
+
+If you do not have enough disk space to copy the entire contents of the DVD-ROM, then you may copy only the following files: +
+/boot/bcd + /boot/boot.sdi + /sources/boot.wim+ +
Download wimboot
++Download the latest version of wimboot and save it to the same directory on your web server. +
+ +Create the iPXE script
+
+Create a text file boot.ipxe in the same directory on your web server, containing:
+
#!ipxe + + kernel wimboot + initrd boot/bcd BCD + initrd boot/boot.sdi boot.sdi + initrd sources/boot.wim boot.wim + boot+ +
Boot
+
+Boot using iPXE from the URL of your iPXE script, e.g. http://my.web.server/win7/boot.ipxe. You should see iPXE download your Windows boot files via HTTP and boot into the Windows installer:
+
+
+
+
+
Next steps
+
+You can use wimboot to boot any bootable .wim image. See the Windows PE tutorial for information on how to create and customise your own .wim images.
+
Licence
+
+wimboot is free, open-source software licensed under the GNU GPL.
+
Sponsors
+
+Portions of the wimboot development have been sponsored by:
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Advanced topics
+
+
+
Multi-image WIM files
+
+A WIM file can contain multiple bootable images. You can use the index=<N> command-line option to select the image to be booted. For example:
+
kernel wimboot index=2+ +
Injected files
+
+You can provide additional files to wimboot. These files will appear within the X:\Windows\System32 directory. For example:
+
kernel wimboot + initrd winpeshl.ini winpeshl.ini + initrd startup.bat startup.bat + initrd boot/bcd BCD + initrd boot/boot.sdi boot.sdi + initrd sources/boot.wim boot.wim + boot+ +
+You can use this to control the boot process after Windows PE has started. For example, you can use a startup batch file to automatically start the Windows installer from a network share. +
+ +
+You can disable this behaviour by using the rawwim command-line option. For example:
+
kernel wimboot rawwim+ +
Custom boot manager
+
+wimboot will attempt to extract an appropriate boot manager (such as bootmgr, bootmgr.exe or bootmgfw.efi) from the WIM file.
+
+You can disable this behaviour by explicitly providing an appropriate set of boot manager binaries. For example: +
+kernel wimboot + initrd bootmgr bootmgr + initrd efi/boot/bootx64.efi bootx64.efi+ +
Disabling automatic BCD modifications
+
+wimboot will automatically patch standard BIOS-compatible boot configuration data (BCD) files to allow them to be used on UEFI systems, by changing all occurrences of the string “.exe” to “.efi”.
+
+You can disable this behaviour by using the rawbcd command-line option. For example:
+
kernel wimboot rawbcd+ +
Disabling debug messages
+
+wimboot will display some debug messages by default, to assist in diagnosing problems that may occur during booting.
+
+You can disable these debug messages by using the quiet command-line option. For example:
+
kernel wimboot quiet+ +
Displaying graphical boot messages
+
+wimboot will force the Windows boot manager to display error messages in text mode. It does this to work around a bug in some versions of the Windows boot manager, which would otherwise fail to display error messages unless suitable font files are provided.
+
+You can disable this behaviour by using the gui command-line option and by providing all of the required font files. For example:
+
kernel wimboot gui + initrd boot/fonts/segmono_boot.ttf segmono_boot.ttf + initrd boot/fonts/segoe_slboot.ttf segoe_slboot.ttf + initrd boot/fonts/segoen_slboot.ttf segoen_slboot.ttf + initrd boot/fonts/wgl4_boot.ttf wgl4_boot.ttf+ +
Disabling paging
+
+wimboot will automatically use paging to relocate the data files above 4GB if possible, to allow for the use of large .wim files on BIOS systems.
+
+You can disable this behaviour by using the linear command-line option. For example:
+
kernel wimboot linear+ +
Internals
++For more detailed information about the internal workings of wimboot, see the wimboot architecture guide. +
+ +Troubleshooting
+
+Try adding the commands imgstat and prompt to your iPXE script, to allow you to check that all of the files have loaded correctly. For example:
+
#!ipxe + kernel wimboot + initrd boot/bcd BCD + initrd boot/boot.sdi boot.sdi + initrd sources/boot.wim boot.wim + imgstat + prompt + boot+ +
+Check that only the expected files are present in the list. You may need to use the imgfree command to discard any unwanted files.
+
+You can also try adding the pause command-line option for wimboot. For example:
+
kernel wimboot pause+ +
+This will instruct wimboot to wait for a keypress before booting Windows, to give you a further opportunity to observe any messages that may be displayed.
+
+If you are unable to resolve your problem, then you can contact the iPXE developers and other iPXE users. +
+ +
