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starting cmain() no pxe stack

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micky

unread,
Jun 24, 2015, 9:44:12 AM6/24/15
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Does anyone recognize this message:

starting cmain() no pxe stack

I get that every time I boot winXP. I didn't used to.

I get around it by having Hiren's Boot CD in my CD drive, and a moment
after that message appears, the first Hiren's menu appears. One of the
choices is

Boot from Hard Drive Windows XP (NTLDR)

and i move my cursor down to that and press Enter and it boots fine
after that. I've googled the message just above and don't find
anything related to this problem. I don't think Hirens provides a help
file explaining the boot-up problems and how it helps.

Googling for the first message gives only 322 hits, and in just about
every language, even though my chosen language is English. I don't
even recognize all the languages, but I'm going to start clicking on
Translate this Page. Still, I was hoping someone here could explain
the problem in native English. ;-)

Paul

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Jun 24, 2015, 3:04:00 PM6/24/15
to
In your BIOS, is an entry to enable or disable the NIC.

Underneath that, indented, is a setting called
"LAN Boot ROM". On an Intel system that might
be your support for PXE boot. My LAN Boot ROM is
disabled, to keep the snack-happy PXE at bay.
I don't run PXE servers, so don't need to see
any PXE BIOS messages, thanks.

If no floppy, no CD, no hard drive is available
to boot from, the BIOS will consult PXE boot and
try to find a boot server on your LAN.

Now, I cannot tell you anything about your current situation,
as I don't use Hirens and don't know where this
message is coming from.

Maybe you were supposed to "press a key" to boot
from Hirens ? And by not pressing the key, you forced
the BIOS to try PXE ?

As usual, Wikipedia has some info on PXE if you want it.
We used to use BootP at work for stuff, but without
PXE ever being mentioned. Some of our products booted
that way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment

Paul

VanguardLH

unread,
Jun 24, 2015, 4:45:08 PM6/24/15
to
As Paul mentions, something has changed in your BIOS settings. One way
to boot is from a remote host where you download via the network the
boot loader to run on your local host. The network interface (card or
onboard) must be working and your BIOS must be capable of working with
it. See:

http://www.howtogeek.com/57601/what-is-network-booting-pxe-and-how-can-you-use-it/
http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/Preboot-Execution-Environment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment

Rather than use the BIOS to discover the first bootable device and try
to find the boot loader there, your host goes to a network to ask for a
server to send the boot code. You boot using that code instead of what
is in the boot sector on your HDD or SDD. Instead of bootstrapping from
a local storage device, you bootstrap from the network. This means you
may not even have an OS installed on your computer. Instead you boot
using the OS loader that comes from the server and the OS also comes
over the network. It allowed a company to lock down what OS image their
employees used versus letting their employees pollute and screw up the
sysprep images stored onto local drives. Every time the employee
booted, they got the company's desired OS and how it was configured in
its image rather than use what the employee might alter locally. The
local host may not even have a hard disk if the company doesn't want
their employees storing data locally and instead force them to store
their work on networked file servers that get backed up.

If you didn't change your BIOS settings then perhaps someone you granted
physical access to your computer made the changes. Perhaps it was
configured this way for a long time and even when you got the computer
but you saw a long delay during boot. If you don't have a network for
your host to broadcast a message to get the boot code then it may then
complain about the lack of finding the server host when networking is
available versus just timing out when there is a network. It has been
over a decade since I worked on any hosts that used PXE to get their
boot code from another host over the network so I don't how your BIOS
behaves regarding network or no network when it tries to get bood code
via the network.

It is also possible the CMOS table copy of the BIOS (the hardware boots
using the BIOS that gets copied into CMOS, not directly from the EEPROM
chips where the BIOS is stored) got corrupted which probably means your
CMOS battery is weak or dead. How old is your computer? I replace CMOS
batteries after 3 years although most will last for 5 years. If you
replace the CMOS battery, be sure to reset the CMOS (clear it to force a
reload of default settings from the BIOS in the EEPROM). If you had
customized settings in the BIOS then you will have to replace them after
resetting the CMOS table.

You never mentioned your brand and model of computer. The above is
generic information because you left the computer unknown. Until that
info is known, no one can help guide you through the BIOS screens to
change the boot device. Of course, you could read the manual, if there
is one, for the motherboard to see how to configure its BIOS (in CMOS).
The Acer that I has a manual that is so dumbed down that it is useless
for seeing what settings are in the BIOS and their values to which they
can be set. So you may have to delve into the BIOS settings when you
boot to see if you can find the PXE setting. Of course, if the setting
has changed then your BIOS settings have changed which means someone
changed something they didn't understand or the settings are flaky (bad
CMOS battery).

micky

unread,
Jun 24, 2015, 4:54:52 PM6/24/15
to
On Wed, 24 Jun 2015 15:03:57 -0400, Paul <nos...@needed.com> wrote:

>micky wrote:
>> Does anyone recognize this message:
>>
>> starting cmain() no pxe stack
>>
>> I get that every time I boot winXP. I didn't used to.
>>
>> I get around it by having Hiren's Boot CD in my CD drive, and a moment
>> after that message appears, the first Hiren's menu appears. One of the
>> choices is
>>
>> Boot from Hard Drive Windows XP (NTLDR)
>>
>> and i move my cursor down to that and press Enter and it boots fine
>> after that. I've googled the message just above and don't find
>> anything related to this problem. I don't think Hirens provides a help
>> file explaining the boot-up problems and how it helps.
>>
>> Googling for the first message gives only 322 hits, and in just about
>> every language, even though my chosen language is English. I don't
>> even recognize all the languages, but I'm going to start clicking on
>> Translate this Page. Still, I was hoping someone here could explain
>> the problem in native English. ;-)
>
>In your BIOS, is an entry to enable or disable the NIC.

With regard to booting, you mean?
>
>Underneath that, indented, is a setting called
>"LAN Boot ROM". On an Intel system that might
>be your support for PXE boot. My LAN Boot ROM is
>disabled, to keep the snack-happy PXE at bay.
>I don't run PXE servers, so don't need to see
>any PXE BIOS messages, thanks.
>
>If no floppy, no CD, no hard drive is available
>to boot from, the BIOS will consult PXE boot and
>try to find a boot server on your LAN.

I will take a look.
>
>Now, I cannot tell you anything about your current situation,
>as I don't use Hirens and don't know where this
>message is coming from.

If the first message goes away, the second message will too.

>Maybe you were supposed to "press a key" to boot
>from Hirens ? And by not pressing the key, you forced
>the BIOS to try PXE ?

I had to refresh my own memory. When I didn't have the CD in place, it
wouldn't boot then either. That's why I put it in, but it's been
months and I don't remember the details of what happened without the CD.
I *thought* that I got that same message iln the subject line.

I'm trying to make a bootable clone, and plan to change harddrives, so I
wanted the current one to work right before the last time I clone from
it.

>As usual, Wikipedia has some info on PXE if you want it.
>We used to use BootP at work for stuff, but without
>PXE ever being mentioned. Some of our products booted
>that way.
>
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment

It didnt' occur to me to search for PXE. It's a good thing I'm not in
charge.
>
> Paul

Thanks.

micky

unread,
Jun 24, 2015, 5:43:21 PM6/24/15
to
I haven't read tthese yet, but I'll read all 3.

This might have something to do with the fact that I tried to boot from
the cloned drive, and it didn't seem to even be listed in the boot
order. I think when I checked a year ago, an external USB drive was
listed, IF it was plugged in but today it wasn't. So maybe PXE
enabling messed that up, on the theory that if one is booting from the
network he can't be booting from a USB drive too..
>
>Rather than use the BIOS to discover the first bootable device and try
>to find the boot loader there, your host goes to a network to ask for a
>server to send the boot code. You boot using that code instead of what
>is in the boot sector on your HDD or SDD. Instead of bootstrapping from
>a local storage device, you bootstrap from the network. This means you
>may not even have an OS installed on your computer. Instead you boot
>using the OS loader that comes from the server and the OS also comes
>over the network. It allowed a company to lock down what OS image their
>employees used versus letting their employees pollute and screw up the
>sysprep images stored onto local drives. Every time the employee
>booted, they got the company's desired OS and how it was configured in
>its image rather than use what the employee might alter locally. The
>local host may not even have a hard disk if the company doesn't want
>their employees storing data locally and instead force them to store
>their work on networked file servers that get backed up.

I understood every word. Very interesting.
>
>If you didn't change your BIOS settings then perhaps someone you granted
>physical access to your computer made the changes. Perhaps it was

No one like that exists.

>configured this way for a long time and even when you got the computer
>but you saw a long delay during boot.

No. Got it from a friend after his HD crashed and he got another
computer. He worked for a law firm, but used this at home. wouldn't
have done this. and anyhow, I used to make lots of changes to boot.ini
and they always showed when I booted.

> If you don't have a network for
>your host to broadcast a message to get the boot code then it may then
>complain about the lack of finding the server host when networking is
>available versus just timing out when there is a network. It has been
>over a decade since I worked on any hosts that used PXE to get their
>boot code from another host over the network so I don't how your BIOS
>behaves regarding network or no network when it tries to get bood code
>via the network.

This is how it behaves when there is no boot code to get! This also
accounts for why there aren't many hits in google.

There were so few hits, I thought you guys might not know about it, but
you have both come through. Congratulations, and Usenet is wonderful
too.

It's pretty clear I'm going to be able to fix this, though probably not
before I change to the new HD drive, which will have the same problem,
but that's okay becaue Hirens solves this problem (and some others).

(I can't do too much fixing now because the HDD clicks a little. But
as long as I don't turn off the computer, including hibernate and sleep,
it doesn't click at all. Parking seems to be the problem, and I set
the power options so the HDD doesn't spin down even if not used. That's
more wear on the HDD but it's failing already anyhow. I actually think
I have a bootable copy, but since I haven't been able to boot from it
while it's USB (In a dock) I don't have confirmation.

>It is also possible the CMOS table copy of the BIOS (the hardware boots
>using the BIOS that gets copied into CMOS, not directly from the EEPROM
>chips where the BIOS is stored) got corrupted which probably means your
>CMOS battery is weak or dead. How old is your computer?

Old. But I replaced the battery once, I think. Carefully while it
was running so I wouldn't have to redo my changes. This was years
before the problem started.

I used the Tag number to find the record on Dell suppport.

January of 2004!

It came wiith an XP Pro sticker but no HDD and I added 2 gigs of memory.

It still works filne, not counting its problems!

> I replace CMOS
>batteries after 3 years although most will last for 5 years. If you
>replace the CMOS battery, be sure to reset the CMOS (clear it to force a
>reload of default settings from the BIOS in the EEPROM). If you had
>customized settings in the BIOS then you will have to replace them after
>resetting the CMOS table.

I can't remember if I changed anything. Maybe not but I'll have to
look.

>You never mentioned your brand and model of computer. The above is

I thought this was all in the OS.

>generic information because you left the computer unknown. Until that
>info is known, no one can help guide you through the BIOS screens to
>change the boot device. Of course, you could read the manual, if there
>is one, for the motherboard to see how to configure its BIOS (in CMOS).

Well I should be able to do something on my own. If I can't make my
way thought the BIOS, you'll probably hear from me again. And if it's
fixed I plan to let you know.

>The Acer that I has a manual that is so dumbed down that it is useless
>for seeing what settings are in the BIOS and their values to which they
>can be set. So you may have to delve into the BIOS settings when you
>boot to see if you can find the PXE setting. Of course, if the setting
>has changed then your BIOS settings have changed which means someone
>changed something they didn't understand or the settings are flaky (bad
>CMOS battery).

I'll replace that first, so the BIOS doesn't flip again once I set it.
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