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  v0.4.69 — Graphical PXE background (PNG), NFS AUTH_SYS fix, FleetDM logo Pre-Release

  mward4 released this 2026-05-29 03:11:35 -04:00 | 30 commits to main since this release

  OpenPXE v0.4.69

  The graphical-boot-menu release. Plus the NFS fix that finally lands
  NFS shares, and a FleetDM-style full-width custom logo.

  1. Graphical PXE boot background — built from source, no more ASCII

  OpenPXE now paints a real graphical background on the PXE boot menu,
  the way iVentoy does. Your uploaded logo sits across the top of the
  boot screen on a clean dark field; the ISO menu renders below it. With
  no logo uploaded you still get a designed background (a default OpenPXE
  mark) — the old ASCII wordmark is gone entirely.

  How (and why it took until now): the boot-menu background needs
  iPXE compiled with CONSOLE_FRAMEBUFFER + IMAGE_PNG + CONSOLE_CMD
  so its console --picture command can paint a PNG. The public iPXE
  binaries omit those flags, and building iPXE ourselves had been blocked
  for eight releases by cc1 segfaulting under QEMU emulation on the
  arm64 build host.

  v0.4.69 fixes the build the right way: a dedicated build stage that
  runs on the native builder architecture and cross-compiles x86_64
  iPXE with a real cross-compiler (x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc). No emulation,
  no segfault — the iPXE build now takes ~2 minutes and is fully baked
  into the image. Validated end-to-end: the PNG decoder, framebuffer
  console, and pixel-buffer code are all confirmed linked into the
  binary.

  What this means in practice:

  • x86_64 UEFI clients (the overwhelming majority of modern
    machines) get the full graphical background.
  • BIOS / i386 / arm64 clients keep the upstream binaries and fall
    back to a clean text menu (no ASCII, just the menu).
  • Upload any PNG, JPEG, WebP, or GIF logo — OpenPXE composites it
    onto a 1024×768 background and transcodes to PNG (the only format
    iPXE consumes). WebP works on the input side even though iPXE itself
    can't read WebP.

  The same uploaded logo now drives three places: the WebUI top-left
  brand mark, and the PXE boot background on machines.

  2. NFS shares actually mount now (NFS3ERR_ACCES fixed)

  v0.4.68's privileged-port fix got past the mount denial
  (MNT3ERR_ACCES); operators then hit NFS3ERR_ACCES on the directory
  listing. Root cause: the NFS client defaulted to AUTH_NONE, but
  essentially every NFS server (UniFi UNAS included) exports sec=sys
  and rejects anonymous callers on the actual file operations.

  v0.4.69 presents a proper AUTH_SYS credential (uid 0 / gid 0). On a
  no_root_squash server that's full root read; on the far more common
  root_squash server it maps to the anonymous user, which can read any
  world-readable ISO share — the normal case. No new UI field: ISO
  libraries are read-only shared data, and a uid knob is exactly the kind
  of thing that makes a tool confusing for an L1 tech.

  For your UNAS Pro: server 192.168.1.51, export
  /var/nfs/shared/isos, host IP allow-listed — this should now mount
  and list. If you still see NFS3ERR_ACCES, the new hint spells out
  that it's now a server-side directory-permission/squash issue, not an
  IP or auth-flavor one.

  3. FleetDM-style full-width logo (top-left)

  When you upload a custom logo it now spans the sidebar header
  (left-aligned, up to ~200×50, scaled to fit) and the "OpenPXE"
  wordmark is hidden — the FleetDM pattern, where the uploaded logo is
  the sole brand element. The bundled-default (no upload) keeps the mark

  • wordmark. Rendered server-side so there's no flash of the default on
    load.

  Quality

  • 164 tests passing. cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -D warnings clean.
  • iPXE build stage validated in isolation (png/fbcon/pixbuf linkage
    confirmed) before the full image build.

  Container image

  • gitea.milesward.dev/mward4/openpxe:0.4.69
  • gitea.milesward.dev/mward4/openpxe:latest

  linux/amd64; static-musl /openpxe binary; PNG-enabled x86_64 iPXE
  baked in.

  What still needs your real-world test

  The PNG background is validated at the binary level (the right code is
  compiled and linked) but hasn't been booted on real hardware from this
  build yet. Please PXE-boot an x86_64 UEFI machine and confirm the
  background paints. Once that's confirmed in the field, this chapter
  closes and we move to v0.4.7.

  Compatibility

  • Additive; no data-file format changes.
  • /branding/pxe-logo now always returns a PNG (was 404 with no logo).
    iPXE clients are unaffected (they just get a background now).

  Downloads

  • Source Code (ZIP)
  • Source Code (TAR.GZ)