F12 key with the AMT toolkit SOL terminal

[d_ford]

I've been playing with the AMT toolkit for a day or two now, and one thing we'd like to do with it is initiate a PXE network boot remotely using SOL.

Can't find a way to send the signal for the F12 key, however. I've tried various suggested escape sequences, but that just appears to send an escape to the remote BIOS, and cancels the F12 prompt.

Anyone any idea's as to how I get the F12 key to work using the toolkit terminal?

Thanks
Dave

[Ylian_S_Intel]

Thanks for your question, I noticed you are also a reader of my blog.

I will query the Intel AMT technical team tomorrow.. As far as I know, there is no BIOS mapping for F11 and F12 on Intel BIOS, but I will check again. This would be very useful.

The BIOS from HP uses a completely different key mapping and F11 and F12 are included in that mapping. The latest version of the IAmtTerm.exe does support both mappings. Of course, this is no help if you have an Intel BIOS.

Let me get back to you on that,
Ylian (My Intel AMT Blog)

[d_ford]

Sorry to hit you with the same question twice.

I don't know anything (currently) about BIOS mapping, but it sounds rather unfortunate that Intel have choosen to use keys in their BIOS which cannot used via their own management platform... Apart from the low-priority task of hardware inventories, this is the prime reason I have toexploreAMT, and would be it's most useful feature.

The ability to talk to the OS while the network card drivers are down is impressive, but generally, ifWindows is ever that broken, I'd be more likely to wipe the HD and reinstall than the try and fix it - which would mean turning up at the desktop to hit the F12 key.

Dave

[Gael_H_Intel]

Dave, you are not the first to ask about this. The answer I got when I asked about the mapping for F12 is:

"You don't need to press F12 - AMT allows to define next boot as network boot as part of the remote boot API."

Then the response to that was:

"You can use ForcePxeBoot as the special command, but that means you cannot use IntelOemCommand (which is required for SOL) so it is impossible to use those two options together."

I will check into this again.

Gael

[Ylian_S_Intel]

I have not yet found an F11 or F12 key mapping. It does not seem to exist and so, I will work to make it available in future versions. I agree that it would be very useful, I know that some boot loaders do need to F12 key, etc. Besides, it's also useful to have in DOS and Linux applications.

Ylian (Intel AMT Blog)

[kumarsaurabh25]

Hello,

I am also struggling to get f12 key to work using Intel AMT Comander. I wanted to use Intel AMT to perform a PXE network boot but I am not able to find the mapping to use f12 key. Any suggestions please?

[Sreelekshm_S_Intel]

Hi,

We are working on this.

Thanks,

Sree

[kumarsaurabh25]

Hi Sree,

Thanks for taking my request into consideration. It would be a great benefit and feature if PXE network boots could be performed using Intel AMT Commander using f12 key. This will allow remotely reimaging the machines over the network. Please let me know as to when can we expect the feature of using f12 key available in Intel AMT Commander. Once again thans a lot!

[Sreelekshm_S_Intel]

Hi,
I don't know when this feature will be available in Intel AMT Commander - that is a good question for Ylian; I have forwarded this question to him. Meanwhile, I am trying to find a video tutorial where Ylian talks about various key mappings in the Commander. May be that could solve your issue for the time being. Will get back to you as soon as I find it.

Thanks,

Sree

[kumarsaurabh25]

Thanks Sree, I will wait for yours and Ylian's update.