NetbootInstallHowto

Netboot Install

This HOWTO describes an installation of Ubuntu on an old machine with a non-bootable SCSI CDROM. You must modify the host names and IP addresses in this HOWTO for your own setup. The principles described here are applicable to other DHCP and TFTP servers than those described below; using alternate server software is left as an exercise for the reader.

For instructions on how to use a windows computer as the TFTP and DHCP server, head to WindowsServerNetworkInstall

The scenario

One old Celeron 400Mhz with non-bootable SCSI CDROM, (kanga, 172.31.0.242). This is the target for installation. It has a bootable floppy disk.

A DHCP server (roo, 172.31.0.252), using dnsmasq as the DHCP server. roo has a pretty much home made Linux on it. I added tftp-hpa to it, built from source.

Assumption: You're firewalled and will not expose services used for this exercise to the world. You have a reasonable (ADSL) network connection.

Setup DHCP-BOOT

On roo (the DHCP server):

• In /etc/dnsmasq.conf, add the line:

  dhcp-boot=pxelinux.0,roo,172.31.0.252

This machine already serves an IP address to kanga via DHCP.

• Restart dnsmasq.

• Download the Ubuntu netboot tar file from the [http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/warty/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/pxeboot.tar.gz Ubuntu netboot archive].

• Unpack into a suitable directory, e.g. /var/lib/tftpboot

  tar -xzf pxeboot.tar.gz -C /var/lib/tftpboot/
  chown -R nobody:nobody /var/lib/tftpboot

• Enable the tftpd server. Add the following as /etc/xinet.d/tftp.

  service tftp
  {
        disable                 = no
        socket_type             = dgram
        wait                    = yes
        user                    = root
        server                  = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd
        server_args             = -v -s /var/lib/tftpboot
        only_from   = 172.31.0.240/28
        interface   = 172.31.0.252
  }

• Restart xinetd

 killall -HUP xinetd

On some random machine:

• Build an Etherboot boot floppy. kanga (the installation target) has an 3Com 3c905 NIC

• Download and unpack Etherboot (etherboot-5.3.9.tar.bz2 from SourceForge in my case).

• Documentation from the [http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/doc/html/documentation.html Etherboot documentation page].

• Make the boot floppy (insert disk into drive :).

  make bin/3c90x.zfd0

• (Subsititute your NIC type for 3c90x)

Start the install

• Boot the install target (kanga) from the etherboot boot floppy
• Marvel as Ubuntu is installed over the net.

Q&A

• I've noticed you didn't add the interface MAC address. Each and every tutorial I've see stressed the importance of the MAC address to allow the net booting machine authorized on the boot server, is this redundent and can be ignored altogether? --SivanGreen

* Hmm, has someone gotten this to work? Using etherboot-5.3.12 with defaults (cd src ; make bin/via-rhine.zfd0 - the defaults include -DPXE_IMAGE and -DPXE_EXPORT ), the boot process seems to stop after loading the file from TFTP:

Loading 192.168.0.2:pxelinux.0 ..(PXE)done

Also, it may be worth mentioning that the images from http://rom-o-matic.net/ (the referred-to Etherboot manual has a link to this site) don't support PXE images at all. --PeterParkkali

From CarlKarsten Sat Mar 19 02:26:55 +0000 2005 From: Carl Karsten Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 02:26:55 +0000 Subject: Local Net install Message-ID: <20050319022655+0000@https://www.ubuntulinux.org>

This page inspired me to figure out how to install Hoary using the "net boot" that my box's bios suppoprts, and using a local server to host all of the files. It is close to working. -- CarlKarsten