Ubuntu PXE Install
Contents
Howto
Installing Ubuntu via PXE network boot is the way to go if you have no cd-r at hand or if you have no cdrom at all.
After reading Installation of Woody with PXE it wasn't hard to setup a PXE boot environment.
Install services
You need the following debian packages:
- tftpd-hpa
- dhcp-server
Prepare your tftp server
Start your tftpd server via inetd with the following line in /etc/inetd.conf:
tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd -s /tftpboot
Don't forget to create the tftp directory /tftpboot
Prepare your dhcp-server
If you have a working dhcp server add the following lines to your group, substituting ip and mac address as needed
host pxeinstall {
hardware ethernet [mac-address of pxe networkcard without brackets];
fixed-address 10.0.0.16;
filename "pxelinux.0";
}
The following simpler file may also work in a trivial environment
subnet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0.0.0.0 {
range 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.2;
filename "pxelinux.0";
}
(the one below worked for me, while the one above did not)
Prepare ubuntu netboot
Get the files
All the files you need are on the install media, or you can get them here
Put the netboot files into the /tftpboot directory.
lftp -c "open http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/warty/main/installer-i386/current/images/; mirror netboot/" cp netboot/* /tftpboot # untar the pxeboot.tar.gz cd /tftpboot/ tar xfz pxeboot.tar.gz
pxe bootloader config
Edit or patch pxelinux.cfg/default .
--- default.org 2004-10-31 15:32:32.000000000 +0100 +++ default 2004-10-31 00:14:52.000000000 +0200 @@ -13,17 +13,11 @@ F0 debian-installer/boot-screens/f10.txt label linux - kernel debian-installer/linux - append vga=normal initrd=debian-installer/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=11057 root=/dev/rd/0 devfs=mount,dall rw -- + kernel vmlinuz + append vga=normal initrd=initrd.gz ramdisk_size=11057 root=/dev/rd/0 devfs=mount,dall rw -- label expert - kernel debian-installer/linux - append DEBCONF_PRIORITY=low vga=normal initrd=debian-installer/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=11057 root=/dev/rd/0 devfs=mount,dall rw -- -label custom - kernel debian-installer/linux - append ubuntu/install-type=custom vga=normal initrd=debian-installer/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=11057 root=/dev/rd/0 devfs=mount,dall rw -- -label custom-expert - kernel debian-installer/linux - append ubuntu/install-type=custom DEBCONF_PRIORITY=low vga=normal initrd=debian-installer/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=11057 root=/dev/rd/0 devfs=mount,dall rw -- + kernel vmlinuz + append DEBCONF_PRIORITY=low vga=normal initrd=initrd.gz ramdisk_size=11057 root=/dev/rd/0 devfs=mount,dall rw -- prompt 1 timeout 0
Make a symlink from default to the ip of the pxe boot client.
cd /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg ln -s default 0A000010
Directory layout
Should look like this:
/tftpboot/ /tftpboot/pxelinux.0 /tftpboot/initrd.gz /tftpboot/mini.iso /tftpboot/debian-installer /tftpboot/debian-installer/linux /tftpboot/debian-installer/initrd.gz /tftpboot/debian-installer/boot-screens /tftpboot/debian-installer/boot-screens/splash.rle /tftpboot/debian-installer/boot-screens/f1.txt /tftpboot/debian-installer/boot-screens/f2.txt /tftpboot/debian-installer/boot-screens/f3.txt /tftpboot/debian-installer/boot-screens/f4.txt /tftpboot/debian-installer/boot-screens/f5.txt /tftpboot/debian-installer/boot-screens/f6.txt /tftpboot/debian-installer/boot-screens/f7.txt /tftpboot/debian-installer/boot-screens/f8.txt /tftpboot/debian-installer/boot-screens/f9.txt /tftpboot/debian-installer/boot-screens/syslinux.txt /tftpboot/debian-installer/boot-screens/f10.txt /tftpboot/initrd.list /tftpboot/vmlinuz /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/0A000010
Start the PXE client
Just boot up the computer that will use DHCP and then PXE to get the images, if something isn't working you can use a sniffer on your install server to check.
tethereal -R bootp #tethereal -VR bootp tethereal port tftp tcpdump -n
