Linux netbooting

From WirelessAfrica

Instructions follow on how to netboot using Ubuntu Linux.

Server Setup

Setup DHCP

/usr/local/etc/dhcp.conf

Setup PXE

Setup Filesystem

Useful information: Building PXE Imager from scratch

1) Use debian debootstrap tool to create basic filesystem.

sudo debootstrap breezy /home/yusuf/ubuntu ftp://ftp.is.co.za/ubuntu/

2) chroot into new filesystem

sudo chroot /home/yusuf/ubuntu/

3) create apt source list

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

4) Add packages

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ssh olsrd

5) Tar the filesystem

 sudo tar -cvjf ubuntu.tar.gz ./ubuntu/

6) Copy the filesystem to the server and un-tar

 scp ubuntu.tar.gz user@server:

Client Setup

Create Linux Kernel

sudo make menuconfig
Processor type and features  --->  
 Processor family: Pentium-Classic
Device Drivers  --->
 Networking support  ---> 
  Networking options  --->
    [*]IP: kernel level autoconfiguration                             
     [*]     IP: DHCP support
     [*]     IP: BOOTP support
     [*]     IP: RARP support               
File systems  ---> 
 Network File Systems  ---> 
  <*> NFS file system support 
   [*] Root file system on NFS
sudo make
sudo make bzImage

which will give you your linix kernel image (bzImage) in /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.12/arch/i386/boot/

sudo make modules
sudo make modules_install
sudo mkinitrd -o initrd.img-2.6.12 2.6.12

Create Linux File System

Mount a separate partition cd to a suitable place on the partition