FC4 PXE Boot Installation

Fedora Core 4 PXE Boot Installation

• Install tftp-server-x.xx-x.rpm
• edit or create /etc/dhcpd.conf .
• host pxeclient { hardware ethernet XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX; filename "/pxelinux.0"; fixed-address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx; next-server xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx; }
• edit /etc/xinitd.d/tftp and change disable=yes to disable=no
• copy images/pxelinux to tftp root (/tftpboot)
• create /tftpboot/pxelinux.0 and /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default default DEFAULT vm SERIAL 0 9600 label vm kernel vmlinuz append initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=9372 root=/dev/rd/0
The following describes how to set up a server for installation of Fedora Core 4 via the Pre eXecution Environment (PXE).

The PXE environment allows a PC with a PXE capable network interface card to configure the interface with an IP and request a boot image via tftp. TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) is as its name suggests is a very simple version of FTP with very few options, only requesting or sending a file and does not support authentication.

The PXE sequence goes something like this:

Client                      Server

Request IP via DHCP         ----------->DHCP Server
                            <---------- Assign IP, netmask,
                                        IP address of tftp 
                                        server and boot image

Request boot image via tftp ----------->TFTP Server
        Load image and boot <---------- Send boot image

packages needed:
tftp-server
dhcpd
syslinux
httpd* 
vsftp*
nfs*
*need at least one of three

dhcp setup:

host hostname {
hardware ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00; <==Enter client's mac address 
fixed-address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx; <==Enter client's ip address
option host-name "hostname";
next-server xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx; <==Enter the ip of tftp server
filename "pxelinux.0"
}

tftp setup:

install tftp-server

edit /etc/xinet.d/tftp disable=yes => disable=no
chkconfig tftp on
/etc/init.d/xinetd restart

copy fc4 images isolinux/ vmlinuz initrd.img => /tftpboot
copy pxe boot image /usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 => /tftpboot

     First, it will search for the config file using the hardware type (using its ARP type code) and address, all in lower case hexadecimal with dash separators; for example, for an Ethernet (ARP type 1) with address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD it would search for the filename 01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.

    Next, it will search for the config file using its own IP address in upper case hexadecimal, e.g. 192.0.2.91 -> C000025B (you can use the included progam gethostip to compute the hexadecimal IP address for any host.)

    If that file is not found, it will remove one hex digit and try again. Ultimately, it will try looking for a file named default (in lower case). As an example, if the boot file name is /mybootdir/pxelinux.0, the Ethernet MAC address is 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD and the IP address 192.0.2.91, it will try:

	/mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd
	/mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C000025B
	/mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C000025
	/mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C00002
	/mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C0000
	/mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C000
	/mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C00
	/mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C0
	/mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/C
	/mybootdir/pxelinux.cfg/default
 

    ... in that order.

Note that all filename references are relative to the directory pxelinux.0 lives in. PXELINUX generally requires that filenames (including any relative path) are 127 characters or shorter in length.

http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php