Revision as of 16:18, 9 May 2014

We have a chronic shortage of install media at FCS Workshops, so this is a project to mitigate the situation.

What it does

You set up a computer to boot from its network interface, plug in a network cable on the server's subnet, and boot into a Xubuntu Live session.

NOTE: currently the server is not configured as a Router. so netinst will not work. --Koanhead (talk) 12:47, 13 April 2014 (PDT)

References

This will probably also come in handy:

Clients

Any computer with the following:

Wired network interface supporting PXE (check BIOS)
Enough RAM to support kernel + RAMdisk (currently >1 GiB, will be more with Ubuntu)
Architecture supported by install image (currently i386)

Server

Hardware

Intel P4, 1024GB RAM, 160GB SATA disk Two NICs - one on mobo, one in topmost PCI slot

PROBLEMS

GRUB is not properly installed, machine does not boot normally. Use grub-rescue prompt to boot: http://gnu-linux.org/grub-rescue-commands.html; https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/GRUB-only-offers-a-rescue-shell.html; https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/Command_002dline-and-menu-entry-commands.html; This may be due to incorrect BIOS / bus settings. There are only 2 SATA connectors on the mobo, and the drive only shows as Second Master or Fourth Master IIRC...
Not currently configured to share internet access with DHCP clients.: use squid?
Synaptics touchpads don't seem to work with Trusty Tahr? Perhaps the iso is corrupt?: Nope, it's a known bug in Trusty: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1265885
Wishlist: set up an APT cache.; https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Apt-Cacher-Server; squid-deb-proxy

Requirements

At least one wired network interface
Enough storage to hold OS, servers, and install images (currently fits in 8GiB)

OS

Debian Wheezy

Files

/etc/network/interfaces

#wired
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet static
   address 192.168.0.1
   netmask 255.255.255.0
#radio
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
   wpa-ssid "FCSTEAMLAB"
   wpa-psk "whateveritis"

/etc/default/

Edit isc-dhcp-server to specify which interface to use. Also found here is defaults for tftpd which so far do not need to be altered from what the package writes.

/etc/exports

Config file for NFS. Run

exportfs -a

after editing this file.

/srv/

Top-level of files to be served.

xubuntu-14.04-i386.iso - downloaded ISO image. Will be removed from test server (remember, it's tiny) but probably a good idea to keep it on the production machine.
tmpmnt/ Directory for loop-mounting the iso images. You could serve the mounted images, but I prefer to copy the files.

tftp/

Files to be served over TFTP at boot. These include the kernel and initrd to boot into.

nfs/

Files to serve over NFS. Contents of the Trusty Tahr liveCD, basically.

DHCP

isc-dhcp-server with the following configs:

/etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf

# lines retained from default preceded by a comment (like this one)

ddns-update-style none; 

# option definitions common to all supported networks...
option domain-name "installment.local";
option domain-name-servers 8.8.8.8, 4.4.2.1;

default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;

allow booting;

subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
    range 192.168.0.3 192.168.0.127;
    option broadcast-address 192.168.0.255;
    option routers 192.168.0.1;
    filename "pxelinux.0";
}

group {
    next-server 192.168.0.1;
    host tftpclient {
        filename "pxelinux.0";
    }
}

/etc/default/isc-dhcp-server

INTERFACES="eth0"

TFTP

tftpd-hpa

http://releases.ubuntu.com/12.04.4/ubuntu-12.04.4-desktop-i386.iso

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/trusty/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/

http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu-iso/CDs-Xubuntu/14.04/release/xubuntu-14.04-desktop-i386.iso

extract files from image
place files in tftpd directory

mkdir -p /srv/tftp/ubuntu-livecd-boot/i386
mkdir -p /srv/ubuntu-livecd/i386
cp -av /media/cdrom/* /srv/ubuntu-livecd/i386
cp -av /media/cdrom/.disk /srv/ubuntu-livecd/i386
cp -av /media/cdrom/casper/initrd.lz /srv/tftp/ubuntu-livecd-boot/i386
cp -av /media/cdrom/casper/vmlinuz /srv/tftp/ubuntu-livecd-boot/i386

NOTE Only i386 works right now. Koanhead (talk)

/etc/default/tftpd

TFTP_DIRECTORY="/srv/tftp"

@@ Line 159: / Line 159: @@
 </pre>
-'''NOTE''' both i386 and amd64 are installed but only i386 works right now. [[User:Koanhead|Koanhead]] ([[User talk:Koanhead|talk]])
+'''NOTE''' Only i386 works right now. [[User:Koanhead|Koanhead]] ([[User talk:Koanhead|talk]])
 ====/etc/default/tftpd====
   TFTP_DIRECTORY="/srv/tftp"