Install Server

What's it for?

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

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.

Status and To-Do

• Where is the server? It is not seen on the network and the physical location is UNKNOWN
• The server should have a flawless boot operation. Currently not the case.
• The server should have Xubuntu 14.04 (Trusty) boot/install. Currently it has (just) 12.04 (Precise)
• The server should be configured to auto-update to ensure security vulnerabilities are avoided.
  • See http://www.debianadmin.com/automatic-update-of-packages-using-cron-apt.html
• The server data & configuration should ideally be backed up somewhere

References

• https://wiki.debian.org/PXEBootInstall
• http://www.serenux.com/2010/05/howto-setup-your-own-pxe-boot-server-using-ubuntu-server/
• http://www.serenux.com/2010/05/howto-get-an-ubuntu-live-cd-to-boot-off-a-pxe-server/
• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveCDNetboot
• http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/PXELINUX
• https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch04s05.html.en

This will probably also come in handy:

• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomization
• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TrustyTahr/ReleaseNotes
• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/14.04/
• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/14.04/release/

Clients

Any computer with the following:

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

Server

Hardware

little is needed. Intel P4, 1024GB RAM, 160GB HDD are sensible. More than can saturate available NIC is probably not useful. Two NICs

PROBLEMS

Kept for nostalgia, the machine in question has gone missing:

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

Software

DHCP server. Example uses isc-dhcp-server, dnsmasq is also alleged to work. TFTP server. For Debian this is tftpd-hpa. NFS server. nfs-kernel-server

Optionally: caching proxy server for updates. Squid or apt-cacher or similar.

OS

The examples here assume 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"

Make sure that wicd or NetworkManager or similar automaticity is disabled, or your manual settings are likely to suddenly stop working...

• /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.
• tmpmnt/ Directory for loop-mounting the iso images. You could serve the mounted images, but I prefer to copy the files.

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

1. extract files from image
2. 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"

NFS

/etc/exports

# /etc/exports: the access control list for filesystems which may be exported
#		to NFS clients.  See exports(5).
#
# Example for NFSv2 and NFSv3:
# /srv/homes       hostname1(rw,sync,no_subtree_check) hostname2(ro,sync,no_subtree_check)
#
# Example for NFSv4:
# /srv/nfs4        gss/krb5i(rw,sync,fsid=0,crossmnt,no_subtree_check)
# /srv/nfs4/homes  gss/krb5i(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)
#

#Live ubuntu i386

/srv/nfs/live-files/i386   *(ro,async,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)
/srv/nfs/live-files/amd64   *(ro,async,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)