On Mon, Dec 05, 2016 at 04:33:31PM -0600, Kent West wrote: > > Yes, that explains *what* to do in a general sort of way, but not *why* > it's being done, so when a particular generalized step doesn't work, I'm > having difficulty sorting out what that step is supposed to do, and how to > do it in my situation. I was hoping to find someone familiar with the K2000 > and with Debian NFS/PXE booting, who's brain I might be able to pick. I > didn't really expect to find anyone with that particular cross-over skill > set, but thought I'd take a shot.
I haven't got a clue what a K2000 is, but the LTSP or Debian/Edu does exactly what you say you want. When a machine boots with a PXE-compliant NIC, it makes a DHCP request. You have to answer that with an assignment of an IP address and a special option that tells the address of a TFTP server. The PXE client then adopts the IP address and makes a TFTP request. Have the TFTP server answer with a Debian kernel configured with an NFS root, and make sure your NFS server will make that available to your client. Modulo a lot of network traffic, bob's your uncle. Debian/Edu will happily supply you with all the components above. -dsr-