Re: Diskless Debian PCs / Network Boot
I've gotten so far as actually getting a client to boot by using PXELinux. Since the client is actually diskless, the boot process stops when the kernel tries to mount a filesystem - that results in a kernel panic as expected. I'm considering using a RAM disk image or NFS to remotely mount the filesystem. If anybody has any tips on this, I would really appreciate it. Thanks ... Salman On Jul 12, 2004, at 12:16 PM, Patrick Ouellette wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi All, I am trying to build a network of Debian PCs which must be diskless. The idea is that every once in a while the clients can be booted (may be remotely?) to download an upgraded kernel. Previously, we have used removable hard drives - very time consuming. From browsing around, I've come to learn that there are a number of ways that this can be achieved, eg: TCP/IP PXE (hard pxe for intel nics), Etherboot (soft pxe), etc. I would like to hear from people who have attempted this before and have some useful tips to offer. May be some one could weigh-in with advantages/disadvantages of using one option over another. I anticipate that our client PCs will be based on Intel motherboards. If you have access to boot media on the client (a floppy, usb boot device, CF card, etc.) you have many options. My favorite is to create boot media with GRUB. You can then chose to present a boot menu (or not) to the user. If all you have is a boot PROM on the NIC, PXE is not too difficult to set up (assuming the boot PROM supports PXE). Most useful tip: Make sure syslog is running on your server and use a network sniffer (packet capture) to monitor the boot process if things are not working properly. Good Luck, Pat -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless Debian PCs / Network Boot
Salman Haq wrote: I've gotten so far as actually getting a client to boot by using PXELinux. Since the client is actually diskless, the boot process stops when the kernel tries to mount a filesystem - that results in a kernel panic as expected. I'm considering using a RAM disk image or NFS to remotely mount the filesystem. If anybody has any tips on this, I would really appreciate it. A custom kernel is ideal. You need to configure some particular options - see the Documentation directory for details, and build in the driver for your NIC. On boot, the kernel Initialises the NIC Gets an IP address etc Mounts your NFS filesystem. You might also take a look at the Linux Terminal Server project. In addition to what you've already done (and the kustom kernel) you need to run NFS server on something, create filesystem(s), export filesystem(s). You can (in fstab) mount addition filesystems. /usr can be to /var must be per-host. /etc must be per-host. I think you can mount tmpfs on it. / can be ro (think cd booting). /tmp must be rw and per host. /home can/should be sharedrw (natch). -- Cheers John -- spambait [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tourist pics http://portgeographe.environmentaldisasters.cds.merseine.nu/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Diskless Debian PCs / Network Boot
Hi All, I am trying to build a network of Debian PCs which must be diskless. The idea is that every once in a while the clients can be booted (may be remotely?) to download an upgraded kernel. Previously, we have used removable hard drives - very time consuming. From browsing around, I've come to learn that there are a number of ways that this can be achieved, eg: TCP/IP PXE (hard pxe for intel nics), Etherboot (soft pxe), etc. I would like to hear from people who have attempted this before and have some useful tips to offer. May be some one could weigh-in with advantages/disadvantages of using one option over another. I anticipate that our client PCs will be based on Intel motherboards. Thanks! Salman -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Diskless Debian PCs / Network Boot
On Mon, 2004-07-12 at 10:48, Salman Haq wrote: Hi All, I am trying to build a network of Debian PCs which must be diskless. The idea is that every once in a while the clients can be booted (may be remotely?) to download an upgraded kernel. Previously, we have used removable hard drives - very time consuming. From browsing around, I've come to learn that there are a number of ways that this can be achieved, eg: TCP/IP PXE (hard pxe for intel nics), Etherboot (soft pxe), etc. I would like to hear from people who have attempted this before and have some useful tips to offer. May be some one could weigh-in with advantages/disadvantages of using one option over another. I anticipate that our client PCs will be based on Intel motherboards. Well, I've never gone so far as to set up diskless clients, but I have set up network booting for the purpose of doing network-based installs without a CD-ROM. I used PXE and followed the instructions on the debian-installer wiki. Important things to note are to use a TFTP server that supports PXE (tftpd does not. tftpd-hpa and atftpd both do however.) Make sure your DHCP server is properly set up to give out TFTP info, and you should be good to go. One important thing to note is that one of the PC's that I used for testing did not work for quite a while. It was an old Compaq using an Intel network card. No matter what I did, it would either come back with a timeout error or the TFTP server would report a client error. Upgrading the BIOS (the network card was built into the motherboard) took care of the problem and it's been working fine since. I'd imagine that all newer boards should have no problems. -- Alex Malinovich Support Free Software, delete your Windows partition TODAY! Encrypted mail preferred. You can get my public key from any of the pgp.net keyservers. Key ID: A6D24837 signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part
Re: Diskless Debian PCs / Network Boot
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi All, I am trying to build a network of Debian PCs which must be diskless. The idea is that every once in a while the clients can be booted (may be remotely?) to download an upgraded kernel. Previously, we have used removable hard drives - very time consuming. From browsing around, I've come to learn that there are a number of ways that this can be achieved, eg: TCP/IP PXE (hard pxe for intel nics), Etherboot (soft pxe), etc. I would like to hear from people who have attempted this before and have some useful tips to offer. May be some one could weigh-in with advantages/disadvantages of using one option over another. I anticipate that our client PCs will be based on Intel motherboards. If you have access to boot media on the client (a floppy, usb boot device, CF card, etc.) you have many options. My favorite is to create boot media with GRUB. You can then chose to present a boot menu (or not) to the user. If all you have is a boot PROM on the NIC, PXE is not too difficult to set up (assuming the boot PROM supports PXE). Most useful tip: Make sure syslog is running on your server and use a network sniffer (packet capture) to monitor the boot process if things are not working properly. Good Luck, Pat -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
