Debian-Installer: boot via etherboot
Howto boot debian-installer-floppies over network for etherboot machines.
These steps need to be done:
- server side setup.
- Setup etherboot on client.
- Tag the boot-floppy.
- Verify.
Server setup
To setup dhcp do the following steps:
- Install dhcp-server.
- use an dhcp.conf like the following:
# dhcpd.conf for debian-installer # global settings allow booting; allow bootp; default-lease-time 600; max-lease-time 7200; option domain-name-servers yournameserver; option domain-name "yourdomain"; use-host-decl-names on; subnet 192.168.11.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { next-server 192.168.11.1; filename "/boot/di.nbi"; option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0; host host1 { fixed-address 192.168.11.2; hardware ethernet 00:04:76:90:a5:12; } }
Of course you'll need to change that to your settings, especially network, ip-address and hardware-ethernet.
Setup tftp
You have to install the tftpd package, which defaults to "export" /boot. The install at Debian does also reload the inet super daemon (inetd).
Setup etherboot on client
This makes your computer doing a "networkboot". Just go to Etherboot ROM-O-MATIC choose your nic (network-card-type), download an floppy-image (.lzdsk) and cat it to a floppy.
Put the floppy in the computer to boot.
The Image
Build the netboot initial RamDisk in build directory by
fakeroot make TYPE=netboot initrd
Get the Linux kernel (vmlinuz) from a kernel image package doing
mkdir newdirectory ; cd newdirectory ar -x path/to/kernel-image-version.deb tar xf data.tar.gz
Cast the image:
mknbi-linux --param="root=ramdisk" --output=/boot/di.nbi vmlinuz netboot-initrd.gz
(hmm... I get errors when I try that.
attempt to access beyond end of device ... VFS: Cannot open root device "ramdisk" or 00:00
What worked was:
mknbi-linux --param="root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=8192" --output=/boot/di.nbi vmlinuz netboot-initrd.gz
--DanConnolly )
verify
Boot the computer. See if it'll get its address from dhcp and then does get by TFTP the image.
The computer will start the DebianInstaller.
Report us your results.
I tried this procedure with partial success
I downloaded a kernel and DebianInstaller ramdisk from a debian mirror. Net Booting went pretty well until there was "kernel panic." The warning was "unable to open an initial console"
It worked perfectly
with a daily build from https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/
Got it working
using an eepro100 pxe from rom-o-matic, I was getting errors along the lines of "NBI segment overlaps used basemem", adding the command line option "--relocseg=0x8000" to mknbi fixed it.
like so: mknbi-linux --relocseg=0x8000 [...]