How To Install over PXE+NFS

[kossta]

REMINDER: ALWAYS BACKUP any configuration file you are about to change!!!

After 8 hours of searching and I think more than 30 PXE boot attempts, finally, LInux Mint can be installed over PXE

Setup Configuration:
DHCP/TFTP server: running in VMware Fusion virtual machine on MacOSX Lion

• Centos 6.2 (Final)
  Kernel: 2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.i686
  Gnome: 2.28.2
  Webmin: version 1.580

Installation Media (in my case):

• Linux Mint 12 "Lisa" - CD no codecs (32-bit) - Download only and no need to be burned to CD
  "linuxmint-12-gnome-cd-nocodecs-32bit.iso"

IP/DHCP

• -MacOS takes IP from Linksys router
  -Centos VM ethernet set to take its IP from the Linksys router
  -Centso DHCP server set to give IPs to targets from the same subnet
  --Centos IP: 10.10.1.106 from DHCP of Linksys
  --Centos DHCP server provides IP: 10.10.1.200 and above to the network boot PXE clients
  --Centos DHCP and Linksys DHCP are running simultaneously, no problem
  Remember to turn off Centos DHCP server when you do not need it any more.

Assuming you already have DHCP/TFTP server setup, it will take you about 10-15 minutes to be up and running Mint from network boot.

Here are only with the actual PXE configuration steps that you will need to load Mint 12 over PXE.
All below operations are done on your DHCP/TFTP server

• a) replace 10.10.1.106 with the IP of you DHCP server;
  b) /tftpboot/ is my tftp server boot folder;

TFTP Config: /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

Code: Select all

default menu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 300 
ONTIMEOUT local

MENU TITLE PXE Menu
menu separator
LABEL LinuxMint Livecd 12
KERNEL images/lmin/vmlinuz
APPEND root=/dev/nfs boot=casper netboot=nfs nfsroot=10.10.1.106:/tftpboot/images/linuxmint initrd=images/lmin/initrd.lz nosplash --

Steps: DHCP server on the Centos is stopped, Linksys DHCP is running of course
1: Create "/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default" file with the above in it, replacing 10.10.1.106 with your TFTP server's IP address
2: Mount the ISO image to any location of your Centos:(as user "root")

Code: Select all

   mkdir /isomount
   mount -o loop /home/<your UID>/Downloads/linuxmint-12-gnome-cd-nocodecs-32bit.iso /isomount

3: Copy the content of the ISO CD to folder "/tftpboot/images/linuxmint"

Code: Select all

   
mkdir /tftpboot/images /tftpboot/images/linuxmint
/bin/cp -rp /isomount/* /tftpboot/images/linuxmint

4:From the copied ISO content, copy the "vmlinuz" and "initrd.lz" kernel and init files to /tftpboot/images/lmin/

Code: Select all

  /bin/cp /tftpboot/images/linuxmint/casper/vmlinuz /tftpboot/images/lmin/ 
  /bin/cp /tftpboot/images/linuxmint/casper/initrd.lz /tftpboot/images/lmin/ 

5: Create NFS share to folder:

Code: Select all

/tftpboot/images/linuxmint" granted to everyone to access (via Webmin is easy to create the share);

6: Start DHCP server, via Webmin
7: Turn target system "ON" (laptop/desktop) and select "Network boot" from boot options menu

When your laptop/desktop boots from PXE, you will/should see one PXE menu option:

• LinuxMint Livecd 12

When selected it will boot Linux Mint 12 LiveCD from "/tftpboot/images/linuxmint" directly to the graphical environment.
Select "Install" from the desktop to install Mint to the HDD.

I hope this helps, and safe you one day in Googling around how to boot LinuxMint12 from PXE/Network.
--

[Oscar799]

Split from a really old thread,title edited,and moved here by moderator

[SvOlli]

To make this one work for the Debian Edition two changes are necessary:
1) in the "APPEND" line of the "/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default" file the statement "boot=casper" must be replaced with "boot=live".
2) after unpacking the iso (which can be also done with 7z, if there's no root access), a link "live -> casper" must be created:
Step 3a:

Code: Select all

cd /tftpboot/images/linuxmint
ln -s caspar live

It took me about two hours and a lot of dead ends to figure this out, so I thought sharing this insight might be a time-saver for others.

[jbanjeet]

worked for me

many thanks

[patpat]

How to install over PXE from Windows "without" NFS

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=197&t=126082