Using an Ubuntu desktop system as a PXEboot server

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What happens

  1. System boots.
  2. System looks for a DHCP server.
  3. System requests IP and some other settings from DHCP server.
  4. If it gets them, it looks for a tftp file server
  5. If it finds one, it asks for a file.
  6. The server delivers a bootable kernel image.
  7. System runs a boot script after loading the kernel.
  8. The boot script tells it to get more files from the tftp server.

Packages that need to be installed

You need a dhcp server and a tftp server. The Ubuntu packages that I use are called "dhcp-server" and "tftpd-hpa". To test the tftp server, I also use "tftp-hpa".

More later... ask for help if you need it...

[email protected]

Relevant configuration bits in /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf

allow booting;
allow bootp;
 host otter-wan {
   hardware ethernet 00:10:c6:10:7c:35;
   fixed-address 192.168.123.101;
 # pxeboot stuff
   next-server 192.168.123.131;  # address of tftp server
   filename "/pxelinux.0";       # file to send via tftp
 }