• ArbeitsTreffen0507
• DebianEduNetworkInstall

On this page, you find notes about transforming a vanilla (=raw) tjener (mainserver) into a server for installing workstations over the network.

UPDATE : use SysadminHowTo/NetworkInstall

This is "materialising" an idea, which started during a weekend at the German Skolelinux testcenter. When it works, the contents of this page should move to a howto.

vanilla tjener mainserver

We start with assuming an plain unmodified tjener.

• DHCP server

• HTTP server

probably already described better a at better place 'FIXME'

Clients

The workstations to be, do a network boot. ( http://www.google.de/search?q=network+boot )

Tuning of the Tjener

Install a tftpd server by

 apt-get install tftpd-hpa

You may have to use a newer tftpserver than the one that comes with woody. (See ArbeitsTreffen0507/NewerTftpServer for details)

Apply this change

--- /etc/inetd.conf.package     Sun Jul 10 07:12:17 2005
+++ /etc/inetd.conf     Sun Jul 10 07:12:41 2005
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@

 #:BOOT: Tftp service is provided primarily for booting.  Most sites
 # run this only on machines acting as "boot servers."
-tftp           dgram   udp     wait    root  /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /var/ftpd
+tftp           dgram   udp     wait    root  /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /tftpboot

 #:RPC: RPC based services

Create a directory for the boot files

 mkdir -p /tftpboot/wkst/

Create a symbolic link from pxelinux.0 from the syslinux package in that directory

 ln -s /usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /tftpboot/wkst/

Mount the debian-edu CD-ROM

 mount /cdrom

Copy various boot files from the CDROM into the workstation network boot dir.

 cp /cdrom/install/vmlinuz /cdrom/install/initrd.gz /tftpboot/wkst/

Create under wkst/ a pxelinux.cfg directory

 mkdir /tftpboot/wkst/pxelinux.cfg

Create a file named default in that directory with this content

 label linux
        kernel vmlinuz
        append vga=normal initrd=initrd.gz ramdisk_size=9424 root=/dev/rd/0 devfs=mount,dall rw  --
 #prompt 1
 timeout 0

Tell the dhcp server to provide the client with this information

--- /etc-begin/dhcp3/dhcpd-debian-edu.conf      Fri Jul  8 17:04:07 2005
+++ /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd-debian-edu.conf    Sat Jul  9 12:26:00 2005
@@ -221,6 +221,13 @@
 # /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server stop; /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server start
 #
 #
+    host static01 {
+        hardware ethernet     00:13:20:3f:d3:b2;
+        fixed-address         static01;
+        filename              "/tftpboot/wkst/pxelinux.0";
+        #option option-128     e4:45:74:68:00:00;
+        #option option-129     "NIC=3c509";
+       }
     host ltsp010 {
         hardware ethernet     00:00:00:00:00:00;
         fixed-address         ltsp010;

Unmount the cdrom

 umount /cdrom

status

The install stops after the language selections because it can't find the next information ( it thinks it is on the CD )

Way to go:

Create an initrd.gz that is aware of being a network install.

Debian-Installer, http://www.nl.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/, supports it.

UPDATE : use SysadminHowTo/NetworkInstall