Notes on getting Ubuntu netboot to work so that I don’t have to burn any CD’s
This document expects a DHCP server to be available in the network
Install tftp
sudo aptitude install tftpd-hpa tftp-hpa
Get netboot files:
cd /var/lib/tftpboot
sudo wget -r -nH -np --cut-dirs=8 http://archive.ubuntu.com/\
ubuntu/dists/maverick/main/installer-amd64/\
current/images/netboot
find ./ -name "index.*" | sudo xargs rm
Add the following to the DHCP subnet configuration:
next-server 10.0.0.68;
filename "pxelinux.0";
Now normal netboot should work.
If one wants to have liveCD, then carry on by installing NFS-Server:
sudo aptitude install nfs-kernel-server
Add export for the livecd in /etc/exports:
/var/lib/tftpboot/maverick 10.0.0.0/255.255.255.0(async,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check,ro)
Mount and copy liveCD contents to exported NFS share:
sudo mount -o loop /tmp/maverick-desktop-amd64.iso /mnt
sudo cp -ar /mnt/* /var/lib/tftpboot/maverick/
Add a new menu entry in ubuntu-installer/amd64/boot-screens/rqtxt.cfg
label maverickLiveCD
menu label ^Live CD
kernel maverick/casper/vmlinuz
append vga=788 boot=casper netboot=nfs \
nfsroot=10.0.0.68/var/lib/tftpboot/maverick initrd=maverick/casper/initrd.lz --
Restart NFS:
sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server reload
If problems arise, try using the following boot append line:
append file=/var/lib/tftpboot/maverick/preseed/ubuntu.seed vga=788 \
boot=casper root=/dev/nfs netboot=nfs \
nfsroot=10.0.0.68:/var/lib/tftpboot/maverick initrd=maverick/casper/initrd.lz --