[Techtalk] booting a diskless client

[Maria McKinley]

Rudy Zijlstra wrote:
>>   
> Hi Maria,
> 
> Can you share your pxe config?
> 
> Also, what kernel level is the file server? And how is the kernel of the 
> diskless client configured?
> 
> I've been looking at my own diskless config, and would like to compare.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Rudy

here is the rundown on how I have (almost) set up my pxe client:

Compiled a kernel (debian 2.6.26) (this is explicit, I just copied from 
my instructions)

Top Level (Linux Kernel Configuration) -> Networking -> Networking 
Options -> IP: kernel level autoconfiguration
(once autoconfiguation is asterisked, these show up to put an asterisk in:
         IP: DHCP support 

         IP: BOOTP support  (maybe IP: RARP support?)

Top Level -> Device Drivers -> Network Device Support -> appropriate 
network card Ethernet

Top Level -> Device Drivers -> Input device support -> Mice -> PS/2 mouse

Top Level -> File systems -> Miscellaneous filesystems -> make sure 
Compressessed ROM file system support has *

Top Level -> File systems -> Network File Systems -> NFS file system support
                                            -> Root file system on NFS 


created initrd (used MODULES=netboot and BOOT=nfs options in 
initramfs.conf):

mkinitramfs -o /tftpboot/initrd.gz 2.6.26

created a gpxe file for floppy:
http://rom-o-matic.net/gpxe/gpxe-0.9.4/contrib/rom-o-matic/
picked out my network card (which they don't make particularly easy), 
created image, and stuck it on a floppy

stuck the bzImage and initrd.gz on my webserver with a file boot.gpxe 
with the following contents:

#!gpxe
# clocksource option added, because without it would get stuck during boot
kernel http://www.shadlen.org/gpxe/bzImage init=/root/sbin/init 
root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=10.208.108.19:/tftpboot/oscar ip=dhcp 
clocksource=acpi_pm
initrd http://www.shadlen.org/gpxe/initrd.gz
boot

(played around with all kinds of changes options in the above file, also 
dhcpd.conf)

added stuff to my dhcpd.conf:
# computational cluster
group {
   filename "http://www.shadlen.org/gpxe/boot.gpxe";
   server-identifier 10.208.108.19;
   option subnet-mask 255.255.255.128;
   use-host-decl-names on;
   default-lease-time            86400; # 24 hours
   max-lease-time                86400; # 24 hours
   host nina {
      hardware ethernet 00:04:23:e0:5f:9b;
      fixed-address 10.208.108.19;
   }
   host oscar {
     hardware ethernet 00:04:23:e0:5e:68;
     fixed-address 10.208.108.28;
     option root-path    "/tftpboot";
   }
}

added to exports:

/tftpboot       10.208.108.28(rw,sync,no_root_squash)
/usr            10.208.108.28(rw,sync,no_root_squash)

make directory /tftpboot/oscar and copied stuff from root directory of 
server, with certain files changed (can be explicit about this if you 
want) or omitted.

restarted various services

Probably more than you really wanted, and I probably forgot something, 
but hope it is useful.

cheers,
maria