From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jul 24 15:49:46 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BD04F16A41F for ; Sun, 24 Jul 2005 15:49:46 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from felix-freebsd@fefe.de) Received: from codeblau.de (ipx10069.ipxserver.de [80.190.240.67]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 08DB343D45 for ; Sun, 24 Jul 2005 15:49:44 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from felix-freebsd@fefe.de) Received: (qmail 20025 invoked by uid 1000); 24 Jul 2005 15:49:42 -0000 Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 17:49:42 +0200 From: Felix von Leitner To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20050724154942.GA19992@codeblau.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i Subject: how to boot into freebsd installer using pxe? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 15:49:46 -0000 Hi! I would like to offer a network based install service in our LAN here, and I would like it to be able to install NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD and Gentoo. I have a PXE environment booting Grub 0.97, which can boot a Net/OpenBSD kernels and the FreeBSD loader. So far, so good. Which files do I need to offer over TFTP or NFS for PXE to boot into the installer? How do I pre-configure the installer to install from the install server per default, and not from the Internet? I'm not particularly glued to grub, if it is better to do this with syslinux (or $WHATEVER), I'm game. However, I need to have a boot menu offering all the above operating systems, I can not simply boot directly into NetBSD's PXE loader. And I want to offer a net-bootable memtest. By the way: OpenBSD ships the pxeboot file in their install directory, I would very much like FreeBSD to do the same. I would like FreeBSD to shop a tarball with the necessary files (minus the install sets) that need to be available via TFTP/NFS and a small README saying what needs to be done, in a system-agnostic way. I'm thinking about an install LAN on a LAN party here, so as many people as possible can install FreeBSD. The next step would be to offer something like a live CD just bootable over PXE. Think about the advocacy possibilities if people can just try FreeBSD over the net! Also, think about the environment, of all the CDs that don't need to be burned or pressed and then thrown away. Felix