Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 17:49:42 +0200 From: Felix von Leitner <felix-freebsd@fefe.de> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: how to boot into freebsd installer using pxe? Message-ID: <20050724154942.GA19992@codeblau.de>
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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
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