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How to setup Tiny PXE Server to run Scientific Linux ISO file via LAN

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#1 jackieharry

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Posted 06 May 2019 - 07:23 AM

Hello everyone,

 

I am new to Tiny PXE Server, and will need lots of guidance from the experts out there.

 

I have a ISO file, which is SL-76-x86_64-2018-12-09-LiveDVDkde.iso.

 

I have a Windows 10 desktop, which I run Tiny PXE Server.

 

I put the ISO file into the folder C:\test\pxesrv\files\iso

 

I connect another laptop, with an empty hard disk to the Windows 10 Desktop machine via LAN.

 

I click 'Online' after execute Tiny PXE Server.

 

I boot up the laptop was able to go see the Tiny PXE Server menu.

 

However, I could not find any menu that I can run the ISO directly.

 

From my understanding, the ISO can be run as LiveDVD or install into an hard disk.

 

Please help.

 

Thank you very much.



#2 erwan.l

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Posted 06 May 2019 - 07:56 AM

Well, if you see a menu (the default one delivered with TPS), it is already a good start.

 

Now you will need to add an entry (manually) to your menu.

 

Future version of TPS may have an automatic menu generation but for now it all manual.

 

Scientific Linux (i take it from the iso name) is redhat based so you'll need to find the proper syntax to pxe it (via ipxe or any other network boot loader like grub or pxelinux).

 

It may look like something below

:RHEL
initrd --name initramfs /initrd
kernel /vmlinuz initrd=initramfs some_parameters

or if your iso is not too big (less than 2G from what I see?) "simply" use memdisk or sanboot.

:RHEL
initrd /my.iso
chain /memdisk iso raw 
:RHEL
sanboot http://${dhcp-server}/my.iso


#3 jackieharry

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Posted 06 May 2019 - 10:25 AM

 

Well, if you see a menu (the default one delivered with TPS), it is already a good start.

 

Now you will need to add an entry (manually) to your menu.

 

Future version of TPS may have an automatic menu generation but for now it all manual.

 

Scientific Linux (i take it from the iso name) is redhat based so you'll need to find the proper syntax to pxe it (via ipxe or any other network boot loader like grub or pxelinux).

 

It may look like something below

:RHEL
initrd --name initramfs /initrd
kernel /vmlinuz initrd=initramfs some_parameters

or if your iso is not too big (less than 2G from what I see?) "simply" use memdisk or sanboot.

:RHEL
initrd /my.iso
chain /memdisk iso raw 
:RHEL
sanboot http://${dhcp-server}/my.iso

 

 

Thanks erwan.

 

I tried the first solution but notice that there is "some_parameters", which I do not know what I should I do.
 
For the second solution, I tried and it load quite slow, about 10 minutes. At the end, it fail to boot up as it display the following:
 
Warning: /dev/disk/by-label/SL-76-x86_64-LiveDVDkde does not exist
Warning: /dev/mapper/live-rw does not exist
Starting Dracut Emergency Shell
Entering emergency mode. Exit the shell to continue.
Type "journalctl" to view system logs.
 
 
For the third solution, it load very fast, but, at the end, it fail to boot up and the same error message appear.
 
Please kindly advise me what should I do.
 
Also, I hope that future version of TPS can have automatic menu generation so that user can just put ISO files and it generate a menu. That will be awesome! (Hopefully this feature can come soon!)
 
Thank you very much.


#4 erwan.l

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Posted 06 May 2019 - 11:50 AM

About "it is slow", using HTTP on a 1Gb network, loading a 2GB image should take 20 to 40 secs.

Now, because this quite a big iso, you need sufficient memory as it will first load the 2GB in memory.

Have you tried both sanboot and memdisk?

With sanboot, you can do over http or iscsi (more complex) - and you need less memory as it creates a block device (but your distro needs to support it). 

 

About the params, tough one as each distro has specific params...

I see a page on ipxe.org about installing RHEL over pxe (here).

On ipxe forum, I can also see an interesing thread (here) but from 2016 and maybe have a look at this one (here).

it may be that you have to extra some files to a folder and combine netbooting and providing a "repo" over http or nfs (see ubuntu live example here).

 

Before going to the initrd/vmlinuz way, i would really force my luck with memdisk/sanboot.



#5 Ankur.k1991

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Posted 20 May 2020 - 04:30 PM

Try This

http://reboot.pro/to...-network-serva/







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