5. Installing Necessary Packages

We are going to install the packages required for the PXE server:

• tftpd-hpa - this is the file transfer server
• dhcp3-server - linux dhcp server, not needed if you allready have a dhcp server
• openbsd-inetd - new inetd server

sudo apt-get install tftpd-hpa dhcp3-server openbsd-inetd

6. Setting Up Tftp Server

Edit /etc/inet.conf to and ensure the line is correct, last part is important:

sudo gedit /etc/inetd.conf

tftp           dgram   udp     wait    root  /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd -s /tftpboot

Ensure that it reads /tftpboot rather than /var/lib/tftpboot.

We need to check that the tftpd server is running.

netstat -lu

Check for this line:

Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State     
udp        0          0             *:tftp                                *:*                               

If you don't see the tftp line, then go back and edit /etc/inet.conf again.

Then enable inetd at boot:

sudo update-inetd --enable BOOT

Now restart your inetd server:

sudo /etc/init.d/openbsd-inetd restart

Next we need to edit the /etc/default/tftpd-hpa file to change the boot directory:

sudo gedit /etc/default/tftpd-hpa

Change the file to look like this:

RUN_DAEMON="yes"
OPTIONS="-l -s /tftpboot"

Restart tftpd server:

sudo /etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa restart

We now need to create a folder to store our boot stuff in.

sudo mkdir /tftpboot

Now we need to change the user to nobody:

sudo chown nobody /tftpboot

Then we need to let everyone read and write to /tftpboot:

sudo chmod 777 /tftpboot

Now check if that worked:

ls -ld /tftpboot

You should see a line similar to this:

drwxrwxrwx 2 nobody root 4096 2010-01-28 15:04 /tftpboot

7. Setting Up DHCP Server

On what network interfaces should the DHCP server (dhcpd) serve DHCP requests? Answer this question by editing the line in /etc/default/dhcp3-server file. Separate multiple interfaces with spaces, e.g. "eth0 eth1". As I only want the DHCP server running on eth1, I need to change this line.

sudo gedit /etc/default/dhcp3-server

Change the INTERFACES line to:

INTERFACES="eth1"

Now we need to back up the configuration files for dhcpd server:

sudo cp /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf_orig

Now we can configure dhcpd:

sudo gedit /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf

Here is my file, you will need to change the values to suit.

default-lease-time 86400;
max-lease-time 604800;
authoritative;

subnet 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        range 192.168.2.2 192.168.2.255;
        filename "pxelinux.0";
        option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
        option broadcast-address 192.168.2.255;
        option routers 192.168.2.1;
}

This will dynamically assign IP addresses from the range 192.168.2.2 to 192.168.2.255 to your client computers. The gateway is 192.168.2.1.

It is important that you have the line filename "pxelinux.0"; in your configuration!

Then restart your DHCP server:

sudo /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server restart

If you already have a DHCP server in your network, you must modify its configuration. Let's assume you have something like

subnet 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        range 192.168.2.2 192.168.2.255;
        option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
        option broadcast-address 192.168.2.255;
        option routers 192.168.2.1;
}

in the configuration. You must add

filename "pxelinux.0";
next-server 192.168.2.100;

to it (where 192.168.2.100 is the IP address of our Ubuntu PXE server) so that it looks like this:

subnet 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        range 192.168.2.2 192.168.0.255;
        option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
        option broadcast-address 192.168.2.255;
        option routers 192.168.2.1;
        filename "pxelinux.0";
        next-server 192.168.2.100;
}

Now verify that it DHCP is running (if not, you may have a problem with you dhcp config file).

ps ax | grep dhcpd

8. Setting Up Boot Files

We now need to get the netboot files.

cd /tftpboot

Download files with lftp:

lftp -c "open http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/karmic/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/; mirror"

Instead, if Ubuntu is in your cdrom drive:

mount /media/cdrom
cp -a /media/cdrom/install/netboot/* /tftpboot/

Now we can add a splash screen to our configuration, first we need the versamenu.c32 file.

cp /tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/vesamenu.c32 /tftpboot

Second we need a splash image;

Here is one I created for HowtoForge, download.

lftp -c "get http://www.howtoforge.com/images/pxe_install_server_ubuntu_9.10/howtoforge_pxe.png;"

We then need to edit /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default to include our boot options and splash screen, the file is pretty self-explanatory.

sudo gedit /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

default vesamenu.c32
Menu Background howtoforge_pxe.png
Menu Title Boot Menu

label install
   menu label ^Install
   menu default
   kernel ubuntu-installer/i386/linux
   append vga=normal initrd=ubuntu-installer/i386/initrd.gz -- quiet

label expert
   menu label ^Expert install
   kernel ubuntu-installer/i386/linux
   append priority=low vga=normal initrd=ubuntu-installer/i386/initrd.gz --

label cli-expert
   menu label Command-^line expert install
   kernel ubuntu-installer/i386/linux
   append tasks=standard pkgsel/language-pack-patterns= pkgsel/install-language-support=false priority=low vga=normal initrd=ubuntu-installer/i386/initrd.gz --

label rescue
   menu label ^Rescue mode
   kernel ubuntu-installer/i386/linux
   append vga=normal initrd=ubuntu-installer/i386/initrd.gz rescue/enable=true -- quiet

label Local_drive
   localboot 0
   menu label ^Local Drive

prompt 0
timeout 0

Your /tftpboot directory should look like this:

/tftpboot/
/tftpboot/pxelinux.0
/tftpboot/mini.iso
/tftpboot/netboot.tar.gz
/tftpboot/howtoforge_pxe.png
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/initrd.gz
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/linux
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/pxelinux.0
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/pxelinux.cfg
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/pxelinux.cfg/default
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/adtext.cfg
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/f1.txt
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/f2.txt
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/f3.txt
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/f4.txt
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/f5.txt
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/f6.txt
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/f7.txt
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/f8.txt
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/f9.txt
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/f10.txt
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/menu.cfg
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/po4a.cfg
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/prompt.cfg
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/splash.png
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/stdmenu.cfg
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/text.cfg
/tftpboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/boot-screens/vesamenu.c32
/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

9. Booting The Client

(Please make sure that the computers that you don't want to reinstall have the network boot option disabled in their BIOS settings because otherwise it is possible that you or someone else accidentally installs Ubuntu over the existing operating system!)

Now you can boot up your first client computer. Make sure you specified in its BIOS settings that it should use the network as its first boot device. If everything goes well, you should see the splash screen, and you can choose from one of the installation options from the /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default file.

Don't forget to change the order of the boot devices after the successful installation (e.g. disable booting over the network and make the HDD the first boot device) because otherwise you will start another installation!