Setting Up A Multi boot PXE Install Server On Ubuntu Lucid

Setting Up A Multi boot PXE Install Server On Ubuntu Lucid

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

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 from HowtoForge, download.

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