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Getting Started - PXE boot (v0.10.x)


By punkytse - Posted on 01 May 2015

README.pxe
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                     __  __
                     \ \/ /___ __  __ ___  ___  ___
                      \  // _ \\ \/ /,-_ |/ _ |/ -_)
                       \/ \___/ \  / \___,\_  |\___|
                               _/_/        _'_|
                         { V o y a g e } - L i n u x
                          < http://linux.voyage.hk >
==============================================================================

This README.pxe provide information on how to start a PXE+NFS server for 
network booting environment using Voyage Live CD. This is useful to install 
voyage from Live CD over the network.

==============================================================================
Starting the Live CD as PXE server
==============================================================================

To start PXE environment from live-cd, after login root (password: voyage) ,
type:

	# remountrw
	# /etc/init.d/voyage-pxe start 

where  is the serial console speed.  Without this parameter, the 
default is 9600.  Hence, to start PXE server for WRAP/ALIX board, you should:

	# remountrw
	# /etc/init.d/voyage-pxe start 38400
	
You can also set  to 0 to disable serial console.  This is useful 
for booting generic PC.

The PXE enviroment on the Live CD assumes eth0 is connected to the network.  
/etc/init.d/voyage-pxe will set 192.168.1.200 to eth0, start a TFTP and NFS
sevice, also start dnsmasq to offer DHCP lease of 192.168.1.10-20 for netboot.

To shutdown PXE server environment, 

	# /etc/init.d/voyage-pxe stop

==============================================================================
Booting a PXE client and starting automated installation
==============================================================================

Start your WRAP/Soekric board or PC to boot from network. When the bootloader 
is loaded, you have several options:
	
  1. PXE Boot Voyage Linux with a login shell
  2. Start automated install for WRAP (/dev/hda and 38400 serial console)
  3. Start automated install for ALIX (/dev/hda and 38400 serial console)
  4. Start automated install for APU (/dev/hda and 115200 serial console)
  5. Start automated install for 45/48xx (/dev/hda and 19200 serial console)
  6. Start automated install for 55xx (/dev/hda and 19200 serial console)
  7. Start automated install for 6501 (/dev/hda and 19200 serial console)
  8. Start automated install for gerenic PC (/dev/hda and no serial console)

The boot prompt will wait for 5 seconds.  After the timeout, option 1 (login
shell) will be started automatically. 

*** Please note that option 2-6 for automated install will erase your disk on
    /dev/hda and install a fresh copy of Voyage Linux.  Make sure you know what 
    it is going to do before choosing option 2-6.

==============================================================================
Installing Voyage Linux on a PXE booted environment
==============================================================================

If you want to go through all the steps for manual install, select option 1.
After boot with a login shell, you can login as root.  To install voyage under 
netboot environment, you can follow the below procedures:

1. Create distribution directory for installation

	# mkdir /tmp/root
	# mount -o loop /lib/live/mount/medium/live/filesystem.squashfs /tmp/root
	# cd /tmp/root

Note: for version < 0.9~rc2, use
	mount -o loop /live/image/live/filesystem.squashfs /tmp/root


2. Make a mount point for installation disk

	# mkdir /tmp/cf

3. Format target disk device

	# /usr/local/sbin/format-cf.sh /dev/hda    
	
This will create /dev/hda1 ext2 partition on /dev/hda disk device. 
** Note that this operation is very dangerous since it will erase your disk! 
   Make sure what you are doing and must do it right!
   
4. Start voyage.update installation script
	
	# /usr/local/sbin/voyage.update

Following the instruction to select /tmp/root as distribution directory, and 
/tmp/cf as mount point.  After the installation complete, simple reboot the
board and Voyage will be started!

Note: You may get read-only file system messages after exiting installation.
This is normal because your settings cannot be updated on a mounted squashfs.

There are some additional packages installed for PXE and NFS server.  After
starting Voyage, you can safely remove them by:

	# remountrw
	# apt-get remove syslinux atftpd nfs-kernel-server \
                     bzip2 sg3-utils minicom

After all, remove the last line in /etc/dnsmasq.more.conf:
	conf-file=/etc/dnsmasq.pxe.conf

Important Note:
The current NFS server and client code is unstable for long time use.  Hence,
it is not recommended to use PXE+NFS environment for real production.  It is
only good for installing Voyage Linux at the moment.

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