Arch Linux

morphete

Member

Registered: 2014-10-24

Posts: 6

How to configure Netboot server for install ArchLinux.

Hi,

I want to install Arch Linux from a netboot server located in the same LAN. This server run Arch Linux. I seen this article in wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PXE to configure the server, but i need the iso image.

My question is: It's possible run the netboot server just using the PXE images that listed here? https://www.archlinux.org/releng/netboot/  (ipxe.pxe and ipxe.efi)

Thanks in advance.

alive4ever

Member

Registered: 2016-07-10

Posts: 65

Re: How to configure Netboot server for install ArchLinux.

It's possible, but it's a waste of time and bandwidth to download Arch Linux iso only to be used once since it's loaded to ram and discarded after shutdown.

To speed things up, you should at least have a kernel and initramfs on the PXE server, which can be served over http or tftp, PxeLinux (part of syslinux package) can do http boot, which is notably faster than tftp boot.

To boot things over http, you just need to advertise lpxelinux.0 for bios client and syslinux.efi for uefi clients and configure the tftp boot server as needed.

/srv/boot/syslinux/pxelinux.cfg/default

UI menu.c32
LABEL Archboot HTTP (64 bit)
   LINUX http://192.168.0.1/archboot/x86_64/vmlinuz_x86_64
   INITRD http://192.168.0.1/archboot/x86_64/initramfs_x86_64.img
   APPEND rootfstype=ramfs

Basic dnsmasq.conf to serve pxe boot file (lpxelinux.0 and syslinux.efi)

enable-tftp
tftp-root=/srv/boot/syslinux
dhcp-boot=lpxelinux.0,192.168.1.1,192.168.1.1
dhcp-match=set:efi-x86_64,option:client-arch,7
dhcp-boot=tag:efi-x86_64,syslinux.efi

Of course, you could also follow the PXE wiki. Mount official iso file and serve the needed files and pxe should boot just fine.

Last edited by alive4ever (2016-07-16 06:39:01)