Hello all,

i am trying to boot linux pc from network booting.. so using pxe,tftp,dhcp


(1).

i configured my /etc/dhcpd.conf file as...

ddns-update-style none;
ignore client-updates;
allow booting;
allow bootp;
authoritative;

subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {

option routers 192.168.0.1;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option broadcast-address 192.168.0.255;
option domain-name “example.com”;
option domain-name-servers 192.168.0.1;
option time-offset -18000; # Eastern Standard Time
range dynamic-bootp 192.168.0.127 192.168.0.130;
default-lease-time 21600;
max-lease-time 43200;

class “pxeclients” {
match if substring(option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = “PXEClient”;
next-server 192.168.0.120;
filename “linux-install/pxelinux.0″;
}
}



(2). i configure my tftp as..

yum install tftp

/tfptboot/linux-install/linux =>folder
/tfptboot/linux-install/msgs =>folder
/tfptboot/linux-install/pxelinux.cfg =>folder
/tfptboot/linux-install/pxelinux.0 =>file

i added vmlinuz, initrd.img and ks.cfg file to /linux
i added boot.img,general.img,param.img,rescue.img,option.img to /msgs
i made a default configuration file in /pxelinux.cfg

default file containing..

default linux
timeout 100
prompt 1
display msgs/boot.msg
F1 msgs/boot.msg
F2 msgs/general.msg
F3 msgs/expert.msg
F4 msgs/param.msg
F5 msgs/rescue.msg
F7 msgs/snake.msg

label linux
kernel Linux/vmlinuz
append initrd=Linux/initrd.img ramdisk_size=7000
ks=nfs:192.168.0.120:/home/ks.cfg



(3). i shared /home directory in nfs..


(4). service nfs restart , chkconfig nfs on
service xinetd restart , chkconfig xinetd on
service dhcpd restart , chkconfig dhcpd on



(5). When trying to boot any client pc by network booting..
its showing...

Missing parameter in config file.
boot:

After sometime it automatically start and take linux askmethod ( i guess) coz if i am giving in boot prompt "linux ks=nfs:.../ks.cfg"
its booting from kickstart,

That means its not taking "linux ks=nfs:...:/ks.cfg" in its boot prompt , instead of that it is taking " linux askmethod ".


I had tried alot from last 5 days , now i am not getting why its not taking kickstart file in its boot prompts.

nfs working fine, no SELinux , no Firewell , no iptable ,

plz somebody explain me why its not working and also what is missing in that default configuration file,coz its showing like that.

any help would be great for me.

take care.

From RH site.

"The Red Hat Linux installation program looks for a kickstart file if the ks command line argument is passed to the kernel. The command line argument can take a number of forms:

ks=nfs:<server>:/<path>

The installation program will look for the kickstart file on the NFS server <server>, as file <path>. The installation program will use DHCP to configure the Ethernet card. For example, if your NFS server is server.example.com and the kickstart file is in the NFS share /mydir/ks.cfg, the correct boot command would be ks=nfs:server.example.com:/mydir/ks.cfg. "

So first I'd view nfs mount remotely just to see if it is indeed correct. Then I'd look at my ks file.


I will admit I am confused a bit by this statement.

"ks

If ks is used alone, the installation program will configure the Ethernet card in the system using DHCP. The system will use the "bootServer" from the DHCP response as an NFS server to read the kickstart file from (by default, this is the same as the DHCP server). The name of the kickstart file is one of the following:

*

If DHCP is specified and the bootfile begins with a /, the bootfile provided by DHCP is looked for on the NFS server.
*

If DHCP is specified and the bootfile begins with something other then a /, the bootfile provided by DHCP is looked for in the /kickstart directory on the NFS server.
*

If DHCP did not specify a bootfile, then the installation program tries to read the file /kickstart/1.2.3.4-kickstart, where 1.2.3.4 is the numeric IP address of the machine being installed. ?

Thanks jefro.... ur post was full of information..
but as i am new to linux ,, i couldnt understand last part regarding ks, that u mentioned ,
if DHCP is specified and bootfile start with / , without / .....
are you talking about "linux-install/pxelinux.0"....
i didnt get this part of your post.. but still the post was full of information...

And fortunately some hit and trial worked for me.....

Actually i was using one more virtual NIC in my pc, so i did not set which NIC i am configuring for DHCP ,,,, so i revised my /pxelinux.cfg/default file , in last line... i added ksdevice=eth0.

append initrd=Linux/initrd.img ksdevice=eth0 ramdisk_size=7000 ks=nfs:192.168.0.120:/home/ks.cfg

and its now accepting kickstart file , woowoowwwooo

I love Linux.... its full of challenges..

Good work!

I don't want to hijack anyone's thread, but I'm also having pretty much this exact same problem, except host and client are both VMs. Should I just start another thread?

Yep,

On VM's I'd start out with both having only local network access. Local, Nat and bridged are common choices.