a post I found called "Diskless PXE netboot How-To for Debian 8 Jessie"
explains this process but Its written for Debian. but...

I have (1) 32 bit 3.2GHZ PC running slackware and (1) IBM 64 bit SCSI server i'm in the learning stage of slackware linux and have been spending days reading these forums that long ago I signed up to. I see documentation everywhere searching slackware.com and LQ on PXE boot, Ive installed from my server using a boot disc image to load the "Default in the box PXE server", after about 15 runs back and forth failing and failing, Im up.

Im happy im up but I got 4 problems now,
1) I installed the 32 bit version of slackware instead of the 64bit on my IBM server.
2) I used the wrong type of scsi Aray at install that i wanted.
3) trying to burn copies of slackware from my original ubuntu pc, my drive died(old pc).
4) Worried that running the "how to made for debian" will mess up my slackware linux.

This is what I want to accomplish,
1) I want to mount the 64 bit image on my true 32bit slackware install
2) then I want to install the slackware version on my 64bit server using pxe boot.
3) then I want to disable the PXE boot on the 32bit machine
4) I want to keep it PXE boot ready just in case I mess up something on my server i can reinstall with a simple /etc/rc.d/rc.pxe start then I can reboot my server and install via network

my questions,
1) is what I want accomplished possible using only out of the box on slackware?
2) if so, is the file I need to adjust the /etc/dnsmasq.conf?(i noticed PXE options in this file when I was trying to configure DHCP server on my IBM Server, but there is alot of confusing to me jargon used in this file and the man.)if so how?
4) what major Linux Distros match Slackware better then others, I noticed that slackware can convert red-hat RPM files to Slackware, does this mean that slackware resembles Redhat the best and I can use configurations from redhat?

the last thing that i want to do is mess up my Slackware installs on both PCs at this point im out of options, well at least until Christmas when Ill have some money for a new drive and a purchase a copy of Slackware to show my love.

I'm keeping a human readable version of all these processes because i could only assume that I have a doppelganger somewhere out there that needs this info to.

if all of this is explained somewhere I apologize I've searched a lot and keep coming up to almost solving my issue but the answer being for another distribution.

Hi,

If you look at usb-and-pxe-installers/ on your ISO you will find; Be sure to read the entire text.
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks so much. i was looking everywhere for documentation for this and I never once though at all to look on the actual image. One more question that i cannot find the answer to.

The source DVD ISO. is that for me to install packages from? im just confused with the source dvd purpose because so far installing Slackware I have yet to "require" the need of the DVD source disc. Ive been using the install DVD only and ive been installing my packages from slackbuilds...

thanks again. this stuff makes more sense each and every day and this Emacs text editor is so much better then vi that I was using. i cant wait till Christmas im buying my kids and me some Slackware shirts!i love how my kids prefer playing around in Slackware too! sorry i rant sometimes.

On several occasions in the documentation on installing Slackware there is talk about a "SOURCE". This is not the sourcecode, but the source of the packages that need to be installed. You only need the install DVD therefore.

As for installing on that 64bit server, perhaps you can explain why this has to be done using PXE boot? What other boot capabilities does this server have? Your problem is that the other PC apparently has a 32bit CPU and therefore incapable of booting a 64bit DVD? In that case, PCE boot is not going to work because the other PC is only going to become a 32bit Slackware PXE server which means your server will be unable to get a 64bit OS on it.
If the server has a USB boot option, you can transfer the content of the DVD to an USB stick.
If you can temporarily use a friend's 64bit-capable computer or laptop, then you can use PXE boot to install 64bit Slackware onto your server.

1 members found this post helpful.

I wrote that blog post, but it has nothing to do with what you want, if I understand correctly. My How-To describes how to use PXE to netboot an nfs install of Debian. This does NOT run the Debian installer or any other installer over PXE. Rather, it has the entire OS running on an nfs root. No local drive is necessary. In fact, it's ideal for diskless systems. When you boot up, it boots up with the "/" file system on nfs instead of a local drive. It does NOT boot up to any sort of installer, nor does it give any option to run an installer after booting up to a normal desktop (or console).

It sounds like you want to run a linux installer via PXE, which is a very different thing.

1 members found this post helpful.

I am currently going thru the documentation on booting from HDD.

my USB drive that I have on hand for some reason doesn't work right, i plug it in on any PC and it kinda goes in and out of readability so i am almost positive its broke. I can definitely pick up a new one next payday. issue with discs I incorrectly burned a bunch o discs trying to burn Slackware to them only to have my burning process fail all 10 times at checking the MD5 and freezing but more will come but, payday as well, and I cant wait till I buy the slack disc set too.

i was using the one drive in both the ibm server and the PC, it was very annoying but with incorrectly discs burned I was able to partially load the broke disc and use PXE on the PC to install slack 32 on the Server and vice versa, using the broken USB drive to load all the packages, once I got slack partially installed I mounted the USB stick that had everything but KDE on it, I don't think KDE will even run on the PC (didn't work with Ubuntu, but may work on the server when I get my Geforce FX 5600 installed and a DVI cable for my Vid card. Not that I care really, i LOVE this tabbed windows manager and kinda wanna try the blackbox next!

i know I got this, but I keep coming up blank sometimes with the command examples within the man pages, as far as the structure of what I actually need, like some examples say foo -a <source> <destination> do i omit the <,>? or do they go in. I look online and I find like examples and i hesitate to even use the option, i feel dumb sometimes about it and to embarrassed to even ask.

now i think i got a good grasp of what you-all are talking about and I think this HDD install copying the bzimage and that other file in the howto to the specific folders that I create then creating the entry in lilo.conf (the bootloader that I chose and like, the only one Ive had experience with.) then I run lilo then reboot. then on bootup Im worried about my iso of all my install packages, it says that I should just continue like normal but Im so worried because the process is fdisk then do swap then source then format and then install pkgs. im not the smartest but I can only assume once i do this Im gonna Format the /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3 number 2 is my swap and 1 is my / and 3 is my /home can I get away with installing from home without formating sda3? if my install blows away slackware ill be in a crappy boat with no PC till i get paid next, well depending on how big my paycheck is...

alien bob, thanks so much for a lot of your documentation out there, its been a real big help for me to piece a lot of this together so far, before I started all this I was completely self taught(well Reading official slackware Docs Taught...). its been hard around my area and everyone around me is into everything except PCs so when I learn how to do something i dont generally know what I am doing but it works but when it does work i dont know why it works I tend to try to read man pages or slackdocs or yer stuff until I figure it out.

I was getting real confused to in the documentation and I had no Idea it was even possible to PXE boot until last week or the week before when i stumbled upon it in a forum, and I blindly started typing copy pasting stuff... big mistake, in order for me to get my ubuntu back i found a super old ubuntu disc and installed it just to get the slackware ISO downloaded PXE installed the server then pxe from the server to the PC.

it is my first experience with owning my own server! never even heard of RAID before. that was the 2 week task before this task :P (needed a boot disc to configure RAID from BIOS who knew???? not me.. lol)

I just don't wanna do it all again right now. so im trying to find out all my options and to execute the option that is of the shortest and easiest path at the moment due to financial restraints for the rest of the next 2 weeks.

I have downloaded both the slackware and slackware 64 install discs, the PC has the image in /home/methinx/Downloads that is mounted on sda3 and the server has its iso install disc /home/srv01/Downloads so i am ready I just dont want to proceed and loose my curent installs untill I get some blank discs or a new USB drive.

ohh and under the man for mount it says at the bottom of the documentation to type in "mount pathto.img -o loop /mnt" but in some other howto it says to call -o loop before the pathto.img but also it says in the Man page for mounting an image that I can use "mount pathto.img /mnt" is the latter only possible becaue something was added down the line to auto find loop devices? and am i using this correctly? what is a loop device? a fake CD rom? it works both ways to mount the ISO of the DVD i just don't wanna do it the wrong way. i think i may be over thinking a few things in my process.

every bit of help is awesome and very much appreciated!!