Booting linux from tftp

Here is my situation.
I would like to boot livecd from a network.
I figured the easiest way(not the most efficient) is to convert
the whole livecd to initrd image and then boot it from tftp server.
Assume that the computer has sufficient memory to handle this huge initrd
image.
I'm not sure as to details of how this might be done although i think I'm on
the right track.
thanks for any suggestions.

On 05/09/2009 08:09 AM, asdf wrote:
> Here is my situation.
> I would like to boot livecd from a network.
> I figured the easiest way(not the most efficient) is to convert
> the whole livecd to initrd image and then boot it from tftp server.
> Assume that the computer has sufficient memory to handle this huge initrd
> image.
> I'm not sure as to details of how this might be done although i think I'm on
> the right track.
> thanks for any suggestions.

I think, it is better you access only the kernel and an initrd image via
tftp, the init/linuxrc script in the said initrd should access and mount
rest of the CD/ISO or partition over NFS.

You may check how the Debian Live, Larch and Knoppix do it:
http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/
http://larch.berlios.de/
http://www.knoppix.net/

Hope that helps
--
Balwinder S "bdheeman" Dheeman Registered Linux User: #229709
Anu'z Linux@HOME (Unix Shoppe) Machines: #168573, 170593, 259192
Chandigarh, UT, 160062, India Plan9, T2, Arch/Debian/FreeBSD/XP
Home: http://cto.homelinux.net/~bsd/ Visit: http://counter.li.org/

On Sat, 09 May 2009 08:53:00 +0530, Balwinder S Dheeman wrote:

> On 05/09/2009 08:09 AM, asdf wrote:
>> Here is my situation.
>> I would like to boot livecd from a network.
>> I figured the easiest way(not the most efficient) is to convert
>> the whole livecd to initrd image and then boot it from tftp server.
>> Assume that the computer has sufficient memory to handle this huge initrd
>> image.
>> I'm not sure as to details of how this might be done although i think I'm on
>> the right track.
>> thanks for any suggestions.
>
> I think, it is better you access only the kernel and an initrd image via
> tftp, the init/linuxrc script in the said initrd should access and mount
> rest of the CD/ISO or partition over NFS.

I can't remember exactly how I did this with Slackware a few years ago,
but it was something along those lines - initial boot phase just fetched
the bare minimum and then everything else ran across NFS.

I've used TFTP before for booting X terminals, but I think I went some
other route for Linux... I'll try and tickle some more braincells later
:-)

cheers

Jules

I tried this today with Fedora Livecd 9 and 10 and both times got initrd to
large and then kernel trap. Any idea why this is happening. I will try Slax
next.

thanks for replying


buck wrote:

> On Fri, 08 May 2009 22:39:52 -0400, asdf <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>Here is my situation.
>>I would like to boot livecd from a network.
>>I figured the easiest way(not the most efficient) is to convert
>>the whole livecd to initrd image and then boot it from tftp server.
>>Assume that the computer has sufficient memory to handle this huge initrd
>>image.
>>I'm not sure as to details of how this might be done although i think I'm
>>on the right track.
>>thanks for any suggestions.
>
> I do this with Slax. I have a laptop that runs the Slax CD in tftp
> mode and my other computers set to boot from NIC. I do NOT (although
> I used to) boot the entire image via tftp. Slax is a far better way.
> --
> buck

--
news

asdf wrote:

> Here is my situation.
> I would like to boot livecd from a network.
> I figured the easiest way(not the most efficient) is to convert
> the whole livecd to initrd image and then boot it from tftp server.

NO. Just boot the disc from the share

> Assume that the computer has sufficient memory to handle this huge initrd
> image.
> I'm not sure as to details of how this might be done although i think I'm
> on the right track.

Hell, no. You are way off.

> thanks for any suggestions.

Why don't you make an iso file of the cd and mount it, then share the mounted directory?

mount -o loop -t iso9660 ./filenameofcd.iso /mnt/filenameofcd

/etc/export
/mnt/filenameofcd *(ro,async)

exportfs -ra

Just seems a bit silly to try "kernelizing" the entire disk. You say you have limited RAM, the method you propose will need more RAM that is the size of the disc you are trying to boot.

:-) Peter