boot Debian Installer Images via PXE over RIS PDF Print E-mail
Friday, 28 October 2005
played around a bit with Windows 2003 Server and RIS and finally managed to boot Debian Linux Installer Images via PXE over RIS (Remote Installation Service)

After setting up RIS and installing the first image you end up with a directory like: D:\RemoteInstall\ which is the root of your RIS server

Now to insert Debian Linux Installer Images I did the following:

  • Made the following Directories (you should change the path if you are working in a different language...):
\RemoteInstall\Setup\English\Images\PXELinux\i386\templates\
\RemoteInstall\Setup\English\Images\PXELinux\i386\templates\
pxelinux.cfg\
  • copied pxelinux.0 out of the SYSLINUX archiv to Setup\English\Images\PXELinux\i386\templates\ (The latest version of SYSLINUX can be downloaded in .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, and .zip formats from kernel.org )
  • put a pxelinux.sif in the templates directory (for content see listing below)
  • put a file named "default" in the pxelinux.cfg dir
  • put the kernel and initrd images in the templates directory ( Howto get the bootimages )
  • let a PXE client try what happens.

Well, it works...

content of "pxelinux.sif":

[OSChooser]
Description = "Boot Debian Linux Networkinstaller"
Help = "This option runs the Debian Linux netwoek installer."
LaunchFile = "Setup\English\Images\pxelinux\i386\templates\pxelinux.0"
ImageType = Flat
Version="1.01"

content of the "default" file in the pxelinux.cfg directory:

DEFAULT bootnet

LABEL bootnet
KERNEL linuximage
APPEND vga=normal load_ramdisk=1 ramdisk_size=16384
initrd=rootimage disksize=1.44 flavor=bf2.4

 

Where to get the images:

the kernel image:

http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-i386/current/bf2.4/linux.bin

rename the downloaded file to "linuximage" and place it in the \RemoteInstall\Setup\English\Images\PXELinux\i386\templates directory

the initrd image:

http://archive.progeny.com/debian/dists/woody/main/disks-i386/current/images-1.44/bf2.4/root.bin

rename the downloaded file to "rootimage" and place it in the \RemoteInstall\Setup\English\Images\PXELinux\i386\templates directory

you can find the same images on every debian mirror... other images will probably also work...



thanks goes to Christian "Dr. Disk" Hechelmann for his great document about syslinux and RIS ( http://syslinux.zytor.com/ris.php )

Last Updated ( Friday, 28 October 2005 )
 
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