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PXE Booting

DHCP Server​

Configure a DHCP server and set the next-server and filename options.

subnet 192.168.254.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
    ...
    next-server 192.168.254.2; # This is the TFTP server address
    filename "grub/grubx64.efi"; # This is the path to the GRUB bootloader
    ...
}
note

DHCP option codes 67 and 68 are not used for PXE booting!

PXE Server​

Configure a PXE booting server with the following dependencies:

TFP Service

Install a TFTP server package:

sudo apt install tftpd-hpa

Configure the TFTP service:

/etc/default/tftpd-hpa
TFTP_USERNAME="tftp"
TFTP_DIRECTORY="/srv/tftp"
TFTP_ADDRESS=":69"
TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure"
RUN_DAEMON="yes

Start and enable the TFTP service:

sudo systemctl restart tftpd-hpa
sudo systemctl enable tftpd-hpa

HTTP Service

Install a HTTP server to host any ISO images:

sudo apt install nginx

Preparing the Boot Images for Linux​

Ubuntu​

  1. Create distro specific folders in the root of the TFTP server
mkdir -p /srv/tftp/ubuntu/22.04/
  1. Download the latest live server ISO for the release you want to install:
wget https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-server/noble/daily-live/current/noble-live-server-amd64.iso
  1. Mount the ISO
mount noble-live-server-amd64.iso /mnt
  1. Copy the kernel and initrd from the ISO to the TFTP folder
cp /mnt/casper/{vmlinuz,initrd} /srv/tftp/ubuntu/22.04

TODO: Prepare cloud-init files

Rocky​

  1. Create distro specific folders in the root of the TFTP server
mkdir -p /srv/tftp/rocky/9/
  1. Download the kernel and boot image from download.rockylinux.org
wget https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/9/BaseOS/x86_64/os/isolinux/vmlinuz
wget https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/9/BaseOS/x86_64/os/isolinux/initrd.img
  1. Create kickstart files and place into the root of the HTTP server
rocky
└── 9
    ├── r9.ks
    └── r9-wks.ks

2 directories, 2 files

Preparing the Boot Menu for UEFI​

  1. Create a grub/ folder at the root of the TFTP server
mkdir -p /srv/tftp/grub/
  1. Download and copy the signed GRUB bootloader to the grub/ folder in the root of the TFTP server.
apt download grub-efi-amd64-signed
dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile grub-efi-amd64-signed*deb | tar x ./usr/lib/grub/x86_64-efi-signed/grubnetx64.efi.signed -O > /srv/tftp/grub/grubx64.efi
  1. Create the grub.cfg file and place into the grub/ folder
touch /srv/tftp/grub/grub.cfg
  1. Begin building the grub.cfg file and define any themes you wish to use.
set theme=/grub/themes/pxe/theme.txt

set default=0
set timeout=-1

terminal_output gfxter
set gfxpayload=keep
  1. Build out the boot menu entries for each OS
menuentry 'Install Ubuntu 22.04 (Server)' --class ubuntu {
    linux ubuntu/22.04/vmlinuz ip=dhcp url=http://192.168.254.2/ubuntu-22.04.4-live-server-amd64.iso autoinstall ds=nocloud-net;s=http://192.168.254.2/ubuntu/
    initrd ubuntu/22.04/initrd
}

menuentry 'Install Rocky Linux 9 (Server)' --class linux {
    linux rocky/9/vmlinuz ip=dhcp inst.ks=http://192.168.254.2/rocky/9/r9.ks
    initrd rocky/9/initrd.img
}