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TOPIC: Net-booting YDL



Looking for a way to boot YDL off a remote server? Here's how.

Step 1): Set up dhcp server
  • Make sure the package dhcp is installed on your system.
  • Edit /etc/dhcpd.conf:
  • Below is an example dhcpd.conf file:

    subnet 192.168.10.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
       filename "yaboot";
       range dynamic-bootp 192.168.10.2 192.168.10.100;
    }
    subnet 10.0.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { }


  • You must change the subnets to that of your interfaces. Every interface
    must have a corresponding subnet declaration (leave subnet declarations empty
    for interfaces which you don't want to listen for requests on)
  • Change the range to a range of ip's on your subnet.
  • See man dhcpd.conf for more info
  • Start the dhcpd server:

    service dhcpd start

Step 2): Set up tftp
  • Make sure you have package tftp-server installed
  • Enable tftp:

    chkconfig tftp on

  • Restart xinetd:

    service xinetd restart

  • Create a directory called /tftpboot

    mkdir /tftpboot

  • Copy the yaboot binary to /tftpboot

    cp /usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot /tftpboot

  • Create the file /tftpboot/yaboot.conf
  • Below is an example:

    timeout=30
    default=linux
    image=vmlinux
       label=linux
       initrd=ramdisk.image.gz


  • This is an example if you have created a ramdisk.
  • If the netbooting machine has a filesystem on it's harddrive, you would change initrd to:

    initrd=/dev/hda[part]

    Where [part] is whatever partition the root filesystem is on.
  • Copy your netboot kernel to /tftpboot
  • Strip it

    strip /tftpboot/[kernel name]

  • Create an alias to it called vmlinux:

    ln -s [kernel name] /tftpboot/vmlinux

Step 3) Netboot the node
  • Make sure both machines are connected to the network, and boot the node, holding down the 'n' key.
  • You can watch the messages for helpful clues:

    tail -f /var/log/{messages,secure}
This HOW-TO was found in a random directory of Troy Vitullo's hard drive.


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