On Wed 23 Apr 2008 17:10:08 NZST +1200, John Carter wrote:

> So I was wondering about rolling out distros to lots of PC's via netboot.

I have this working too. You need a PXE capable network card/BIOS. BIOS
broadcasts a DHCP request, the reply needs to include client IP, server
IP, DNS server if you need name resolution (easier to set out without it
for starters), and the tftp URL of a boot image.

You need to set up:

DHCP server: bind is fine. The candidates in consumer adsl routers are
useless (not flexible enough). The one in pfSense is ok, but you can not
make the boot-relevant parameters dependent on the client (it can handle
them only globally). This is a restriction of the pfSense BUI. Email me
for a php hack to make it work anyway if it's of use to you.

tftp server: for the boot image.

ftp/http server: for the distro installation files.

> I love having wireshark (on a minihub) :-))

Yep, great tool, the guys deserve a medal.

Volker

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Volker Kuhlmann                 is list0570 with the domain in header
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