Hello All, I ran into another issue with my PXE build out. I searched the net and found many people with the same issue, but there was either no response or their solution would not work for my needs (requiring access to software I don't have). What I am after with this is a completely unmanaged automated install of a client on boot.
I am using dnsmasq as my DNS, DHCP, and TFTP server. I have a server and a client. The client boots off the network card with PXE. It asks for and receives a IP from the DHCP server and proceeds with pulling the TFTP information. The TFTP server passes it a pxelinux.0 file along with the "default" configuration. The configuration has a kickstart file and the client continues with a flawless install of SL6.1. After the install, the client reboots...and the whole process starts over and over and over again. I know why it does this (the default boot option is to install), but I can't figure out how to control it. What I would like is a process where I boot the clients from an off state, have them do a fresh install, and then reboot into the new install. Nothing is stored on these nodes and a fresh install goes rather quickly so I don't mind this option. At first I tried scripting an option that just toggled the tftp default menu but it wasn't working very smoothly as not all my hosts boot at equal speeds. I attempted chainloading in the tftp but just made a mess and I didn't get any different results. Most likely due to me not understanding it properly. I am open to pointers. I thought I could do it inside of DNSMasq, but I couldn't find a good example and my attempts didn't work. I looked online and found projects like systemimager.org but I am already doing most of what they provide. I attempted to reverse their perl scripts but that is a bigger project then I initially thought. What I did like about this project was the ability to tell it to allow a single host or a group of hosts to reinstall or to boot off the hard disk. I have gotten some great pointers from this list so far and I am really hoping someone might have another for me. Any ideas? Thanks! ~Stack~
