AstRecipes » Installing Ubuntu over HTTP

It is very easy to install a new machine with Ubuntu or any other Debian-based distro using the PXE boot loader and fetching the distro right from the network (or from a local mirror).

You will need a separate machine - likely another Ubuntu - to set up a TFTP server and to configure the boot option using a local DHCP daemon. If you have another DHCP daemon you have to turn it off, as a DHCP daemon supporting TFTP boot must be provided.

You can install both the DHCP daemon and the TFTP server on Ubuntu using the following commands:

apt-get install tftpd-hpa

apt-get install dhcp3-server

You will then have to fetch the correct Netboot image file from Ubuntu and update the configuration for both services.

Downloading the Netboot image file
You can get the correct Netboot image file from e.g. http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/edgy/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/netboot.tar.gz.
You should download the netboot file from the distro you want to install, so that it's already configured with the correct mirror addresses.

Placing the Netboot image file in the TFTP directory
Run the following command to unpack your Netboot installer in the TFTP directory.

tar zxvf netboot.tar.gz -C /var/lib/tftpboot

Configuring your local DHCP server
Edit the file /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf to contain the following lines. I assume your subnet is 10.10.4.x and your DHCP server is 10.10.4.103:

ddns-update-style none;

option domain-name "mydomain.tld";

option domain-name-servers 212.158.248.5;

ping-check = 1;

default-lease-time 600;

max-lease-time 7200;

log-facility local7;

subnet 10.10.3.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {

range 10.10.3.200 10.10.3.210;

option routers 10.10.3.1;

filename="pxelinux.0";

next-server 10.10.4.103;

}

Make sure any other DHCP server on the LAN is turned off.

Starting services
Restart the local DHCP service and the local TFTP service.

/etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa restart

/etc/init.d/dhcp3-server restart

Booting the new machine
On the new computer, enable network boot.
Start it and it should "find" the new DHCP, download the image and boot with Ubuntu.
It will auto-configure itself and then ask for a mirror to download from.
Before you select the mirror, make sure you have your DSL connection working or it will just hang.

Stopping TFTP and DHCP
When you are done installing, do not forget to stop both the TFTP and the DHCP servers.

/etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa stop

/etc/init.d/dhcp3-server stop

Tags:
Debian

dhcp

install

pxe

tftp

Ubuntu