Re: Testing the d-i.

[joe@nahmias.net (Joe Nahmias)]

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Shaul Karl wrote:
>   To what degree are the following methods usable for testing the d-i:
>
>   1. Using a serial console.
>   2. Using a dedicated card that redirects the console and keyboard that
>      the BIOS is using to a serial line.
>   3. A boot ROM on an Ethernet card.
Shaul,

First of all, if your network card supports PXE I highly recommend using
it over Etherboot -- this way you don't have to mess with floppies or
burning ROMs.

I am able to use PXE to boot Tollef's daily d-i builds[0] over the
network.  Also, my PXE config enables a serial console in addition to
the regular virtual one, but I haven't tested it yet because I haven't
gotten around to making the appropriate cable.  Let me know if you want
to try this and need the pinout.

To do this requires setting up a DHCP and a TFTP server for the test
machine and then configuring the DHCP server to point to the TFTP server
using the "next-server" directive.  The TFTP server then needs to be
configured to use pxelinux (from the syslinux package) to boot d-i.

My setup is pretty simple. I am currently running the DHCP and TFTP
servers on the same machine using the debian packages for dhcp3-server
and tftpd-hpa.  I download the daily d-i image and put it in the d-i
subdirectory of tftpboot and off I go.  The following snippets from my
config files may help you get set up.

Enjoy,

Joe Nahmias, DD wannabe

[0] http://people.debian.org/~tfheen/d-i/images/daily/

============8<========= Start /etc/dhcp3/dhcp.conf ============>8=========
authoritative;
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
  range 192.168.1.101 192.168.1.200;
  option routers 192.168.1.1;
  next-server 192.168.1.25;
  filename "/pxelinux.0";
}
=============8<========= End /etc/dhcp3/dhcp.conf ============>8==========

=======8<========= Start /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default =========>8=======
serial 0 9600 0x303
default d-i auto
prompt 1
say "Welcome to Joe's PXE boot server!"
say "Will boot linux in 10 seconds..."
timeout 100

label d-i
        kernel d-i/vmlinuz
        append load initrd=d-i/net-initrd.gz devfs=nomount console=ttyS0,9600 console=tty0
        ipappend 1
========8<========= End /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default =========>8========
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