Bug#254735: PXE/netboot installation: success

[Frans Pop <aragorn@tiscali.nl>]

Package: installation-reports
Version: TC1

Triggered by a question on #debian-boot and my own curiosity, I decided to try 
and netboot d-i for my Toshiba Satellite A40 laptop using PXE booting.

Here's how I did it.
The documentation (d-i manual) is not quite correct, but the solutions were 
fairly easy after combining info from several places
I'll update the relevant parts of the manual.

Preparing the server
====================
I already had dhcp3-server installed on a Woody server in my network.
- installed packages atftpd (tftpd does not work!)
  installing atftpd with all options default works
- installed package syslinux
  only one file from this package is needed; I purged it after copying that
- create directory /tftpboot (world readable, contents also)
- cp /usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /tftpboot
- wget netboot files (initrd.gz, mini.iso, vmlinuz) into /tftpboot
  I downloaded the TC1 version
- create file 'default' in new directory /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/ (see below)
- edit /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf (see below)
- boot laptop => d-i starts :-)
That's all!

First installation test
=======================
The installation using only default options (getting both d-i modules and base 
system from the network) went perfectly.

Second installation test
========================
I next set up netboot to start d-i at medium priority (nice :-).
I selected cdrom-detect as an extra installer module to load, because I wanted 
to see if I could install the base-system from CD-ROM. So I selected 'Detect 
and mount CD-ROM' after 'Load installer components'.
After I selected 'Install the base system' it started installation off the 
CD-ROM automatically :-).
Note: netboot d-i and the CD have to be compatible; combining TC1 netboot with 
sid_d-i CD-ROM results in 'Debbootstrap error: Couldn't download libdb2'.
After switching the CD to the TC1 version, everything worked perfectly again.

/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default (last two lines actually on same line)
==============================
LABEL linux
   KERNEL vmlinuz
   APPEND load initrd=initrd.gz ramdisk_size=8192 devfs=mount root=/dev/ram \
          DEBCONF_PRIORITY=medium

Not sure if the 'load' option is necessary...

Addition to /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf (can probably be improved a bit)
=================================
host tftpserver {
   fixed-address 10.x.x.x;
   hardware ethernet AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF;
}

host pxeclient {
   hardware ethernet UU:VV:WW:XX:YY:ZZ;
   fixed-address 10.x.x.y;
   option host-name "pxeclient";

   filename "/tftpboot/pxelinux.0";
   next-server tftpserver;
}

Cheers,
FJP