Re: pxe booting qemu
Hi Michael,
On 9/23/2019 12:41 PM, Michael Kesper wrote:
> Hi John,
>
> On 23.09.19 10:27, john doe wrote:
>> I'm currently using the netinst.iso file to install Debian as a guest VM
>> using Qemu.
>> This approach works fine if you want to install multiple VM on the same
>> host.
>> My goal with using PXE booting is to test how to install from the
>> network using Qemu, that way, I can get everything the way I like before
>> implementing PXE booting on my network.
>
> I'd start with a real tftp server on a Debian box (You wrote that you were on windows).
> Configuration of tftp server with qemu and without are different and
> probably so different that it makes no sense to try the qemu one first.
>
Last note on Windows, and Qemu, all required files are to be in the root
directory of the qemu tftp server without symlinks.
From now on, I'm done with Windows/Qemu with regard to PXE booting.
>> What I want is:
>> - Fully install Debian from the network using a preseed file (the less I
>> do on the host on which I want to install Debian the better)
>
> preseed.cfg is the next step. You need to be able to get your boot media
> via network first.
>
I already have the preseed file working, for now, I do install Debian
from a usb key and at the boot prompt I fetch the preseed file from http
with something like:
boot: auto console=ttyS0,115200n8 interface=auto url=<host-name>
The all purpous of this is to avoid having to type the above line
everytime I install Debian! :)
Actually, I'm stuck at this very step, How do I go from having my boot
media from the network?
>> What I don't want:
>> - Using a phisical media (usb key, cd/dvd rom ...)
>>
>> As far as I understand it, PXE booting is the only way to avoid using a
>> usb key to install Debian, is that correct?
>
> Yes.
>
Okay, thanks.
> But in my opinion it's better to start from solid grounds:
> A reliable DHCP and TFTP server on a Debian system.
> Best if you start in a seperate network (or at least network segment) so you
> don't risk influencing your productive systems.
I'll create a small test network isolated from my production one to play
with all of this! :)
The PXE server will use Dnsmasq for PXE boot and the integrated TFTP server.
> Maybe it's even easier to start with an integrated solution like
> fai, I didn't try that yet.
>
Interesting...
> Oh, and by the way: If you try to pxeboot via UEFI, many tutorials etc.
> are plain wrong: You don't use pxelinux.0 in that case at all!
> You'll be loading bootnetx64.efi which then will load grubnetx64.efi.
> This enables (but does not depend on) secure boot.
>
> This guide is relatively good because you can verify that each step worked.
> No mentioning of UEFI pxe boot, though:
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/PXEBootInstall
>
> NB also this (from that guid):
>
> If the kernel in the netboot image gets out of sync with the kernel module packages,
> then the modules won't load and the install will fail,
> the usual symptoms are that messages about "missing symbols" appear
> in the ctrl-alt-f4 console.
>
> To fix this, update the kernel and initrd on the netboot server.
>
By doing 'apt-get update && apt-get upgrade'?
In other words, I can't provide PXE booting for Stretch hosts when the
PXE server is on Buster.
> About UEFI PXE, hava look at this thread:
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2019/02/msg00285.html
>
> FAI: http://fai-project.org/features/
>
I will take a look at all of this
I realy appriciate your help Michael, many thanks.
--
John Doe
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