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. > 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. > 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. 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. Maybe it's even easier to start with an integrated solution like fai, I didn't try that yet. 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. About UEFI PXE, hava look at this thread: https://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2019/02/msg00285.html FAI: http://fai-project.org/features/ Best wishes Michael
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