Re: How to install Debian on a diskless NFS client?

[Urs Thuermann <urs@isnogud.escape.de>]

Sorry for my late reply.  I have been busy with other things so
continued my diskless install a couple of weeks after your answer.


"daxxar@gmail.com" <daxxar@gmail.com> writes:

> I think what you want to do now is something like this:
> mount -t proc none /tftpboot/client-dir
> chroot /tftpboot/client-dir bin/bash
> 
> Then do basic tasks like;
>  passwd - set a root password (and perhaps adduser a new user)
>  /etc/hostname - set up the hosts name
> 
> [...]

OK, this is the second way to do the install that I have asked in my
first posting.  I did do this now and succeeded.  So thanks for your
answer.

However, I think the installer should be modified to not only support
booting via DHCP/TFTP, but also installing on NFS mounted directories
instead of local disks only.

I see several reason why I think this would be better than doing the
install on the server using debootsrap:
* Installation from the usual install would be easier
* The installation as you suggested requires that the server must also
  be running Linux and be of the same architecture.  Otherwise, you
  couldn't mount /proc and chroot into the directory created by
  debootsrap.

Also, I think the required modifications in the installer would
probably not that large.

urs