Setting up a netboot server is surprisingly easy, but I have not found comprehensive guides.

What you really need:

• DHCP Server, from which your client receives an IP-Address and the Address to a tftp server
• TFTP Server, where a bootloader and one or more images are located

TFTP Server

• install a tftp server package with support for xinet (that is the normal one)
• xinetd is a daemon, which listens on specified ports and pipes the traffic to a program one can specify in config. In this case we want a tftp config file, where you can also specify a root path for your tftp server:
  
  /etc/xinetd.d/tftp

  service tftp { socket_type = dgram protocol = udp wait = yes user = root server = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd server_args = -s /home/max/kolibrios/netboot/ disable = no per_source = 11 cps = 100 2 flags = IPv4 }

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  service tftp {         socket_type             = dgram         protocol                = udp         wait                    = yes         user                    = root         server                  = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd         server_args             = -s /home/max/kolibrios/netboot/         disable                 = no         per_source              = 11         cps                     = 100 2         flags                   = IPv4 }

  
  Notice: If you are using SELinux and want to use a directory in a users home directory (like in that example), you will have to tell SELinux about it:
  
  #!/bin/sh

  setsebool -P tftp_home_dir 1

  1	setsebool -P tftp_home_dir 1

DHCP Server

• the installation package is most likely called dhcp or dhcp-server or dhcpd. It will not preinstalled in most cases as normal users do not need it.
• the most important part in our dhcpd.conf-file is the subnet part. It acts like a filter and will only become active for interfaces, which are in the ip range (starting with 192.168.178.0 in the following example).
  
  /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf

  allow booting; allow bootp; option space PXE; option PXE.mtftp-ip code 1 = ip-address; option PXE.mtftp-cport code 2 = unsigned integer 16; option PXE.mtftp-sport code 3 = unsigned integer 16; option PXE.mtftp-tmout code 4 = unsigned integer 8; option PXE.mtftp-delay code 5 = unsigned integer 8; option arch code 93 = unsigned integer 16; # RFC4578 subnet 192.168.178.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { option routers 192.168.178.1; range 192.168.178.60 192.168.178.100; next-server 192.168.178.26; filename "pxelinux.0"; }

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  allow booting; allow bootp;   option space PXE; option PXE.mtftp-ip    code 1 = ip-address; option PXE.mtftp-cport code 2 = unsigned integer 16; option PXE.mtftp-sport code 3 = unsigned integer 16; option PXE.mtftp-tmout code 4 = unsigned integer 8; option PXE.mtftp-delay code 5 = unsigned integer 8; option arch code 93 = unsigned integer 16; # RFC4578   subnet 192.168.178.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {         option routers 192.168.178.1;         range 192.168.178.60 192.168.178.100;         next-server 192.168.178.26;         filename "pxelinux.0"; }

filename “pxelinux.0” loads a bootloader from the syslinux project (think of it as a network grub if you like). This file must be accessible through your previously configured tftp server.

starting the dhcp server

After you have modified the addresses and saved the configuration file you can start the dhcpd-daemon:

#!/bin/sh

systemctl start dhcpd tail -n60 /var/log/messages # shows you either DHCP [...] listing [...] or DHCP [...] error [...]

1 2	systemctl start dhcpd tail -n60 /var/log/messages # shows you either DHCP [...] listing [...] or DHCP [...] error [...]

Firewall

Do not forget to open the firewall ports for DHCP Server (UDP 67,68) and TFTP Server (UDP 69)!

Getting something running…

Put files from the syslinux project in your tftp-root-directy, namely:

• /usr/share/syslinux/vesamenu.c32
• /usr/share/syslinux/memdisk
• KolibriOS – used for testing because it is so damn small 🙂
• create a path in your TFTP root path, called pxelinux.cfg
• create a file inside pxelinux.cfg/ called default (without extension) and insert:
  
  FTP-ROOT-PATH/pxelinux.cfg/default

  UI vesamenu.c32 LABEL kolibri.iso LINUX memdisk INITRD kolibri.iso APPEND iso LABEL kolibri.img LINUX memdisk INITRD kolibri.img APPEND raw

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  UI vesamenu.c32   LABEL kolibri.iso   LINUX memdisk   INITRD kolibri.iso   APPEND iso     LABEL kolibri.img   LINUX memdisk   INITRD kolibri.img   APPEND raw

• Now start your network machine!

Troubleshooting

You can run qemu in order to test whether or not your tftp folder is correctly set up: