This section covers the configuration tasks needed in complex boot scenarios. It contains ready-to-apply configuration examples for DHCP, PXE boot, TFTP, and Wake on LAN.
There are two ways to set up a DHCP server. For SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and higher, YaST provides a graphical interface to the process. Users of any other SUSE Linux-based products and non-SUSE Linux users should manually edit the configuration files or use the front-end provided by their operating system vendors.
To announce the TFTP server's location to the network clients and specify the boot image file the installation target should use, add two declarations to your DHCP server configuration.
Log in as root
to the machine hosting the DHCP server.
Start
+ + .Complete the setup wizard for basic DHCP server setup.
Select
and select when warned about leaving the start-up dialog.In the
dialog, select the subnet in which the new system should be located and click .In the
dialog select to add a new option to the subnet's configuration.Select filename
and enter
pxelinux.0
as the value.
Add another option (next-server
) and set its
value to the address of the TFTP server.
Select
and to complete the DHCP server configuration.To configure DHCP to provide a static IP address to a specific
host, enter the Step 4) and add
a new declaration of the host type. Add the options
hardware
and fixed-address
to this
host declaration and provide the appropriate values.
All the DHCP server needs to do, apart from providing automatic address allocation to your network clients, is to announce the IP address of the TFTP server and the file that should be pulled in by the installation routines on the target machine.
Log in as root
to the machine hosting the DHCP server.
Append the following lines to your DHCP server's
configuration file located under
/etc/dhcpd.conf
:
group {
# PXE related stuff
#
# "next server" defines the tftp server that will be used
next server ip_tftp_server
:
#
# "filename" specifies the pxelinux image on the tftp server
# the server runs in chroot under /srv/tftpboot
filename "pxelinux.0";
}
Replace
ip_of_the_tftp_server
with the actual IP address of the TFTP server.
For more information about the options available in
dhcpd.conf
, refer to the
dhcpd.conf
manual page.
Restart the DHCP server by executing rcdhcpd restart.
If you plan on using SSH for the remote control of a PXE and Wake on LAN installation, explicitly specify the IP address DHCP should provide to the installation target. To achieve this, modify the above-mentioned DHCP configuration according to the following example:
group { # PXE related stuff # # "next server" defines the tftp server that will be used next serverip_tftp_server
: # # "filename" specifies the pxelinux image on the tftp server # the server runs in chroot under /srv/tftpboot filename "pxelinux.0"; host test { hardware ethernetmac_address
; fixed-addresssome_ip_address
; } }
The host statement introduces the hostname of the installation target. To bind the hostname and IP address to a specific host, you must know and specify the system's hardware (MAC) address. Replace all the variables used in this example with the actual values that match your environment.
After restarting the DHCP server, it provides a static IP to the host specified, enabling you to connect to the system via SSH.
Set up a TFTP server with YaST on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and SUSE Linux or set it up manually on any other Linux operating system that supports xinetd and tftp. The TFTP server delivers the boot image to the target system once it boots and sends a request for it.
Log in as root
.
Start
+ + and install the requested package.Click
to make sure that the server is started and included in the boot routines. No further action from your side is required to secure this. xinetd starts tftpd at boot time.Click
to open the appropriate port in the firewall running on your machine. If there is no firewall running on your server, this option is not available.Click /tftpboot
is
created and selected automatically.
Click
to apply your settings and start the server.Log in as root
and install the packages
tftp
and
xinetd
.
If unavailable, create /srv/tftpboot
and
/srv/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
directories.
Add the appropriate files needed for the boot image as described in Section 4.3.3, “Using PXE Boot”.
Modify the configuration of xinetd located under
/etc/xinetd.d/
to make sure that the TFTP server
is started on boot:
If it does not exist, create a file called
tftp
under this directory with
touch tftp. Then run
chmod 755 tftp.
Open the file tftp
and add the
following lines:
service tftp { socket_type = dgram protocol = udp wait = yes user = root server = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd server_args = -s /tftpboot disable = no }
Save the file and restart xinetd with rcxinetd restart.
Some technical background information as well as PXE's complete specifications are available in the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) Specification (ftp://download.intel.com/labs/manage/wfm/download/pxespec.pdf).
Change to the directory of your installation repository and
copy the linux
, initrd
,
message
, and memtest
files to the /srv/tftpboot
directory by
entering the following:
cp -a boot/loader/linux boot/loader/initrd boot/loader/message boot/loader/memtest /srv/tftpboot
Install the syslinux
package directly from
your installation
CDs or DVDs with YaST.
Copy the /usr/share/syslinux/pxelinux.0
file to the /srv/tftpboot
directory by
entering the following:
cp -a /usr/share/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /srv/tftpboot
Change to the directory of your installation repository and
copy the isolinux.cfg
file to
/srv/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
by entering the
following:
cp -a boot/loader/isolinux.cfg /srv/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
Edit the
/srv/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
file and
remove the lines beginning with gfxboot
,
readinfo
, and framebuffer
.
Insert the following entries in the append lines of the default
failsafe
and apic
labels:
insmod=kernel module
By means of this entry, enter the network kernel module needed to
support network installation on the PXE client. Replace
kernel module
with the appropriate module
name for your network device.
netdevice=interface
This entry defines the client's network interface that must be used for the network installation. It is only necessary if the client is equipped with several network cards and must be adapted accordingly. In case of a single network card, this entry can be omitted.
install=nfs://ip_instserver
/path_instsource
/CD1
This entry defines the NFS server and the installation source for
the client installation. Replace
ip_instserver
with the actual IP address of
your installation server. path_instsource
should be replaced with the actual path to the installation sources.
HTTP, FTP, or SMB sources are addressed in a similar manner, except
for the protocol prefix, which should read http
,
ftp
, or smb
.
![]() | Important |
---|---|
If you need to pass other boot options to the
installation routines, such as SSH or VNC boot parameters,
append them to the |
An example /srv/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
file follows. Adjust the protocol prefix for the installation
source to match your network setup and specify your preferred method
of connecting to the installer by adding the
vnc
and vncpassword
or the
ssh
and sshpassword
options to the install
entry. The lines
separated by \
must be entered as one continuous
line without a line break and without the \
.
default linux # default label linux kernel linux append initrd=initrd ramdisk_size=65536 insmod=e100 \ install=nfs://ip_instserver
/path_instsource
/product
# failsafe label failsafe kernel linux append initrd=initrd ramdisk_size=65536 ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off \ insmod=e100 install=nfs://ip_instserver
/path_instsource
/product
# apic label apic kernel linux append initrd=initrd ramdisk_size=65536 apic insmod=e100 \ install=nfs://ip_instserver
/path_instsource
/product
# manual label manual kernel linux append initrd=initrd ramdisk_size=65536 manual=1 # rescue label rescue kernel linux append initrd=initrd ramdisk_size=65536 rescue=1 # memory test label memtest kernel memtest # hard disk label harddisk kernel linux append SLX=0x202 implicit 0 display message prompt 1 timeout 100
Replace ip_instserver
and
path_instsource
with the values
used in your setup.
The following section serves as a short reference to the
PXELINUX options used in this setup. Find more information about the
options available in the documentation of the
syslinux
package located under
/usr/share/doc/packages/syslinux/
.
The options listed here are a subset of all the options available for the PXELINUX configuration file.
DEFAULT kernel
options
...
Sets the default kernel command line. If PXELINUX boots automatically, it acts as if the entries after DEFAULT had been typed in at the boot prompt, except the auto option is automatically added, indicating an automatic boot.
If no configuration file is present or no DEFAULT entry is present in the configuration file, the default is the kernel name “linux” with no options.
APPEND options...
Add one or more options to the kernel command line. These are added for both automatic and manual boots. The options are added at the very beginning of the kernel command line, usually permitting explicitly entered kernel options to override them.
LABEL label
KERNEL
image
APPEND
options
...
Indicates that if label
is entered
as the kernel to boot, PXELINUX should instead boot
image
and the specified
APPEND
options should be used instead of the
ones specified in the global section of the file (before the
first LABEL
command). The default for
image
is the same as
label
and, if no
APPEND
is given, the default is to use the
global entry (if any). Up to 128 LABEL
entries
are permitted.
Note that GRUB uses the following syntax:
title mytitle kernelmy_kernel
my_kernel_options
initrdmyinitrd
PXELINUX uses the following syntax:
labelmylabel
kernelmykernel
appendmyoptions
Labels are mangled as if they were filenames and they must be unique after mangling. For example, the two labels “v2.1.30” and “v2.1.31” would not be distinguishable under PXELINUX because both mangle to the same DOS filename.
The kernel does not have to be a Linux kernel; it can be a boot sector or a COMBOOT file.
Append nothing. APPEND
with a single hyphen
as argument in a LABEL
section can be used to
override a global APPEND
.
LOCALBOOT type
On PXELINUX, specifying LOCALBOOT 0
instead
of a KERNEL
option means invoking this
particular label and causes a local disk boot instead of a kernel
boot.
All other values are undefined. If you do not know what the
UNDI or PXE stacks are, specify 0
.
TIMEOUT time-out
Indicates how long to wait at the boot prompt until booting automatically, in units of 1/10 second. The time-out is canceled as soon as the user types anything on the keyboard, assuming the user will complete the command begun. A time-out of zero disables the time-out completely (this is also the default). The maximum possible time-out value is 35996 (just less than one hour).
PROMPT flag_val
If flag_val
is 0, displays the boot prompt
only if Shift or Alt is pressed or Caps
Lock or Scroll Lock is set (this is
the default). If flag_val
is 1, always displays
the boot prompt.
F2filename
F1filename
..etc... F9filename
F10filename
Displays the indicated file on the screen when a function key is pressed at the boot prompt. This can be used to implement preboot online help (presumably for the kernel command line options). For backward compatibility with earlier releases, F10 can be also entered as F0. Note that there is currently no way to bind filenames to F11 and F12.
Prepare the system's BIOS for PXE boot by including the PXE option in the BIOS boot order.
![]() | BIOS Boot Order |
---|---|
Do not place the PXE option ahead of the hard disk boot option in the BIOS. Otherwise this system would try to reinstall itself every time you boot it. |
Wake on LAN (WOL) requires the appropriate BIOS option to be enabled prior to the installation. Also, note down the MAC address of the target system. This data is needed to initiate Wake on LAN.
Wake on LAN allows a machine to be turned on by a special network packet containing the machine's MAC address. Because every machine in the world has a unique MAC identifier, you do not need to worry about accidentally turning on the wrong machine.
![]() | Wake on LAN across Different Network Segments |
---|---|
If the controlling machine is not located in the same network segment as the installation target that should be awakened, either configure the WOL requests to be sent as multicasts or remotely control a machine on that network segment to act as the sender of these requests. |
Users of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and higher can use a YaST module called WOL to easily configure Wake on LAN. Users of other versions of SUSE Linux-based operating systems can use a command line tool.