tftpboot

1. Overview
2. Description
   • PXE files
   • Configuration files
   • Preseed
   • Scripts
3. How to use it
4. TODO

Overview

All needed files to set up a PXE server for both standard bios and UEFI (32b and 64b).

Description

PXE files

Use some bootloaders files provide by :

• pxelinux debian package :

  • gpxelinux.0
  • pxelinux.0

• syslinux-efi debian package :

  • syslinux.efi

• syslinux-common debian package :

  • chain.c32
  • ldlinux.c32
  • ldlinux.e32
  • ldlinux.e64
  • libcom32.c32
  • libutil.c32
  • menu.c32
  • reboot.c32
  • vesamenu.c32

• To get those files from the packages of your repositories :

mkdir -p temp_pxe_files
cd temp_pxe_files
mkdir bios efi32 efi64
aptitude download pxelinux syslinux-common syslinux-efi
ar p pxelinux*.deb data.tar.xz | tar xJ -C . --strip-components=4 ./usr/lib/PXELINUX/pxelinux.0
ar p pxelinux*.deb data.tar.xz | tar xJ -C bios/ --strip-components=4 ./usr/lib/PXELINUX/pxelinux.0
ar p syslinux-efi*.deb data.tar.xz | tar xJ -C efi32/ --strip-components=5 ./usr/lib/SYSLINUX.EFI/efi32/syslinux.efi
ar p syslinux-efi*.deb data.tar.xz | tar xJ -C efi64/ --strip-components=5 ./usr/lib/SYSLINUX.EFI/efi64/syslinux.efi
ar p syslinux-common*.deb data.tar.xz | tar xJ -C . --strip-components=6 ./usr/lib/syslinux/modules/bios/{chain,ldlinux,libcom32,libutil,menu,reboot,vesamenu}.c32
ar p syslinux-common*.deb data.tar.xz | tar xJ -C bios/ --strip-components=6 ./usr/lib/syslinux/modules/bios/{chain,ldlinux,libcom32,libutil,menu,reboot,vesamenu}.c32
ar p syslinux-common*.deb data.tar.xz | tar xJ -C efi32/ --strip-components=6 ./usr/lib/syslinux/modules/efi32/{chain.c32,ldlinux.e32,libcom32.c32,libutil.c32,menu.c32,reboot.c32,vesamenu.c32}
ar p syslinux-common*.deb data.tar.xz | tar xJ -C efi64/ --strip-components=6 ./usr/lib/syslinux/modules/efi64/{chain.c32,ldlinux.e64,libcom32.c32,libutil.c32,menu.c32,reboot.c32,vesamenu.c32}

• The MD5 checksum can mismatch between the files from this repo and those from Debian's packages.
• Then create symlinks to avoid to duplicate files :

for DIR in bios efi32 efi64; do
ln -s ../config "${DIR}"
ln -s ../installer "${DIR}"
ln -s ../preseed "${DIR}"
ln -s ../pxelinux.cfg "${DIR}"
done

Configuration files

Contains the files which defines the PXE menu. The first one will :

• Call all others menu.cfg from subdirectories (debian/, clonezilla/,…) as an entry.
• Define a timeout (4 seconds).
• Define the default entry (boot on local first disk).
• …

config/debian/menu.cfg

1. Provide PXE entries for :

• Debian Bookworm (Stable) amd64 with additional firmwares (see make_debian_initrd_with_firmware.sh script).
• Debian Bookworm (Stable) amd64 with additional firmwares and preseed file.
• Debian Bullseye (oldStable) amd64 with additional firmwares (see make_debian_initrd_with_firmware.sh script).
• Debian Bullseye (oldStable) amd64 with additional firmwares and preseed file.
• Debian Bullseye (oldStable) amd64 for compute nodes with preseed.
• Debian Bullseye (oldStable) amd64 + UEFI + LUKS for minions with preseed (Cinnamon as default GUI).
• Debian Bullseye (oldStable) amd64 + UEFI + LUKS for minions with preseed (Gnome3 as default GUI).
• Debian Bullseye (oldStable) amd64 + UEFI for minions with preseed (Gnome3 as default GUI).
• Debian Sid (unstable) amd64.
• Debian Sid (unstable) amd64 with additional firmwares (see make_debian_initrd_with_firmware.sh script).
• Debian Sid (unstable) i386.

2. If you want to use with your own TFTPD server, you need te set your IP server ! Replace all occurrences of 129.20.203.27 by the IP of your TFTPD server to be able to load the preseed files !

config/ubuntu/menu.cfg

Provide PXE entries for :

• Ubuntu LTS (16.04) amd64.
• Ubuntu LTS (16.04) i386.
• Latest non-LTS Ubuntu (15.10) amd64.
• Latest non-LTS Ubuntu (15.10) i386.

Preseed

A preseed file can be loaded by the Debian-Installer to answer all questions Preseeding provides a way to set answers to questions asked by the Debian-Installer, without having to manually enter the answers. This makes it possible to fully automate most types of installation and even offers some features not available during normal installations. More informations on Debian wiki and in Debian sources (search for partman-auto, partman-lvm,… packages).

Commons configurations

• Localization :
  • Language : English
  • Country : France
  • Locale : en_US.UTF-8 (US English)
  • Keyboard : fr-latin9 (French)
• Hardware :
  • Network configuration (IP, hostname, domain) : automatic (from DHCP server)
  • Load additional firmwares if availables.
• Account :
  • Create a root account.
  • root password : SHA-256 hash of the password
  • Don't create a normal user (be sure to allow remote connection for root ! See late_command info).
• Timezone
  • Timezone : Europe/Paris
  • NTP server : ntp.univ-rennes1.fr
• Partitionning
  • Use the entire first disk (sda, vda aka virtual hdd or nvme0n1) with LVM.
  • Purge all LVM, RAID,… partitions or informations already set on the first disk.
  • Partitionning :

Device	Mount point	Size (Min - Max)	Description
/dev/sda1	/boot	200 - 250 Mb	Bootloader (Grub)
/dev/sda2	LVM	16 Gb - 100%	Physical Volume for LVM
lv_root	/	1 - 2 Gb	Root partition
lv_usr	/usr	4 - 10 Gb	Non-essential system resources (binaries, libraries, documentations,…)
lv_var	/var	4 - 8 Gb	Variable files (databases, cache, log,…)
lv_tmp	/tmp	1 - 2 Gb	Temporary files cleaned between system reboots
lv_home	/home	2 - 3 Gb	User's home directories (saved files, personnal settings,…)
lv_srv	/srv	512 MB - 2 Gb	Specific datas for this system
lv_opt	/opt	512 MB - 4 Gb	Optional application
lv_swap	SWAP	512 Mb - 100% RAM size	Swap sapce
lv_free	/mnt/free	free space	See below

• APT :
  • Installation from internet (repository : deb.debian.org)
  • Select ssh-server and standard in tasksel for installation.
  • Add additional packages : tftp-hpa (to be able to download the latecommand archive from the PXE server).
• Bootloader :
  • Install Grub on the MBR of the first disk.
• late_command
  • Permit root login via SSH with it's password.
  • Download and extract a latecommand archive from this repository.
  • Run the script from this archive.

---

lv_free - /mnt/free

The preseed's partitionning need to allocate all the disk space. If it's not define, it will put in the last defined partition all extra free space. So lv_free is a temporary LV that you can destroy and use the space to resize any other LV.

Specific configurations

• You can choose a desktop environment :
  • Debian Stable (aka Bullseye) : Cinnamon or Gnome3
• Partitionning differences for Debian with a desktop environment :

Device	Mount point	Size (Min - Max)	Description
sda1	/boot/efi	512 - 1024 Mb	EFI partition (from Buster)
lv_root	/	1 - 3 Gb	root partition
lv_home	/home	2 - 10 Gb	User's home directories (saved files, personnal settings,…)
lv_srv	NOT PRESENT	NOT PRESENT

Informations

• You can use the command : mkpasswd -m sha-512 to generate a SHA-512 hash for a password.

Known issues

Volume group name already in use

Despite some preseed's options, these error might occur if a VG_NAME is :

• present on a "first" hard disk
• expected to be created on another hard disk

To fix this :

• Double check the hard disk that should be use for the operating system.
• Manually remove the "previous" VG : vgremove VG_NAME and restart the installer.

Scripts

See the scripts's README.md file for more informations.

How to use it

• Put the data of this repository on the PXE server :
  • Clone the repository with https URL or with SSH to /var/lib/tftpboot.
  • Download the last archive : wget https://git.ipr.univ-rennes1.fr/cellinfo/tftpboot/archive/master.tar.gz
• Install a TFTP server (tftpd-hpa package for Debian's based systems or tftp-server for Redhat's based systems).
  • Start the tftpd's service :
    • sudo service tftpd-hpa start
    • sudo systemctl start tftpd-hpa
  • You can test if the TFTP server provide the files with a TFTP client (tftp-hpa) by downloading a file with the command : tftp $IP.SRV.TFTP -c get README.md /tmp/README.md_from_tftpd_server
• Set your IP in some files instead of the default one 129.20.203.27 :
  • In configurations files to be able to call Debian's Preseed files or download squashfs filesystem (for Clonezilla, GParted,…): sudo find config/ -iname "*.cfg" -type f -exec sed -i "s/129.20.203.27/111.222.333.444/g" {} \;
  • In Preseed files, to be able to download the late_command archive from your TFTPD server : sudo find preseed/ -type f -exec sed -i "s/129.20.203.27/111.222.333.444/g" {} \;
  • In scripts to generate examples configuration files with the right IP address : sudo find scripts/ -iname "*.sh" -type f -exec sed -i "s/129.20.203.27/111.222.333.444/g" {} \;
• Run scripts to download needed PXE files (see the scripts's README.md for more informations) :
  • Debian : sudo ./scripts/download_debian.sh
  • Debian's initrd with additional firmwares : sudo ./scripts/make_debian_initrd_with_firmware.sh
  • Ubuntu : sudo ./scripts/download_ubuntu.sh
  • Diagnostic tools (Memtest86+, GParted Live,…) : sudo ./scripts/download_diag_tools.sh
  • Clonezilla : sudo ./scripts/download_clonezilla.sh
  • Generate the late_command archive : cd scripts/ ; sudo tar czvf latecommand.tar.gz latecommand/