#10 Network Booting T2

This is a short introduction how to network boot T2 for installation. We try to give a initial overview and focus on examples. For detailed and complete information please read the corresponding sections in the handbook.

Introduction

T2 SDE Linux can be installed over the network. This allows you to boot a machine without local installation media, directly loading the kernel and installer/initrd via TFTP or HTTP.

Server Setup

On a server, you need a DHCP server configured to point to be net booted clients to the boot loader file, e.g. grubx64.efi or similar named files for other architectures. As well as a TFTP or HTTP server (for supported, more modern platforms) hosting the actual boot loader, T2 kernel and initrd files. Remember that you can only have one DHCP server per subnet. You can either configure your existing, primary DHCP server, or setup an independant network for testing.

A simple all-in-one implementation is dnsmasq.

For this example we will use the common /srv/tftp directory to store all files, and usually you can simply mount the t2 .iso unless you want to permanently just example the boot files for multiple architectures, or need to make config file adjustments for some more exotic boot configurations.

EFI (IA-64, modern ARM, RISC-V, X86, ...)

Simply add to /etc/dnsmasq.conf:

Open Firmware (IEEE 1275-1994, PowerPC, SPARC, ...)

Simply add to /etc/dnsmasq.conf:

To boot from the firmware prompt:

Sgi MIPS ARCS

Simply add to /etc/dnsmasq.conf:

To boot from the firmware prompt:

HP-PARISC IPL

Simply add to /etc/dnsmasq.conf:

The Author

René Rebe studied computer science and digital media science at the University of Applied Sciences of Berlin, Germany. He is the founder of the T2 Linux SDE, ExactImage, and contributer to various projects in the open source ecosystem for more than 20 years, now. He also founded the Berlin-based software company ExactCODE GmbH. A company dedicated to reliable software solutions that just work, every day.