pxeboot

[David Collins]

Hi,

I am not sure if this is the correct list to post this to, and if it
isn't please could you point me to where it should go.

I have recently turned to freeBSD and so far I love it. I have a small
laptop that I use for playing around and general fiddling. I was using
the Debian netinstall and booting over pxe/tftp when I wanted to
reinstall. I started looking at the automated install, but it seemed
very complex. I have been looking at the freeBSD option and it seems
that the automated intall is very simple (at least from a user point
of view).

I have been trying to get pxeboot to work, so far with no luck. I have
a dhcp/tftp server set up and I am able to push pxeboot across the
network, so I assume that is all ok. NFS is also setup, at least I was
getting nfs errors that I don't have anymore. I copied the contents of
the 7.0 cd into the my tftpboot folder and changed the contents for
loader.conf and loader.rc according to here
http://www.locolomo.org/pub/pxeboot/pxeboot.html and
http://www.tnpi.biz/computing/freebsd/pxe-netboot.shtml and so far I
am able to get a prompt come up but I am unable to get any further. As
soon as I enter anything the computer immediately reboots so i am
unable to see any error messages. I assume the paths are relative to
the tftp server. Can anyone give me quick example to get me off to a
start.

Thanks

David Collins


Here are my config files, I think that is all of them
# cat /etc/exports
/usr/tftpboot/freeBSD7.0 -alldirs -ro -maproot=root

# cat /usr/local/etc/dhcpd.conf
default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;
authoritative;

ddns-update-style none;

subnet 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
  range 192.168.2.8 192.168.2.15;
  #filename "/pxelinux.0";
  filename "/freeBSD7.0/boot/pxeboot";
  next-server 192.168.2.4;
  option routers 192.168.2.4;
  option root-path "/usr2/tftpboot/freeBSD7.0";
}

# grep tftp /etc/inetd.conf
tftp    dgram   udp     wait    root    /usr/libexec/tftpd      tftpd
-l -s /usr/tftpboot

#cat /usr/tftpboot/freeBSD7.0/boot/loader.rc
 echo Loading Kernel...
 set choice=freebsd-ide
 read -t 5 -p "Type in your selection EXACTLY: " choice
 include /boot/loader.rc-$choice
 read -t 5 -p "Type in your selection EXACTLY: " choice
 read -t 5 -p "Type in your selection EXACTLY: " choice
 load /boot/kernel/kernel
 load linux.ko
 echo \007\007
 set vfs.root.mountfrom=ufs:/dev/md0c"

#cat /usr/tftpboot/freeBSD7.0/boot/loader.conf
 init_path="/stand/sysinstall"
 rootfs_load="YES"
 rootfs_name="/boot/mfsroot"
 rootfs_type="mfs_root"
 vfs.root.mountfrom="ufs:/dev/md0c"
 autoboot_delay=5