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There is actually at least one very straightforward way to install Ubuntu Netbook Remix without a USB key, without even downloading the image, over the network.

Just follow the instructions in my previous article to get a working Ubuntu Installer over PXE. By default this installer will only setup a very minimal Ubuntu system, without any server or desktop packages.

At some point during the installation, you are offered the possibility to install additional software packages. At this stage you can just tick the box in front of "Ubuntu Network Remix" and that's it! You don't need to select any other package (eg Ubuntu Desktop) for a fully working UNR install. Personally I added "OpenSSH Server" because I want to be able to login remotely. Of course you could also add those packages later on.

It's quite easy actually, once you know where to look.

Just browse to http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/[version]/main/installer-[arch]/current/images/netboot/ubuntu-installer/[arch]/ - eg http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/intrepid/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/ubuntu-installer/i386/.

The two files "linux" and "initrd.gz" can be used with pxegrub to boot a PC with a fully-working Ubuntu-installer (text-mode). See my other posts about my diskless / network boot setup for details on how I configured the network booting part, based on dhcp, tftp and pxegrub.

Alternatively, if you have a CF card USB stick etc. with a working GRUB install, you can just copy the two files over there.

What I still haven't found is how to do an Ubuntu NFS install directly. For now I'm stuck with my diskless Ubuntu install procedure where I first do a hard disk install and then make it diskless.

Credits: the whole thing was inspired by this article.

Tonight I installed my first diskless Ubuntu system. The version I used is the latest available as of today, 7.04 "FeistyFawn". This article covers the client part.

My other diskless machines all run Gentoo (for the time being). I've described previously how I set up my SB 100, the rest of the setup was based on this article.

The following two articles were helpful:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/OnNFSDrive
http://developer.novell.com/wiki/index.php/Feisty/HOWTO:_Convert_Ubuntu_to_Diskless

However I found some of the info to be uncomplete or outdated.

From what I have read, unlike with Gentoo, it seems that there is no easy way to get a working diskless Ubuntu system directly. Instead, you have to install to a disk first, and then make your setup diskless. I did not really want to open the box, so I tried first to install on a 2 GB CF card, which didn't work because the card was full before the install completed (du now reports that the system is 2.1 GB big). So I ended up putting a disk in the box, and I ran a regular install.

Note: As in the SB100 article, 10.0.0.10 will be my dhcp/nfs/tftp server ('fileserver'). 10.0.0.30 will be the Ubuntu desktop.

Once that was completed, instead of rebooting as suggested by the installer, I opened a shell (gnome-terminal), and ran:

sudo su -

mkdir /mnt/tmp

mkdir /mnt/nfs

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/tmp

mount 10.0.0.10:/diskless/ubuntu /mnt/nfs

cp -a /mnt/tmp/* /mnt/nfs/

After that, there are just a couple of things that need to be changed:

chroot /mnt/nfs

mount -t proc proc proc

vi etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf

and make sure you have:

BOOT=nfs

then run:

update-initramfs -u

Now check what you have in /boot, and update your network boot config files accordingly. I use pxegrub, and here is how /boot/grub.lst looks like:

default 0

timeout 10

title=Diskless Ubuntu

root (nd)

kernel /diskless/tv/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic ip=dhcp root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=10.0.0.10:/diskless/tv ro quiet splash

initrd /diskless/tv/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic

Finally, don't forget to update etc/fstab and etc/network/interfaces. I've read several theories, here is what worked for me:

fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.

#

#                

proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0

/dev/nfs        /               nfs     defaults        0       0

/dev/scd0       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0

network/interfaces:

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback



auto eth0

iface eth0 inet static

        address 10.0.0.30

        netmask 255.255.255.0

        network 10.0.0.0

        broadcast 10.0.0.255

        gateway 10.0.0.1

(note: commenting out eth0 as suggested in some places made the system hang during the boot process.)

Initially written on 2006-05-17

On my other (x86/amd64) diskless machines, I use PXE with pxegrub. My setup is quite similar to (and inspired by) this one.

Now, on sparc machines, there is no BIOS nor PXE. But you don't need all that, since you have the Open Boot... This is how I managed to make my Sunblade 100 totally diskless (using a "vanilla" kernel, the latest version being currently 2.6.16.16).

Note: In this example, 10.0.0.10 will be my dhcp/nfs/tftp server which I will refer to as 'fileserver'. 10.0.0.30 is the sunblade.

- when configuring the kernel:

[*] Default bootloader kernel arguments (ip=dhcp root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=10.0.0.10:/diskless/sunblade)

(in "Networking" -> "Networking support" -> "Networking options")

[*]   IP: kernel level autoconfiguration
 [*]     IP: DHCP support
 [*]     IP: BOOTP support
 [*]     IP: RARP support

(in "File systems" -> "Network File Systems")

<*> NFS file system support
[*]   Provide NFSv3 client support
[*] Root file system on NFS

Configure all other settings as you would do for a disk install, but make sure you compile your NIC driver in the kernel (not as module)

Then:

make
make modules_install
make tftpboot.img ROOT_IMG=/dev/null

(the resulting tftpboot.img will be in arch/sparc64/boot/tftpboot.img)

I copied tftpboot.img to fileserver as tftpimage-2.6.16.16, and added the following entry in my dhcpd.conf:

host sunblade {
    hardware ethernet 00:03:BA:08:12:34;
    fixed-address 10.0.0.30;
    always-reply-rfc1048 on;
    filename "sunblade/boot/tftpimage-2.6.16.16";
}

Finally, to net-boot your diskless Sunblade you'll need to enter

boot net:dhcp

in the Open Boot prompt. When you are happy with it, you can set it as default:

setenv boot-device net:dhcp cdrom disk net

Notes:

- apparently, instead of using make tftpboot.img you can just "elftoaout" vmlinux

- another alternative would be to use tilo, which comes with silo, to build the image