Setting up PXE boot of Ubuntu 12.04 Live CD

Introduction

Sometimes it's nice to boot a complete operating system over a network, and not have to install to a drive or use a CD. This allows you to have diskless machines, or perform operations on an installed drive that can't be done whilst it is mounted.

This tutorial assumes you have already set up a cobbler pxe/dhcp server (see previous posts) and teaches you the final steps for adding a live ubuntu12 image. You will also need to have set up an nfs server.

Steps

Mount the ubuntu desktop image

sudo mount -o loop /my/iso/location.iso /mnt

Copy the contents (making sure to include the .disk directory) to your NFS location (this may be on another computer/server, so you may need to perform the previous step on that machine).

sudo cp -R /mnt/* /my/nfs/location/.
sudo cp -R /mnt/.disk/ /my/nfs/location/.

Add the distro to cobbler

sudo cobbler distro add \
--name=ubuntu-desktop-32 \
--kernel=/mnt/casper/vmlinuz \
--initrd=/mnt/casper/initrd.lz

If it is a initrd.gz file, you may have to run this on it first:

gunzip --decompress initrd.gz

Add a profile to cobbler

sudo cobbler profile add \
--name=ubuntu-desktop-32 \
--distro=ubuntu-desktop-32 

Sync cobbler

sudo cobbler sync

Edit the pxelinux boot menu to add a few details (link the nfs)

sudo editor /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

Add the following details to the ubuntu deskto part of the menu, and remove any unnecessary parts.

boot=casper netboot=nfs nfsroot=192.168.1.6:/my/nfs/location

Start up your pxe client, and it should all hopefully go to plan. If it gets stuck on a message like:
Please provide a name for this Disc, such as
Then you didn't copy the hidden .disk directory from the cd correctly in the first step.

Possible Problems

Don't forget to have set up your dhcpd server correctly. I have mine set to be mac specific, so you may need to add another host like I did

References

• Ubuntu Forums - PXE Installation searches for cdrom?