On 03/14/2010 06:08 PM, Dieter Plaetinck wrote:

On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 06:39:20 -0300 Gerardo Exequiel Pozzi wrote:

...

Hello

I recently done some changes for archiso, to make it booteable via PXE (Preboot eXecution Environment) and using NBD (Network Block Device). Also a minimal server script can be launched to act as server ;)

cool.

absolutelly :)

i always wanted support for pxe. is there a specific reason to choose nbd over nfs?

Good question. I chosed NBD instead of NFS because is really simple. 1) [From client side] No changes needed to [archiso] hook. Just add another hook [nbd]. This hook setup a /dev/archiso pointing to /dev/nbd0 (created via only one command) I think that doing via NFS requires: - nfs hook can not be used directly (archiso mount handler will be over nfs mount handler) - mounting nfs must be under /bootmnt, and in archiso hook must skip mouting /dev/archiso if booted from nfs. 2) [From server side] Run only one command to setup the NBD server. I think that doing via NFS requires: - setup exports, and other files. - launch nfs and all daemon required (rpcbind, nfs-common, nfs-server)

...

If booted from network, there is a [nbd] hook, (based on [net]), that configures an IP address, then setup a /dev/nbd0 (via nbd-client). (and /dev/archiso will point to this device), all the rest is done by current archiso hook :) (copytoram option can be used) If booted normally, [nbd] hook does nothing. Inside the /root, there is a simple script that launches dnsmasq enabling tftp and dhcp server, finally start the nbd-server that serve the iso file via network.

i'm confused, this whole thing is meant for clients, right? what does the tftp/dhcp server has to do with the client?

In other words: - archiso with [nbd] hook, is capable to boot completelly from ethernet. - The [nbd] hook detects that if ip= parameter is present, the execute the needed actions, if no ip= paramter does nothing. - The ip= parameter is automagically added via IPAPPEND 1 at syslinux config (retrived from server) Thats all for archiso. OK but there is a "bonus", in my custom config (avr-toolchain). I added two aditional files (pxelinux.0 pxelinux.cfg/default) and two packages (dnsmasq nbd) to make this live-media capable to acts as server for archiso. The "bonus^2" in my live-media there is one dirty script thats execute dnsmasq and nbd-server.

also, do you think we could just merge this in archiso and always use the nbd hook? (knowing that it won't do anything in 99% of the cases, when people do a regular boot)

Maybe: - initramfs image grows from 5M to 8M. - nbd hooks does nothing in normal process (there is no ip= parameter) An aditional work can be done if integrated in archiso: - if copytoram option is used, there is no need to keep nbd-client connected to the server. Aditional check can be added to disconnect from the server. So the live-media will be completelly independent. Anyway this conection is not used at all, but to do the right things ;) Videos :P http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoeC2ZpGQFQ (booting normal from USB) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inJNXsTQBOA (booting from PXE) Comments welcomed. Good week ;) -- Gerardo Exequiel Pozzi ( djgera ) http://www.djgera.com.ar KeyID: 0x1B8C330D Key fingerprint = 0CAA D5D4 CD85 4434 A219 76ED 39AB 221B 1B8C 330D

On 03/18/2010 08:35 PM, Gerardo Exequiel Pozzi wrote:

All work is done, anyone interested in review the code, here is the big diff against master [#1].

Anyone interested in making your own iso, can be done easily since nbd pkg is now in [community] (Thanks to Ionut)

Steps to make your own iso (do it as root, mkarchroot is optional but I recommend it):

-------------------------------------------------------- pacman -S devtools --needed mkarchroot /tmp/somedir base mkarchroot -r bash /tmp/somedir nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist # uncomment your prefered mirror pacman -Sy git squashfs-tools syslinux devtools cdrkit make nbd mkinitcpio-nfs-utils --noconfirm cd /tmp git clone git://github.com/djgera/archiso.git -b pxe_nbd cd archiso/archiso make install cd ../configs/syslinux-iso/ make # or "make net-iso" or "make core-iso" --------------------------------------------------------

Setup a machine that acts as PXE server for Arch Linux Live media: (easy way): 0) Boot the image in one that machine via USB or CD. 1) login as root 2) ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.7 3) /arch/archiso-pxe-server (by default will get ip from eth0)

In another machine on the same network, set the machine to boot as PXE.

Thats all, enjoy!

[#1] http://github.com/djgera/archiso/compare/master...pxe_nbd

archiso-pxe-server is not part anymore of pxe_nbd branch, so to setup the pxeserver (inside the live enviroment:) 0) Boot the image in one that machine via USB or CD. 1) login as root 2) ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.7 3) route add default gw 192.168.0.1 4) pacman -Sy dnsmasq nbd 5) wget https://gist.github.com/raw/bdf14842039be27a022c/7598a4bab828584260f4f7d6fe8... 6) chmod +x archiso-pxe-server 7) ./archiso-pxe-server (by default will get ip from eth0) (from your machine, outside live enviroment) 0) mount .iso image in some place 1) pacman -Sy dnsmasq nbd 2) wget https://gist.github.com/raw/bdf14842039be27a022c/7598a4bab828584260f4f7d6fe8... 3) chmod +x archiso-pxe-server 4) change BOOT= path in archiso-pxe-server where you have mounted the .iso plus "boot/" something like /mnt/iso/boot 5) ./archiso-pxe-server (by default will get ip from eth0) -- Gerardo Exequiel Pozzi ( djgera ) http://www.djgera.com.ar KeyID: 0x1B8C330D Key fingerprint = 0CAA D5D4 CD85 4434 A219 76ED 39AB 221B 1B8C 330D

On 03/23/2010 02:53 PM, Aaron Griffin wrote:

On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 5:50 PM, Gerardo Exequiel Pozzi wrote:

...

On 03/18/2010 08:35 PM, Gerardo Exequiel Pozzi wrote:

...

All work is done, anyone interested in review the code, here is the big diff against master [#1].

Anyone interested in making your own iso, can be done easily since nbd pkg is now in [community] (Thanks to Ionut)

Steps to make your own iso (do it as root, mkarchroot is optional but I recommend it):

-------------------------------------------------------- pacman -S devtools --needed mkarchroot /tmp/somedir base mkarchroot -r bash /tmp/somedir nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist # uncomment your prefered mirror pacman -Sy git squashfs-tools syslinux devtools cdrkit make nbd mkinitcpio-nfs-utils --noconfirm cd /tmp git clone git://github.com/djgera/archiso.git -b pxe_nbd cd archiso/archiso make install cd ../configs/syslinux-iso/ make # or "make net-iso" or "make core-iso" --------------------------------------------------------

Setup a machine that acts as PXE server for Arch Linux Live media: (easy way): 0) Boot the image in one that machine via USB or CD. 1) login as root 2) ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.7 3) /arch/archiso-pxe-server (by default will get ip from eth0)

In another machine on the same network, set the machine to boot as PXE.

Thats all, enjoy!

[#1] http://github.com/djgera/archiso/compare/master...pxe_nbd

archiso-pxe-server is not part anymore of pxe_nbd branch, so to setup the pxeserver

(inside the live enviroment:) 0) Boot the image in one that machine via USB or CD. 1) login as root 2) ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.7 3) route add default gw 192.168.0.1 4) pacman -Sy dnsmasq nbd 5) wget https://gist.github.com/raw/bdf14842039be27a022c/7598a4bab828584260f4f7d6fe8... 6) chmod +x archiso-pxe-server 7) ./archiso-pxe-server (by default will get ip from eth0)

(from your machine, outside live enviroment) 0) mount .iso image in some place 1) pacman -Sy dnsmasq nbd 2) wget https://gist.github.com/raw/bdf14842039be27a022c/7598a4bab828584260f4f7d6fe8... 3) chmod +x archiso-pxe-server 4) change BOOT= path in archiso-pxe-server where you have mounted the .iso plus "boot/" something like /mnt/iso/boot 5) ./archiso-pxe-server (by default will get ip from eth0)

I've merged the pxe_nbd branch to master and pushed it.

Thanks.

The remaining question now is - what do we do with the archiso-pxe-server script? Should it be part of archiso?

This was discused between Dieter and me at FS#12619, and the conclusion was: keep, at least for now, in the wiki. If more much users use it, I think is more apropiate to make a package and include in the list of "package.lst" like aif. Doing this, you can launch an PXE with just 2 commands. (config eth0 and launch archiso-pxe-server without any parameters). This was really useful to me for develop this feature. For now I created quick and dirty article in the wiki. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Archiso-as-pxe-server -- Gerardo Exequiel Pozzi ( djgera ) http://www.djgera.com.ar KeyID: 0x1B8C330D Key fingerprint = 0CAA D5D4 CD85 4434 A219 76ED 39AB 221B 1B8C 330D