[SOLVED] Absolute Minimum Netbooting problems

[Zendrael]

Hello all!

Following the Absolute Minimum Netbooting Method from the Wiki, I still can't get my clients to boot... they get some IP address but TFTP gives me an error (screenshot attached).

What should get wrong here?

I'm using (Tiny)Core 4.7.7.

[gerald_clark]

What is client01.pxe?
You should be loading pxelinux.0.

[Zendrael]

Hello Gerald_Clark!

I just followed the instructions in the wiki... So, I don't know what is happening, never tested it (the netbooting) before... And in the wiki it doesn't say about pxelinux.0....

Any clues? Ideas? Everything is welcome! =)

[gerald_clark]

What wiki article are you referring to?

[Zendrael]

This one: http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:netbooting

I have configured the Terminal Server app as described then I started folowing the Absolute Minimum step as described too.

[gerald_clark]

Where in there do you see a client01.pxe?

The absolute minimum method does not refer to an absolute minimum method of netbooting.
It is the absolute minimum changes you need to make to a working pxe boot system to allow for a persistent tce directory on nfs.

Get your pxe boot working before you try any of the network based tce directory options.

[Zendrael]

Gerald_Clark, thanks for your reply!

I have no file called client01.pxe... I just have my server and another machine in a VM environment. The client VM (VirtualBox) is called client01 so, if I change its name (for workstation, for exemple) it changes the name of the <file>.pxe... In the server I did nothing about it.

So, if the absolute minimum refers just to persistence, should my system boot just by using the Terminal Server app, right? Well... it is not working... I'm still getting the same error from TFTP... My VirtualBox Server and Client are in the same network.

My setup:
-SERVER VM
   - (Tiny)Core 4.7.7
   - Network adapter 1: (eth0) NAT
   - Network adapter 2: (eth1) Internal Network
- CLIENT VM
   - PXE Boot thru Network adapter 1: Internal Network

[gerald_clark]

I don't use the terminal server app.
My pxe boot server is CentOS.
You need to get your server's dhcp, tftp, and pxe configuration fixed so you can pxe boot the basic vmlinuz and core.gz files.
Once you have that working, you can add the network persistence to your  pxelinux.cfg/default file.

[Zendrael]

Hello Gerald_Clark!

Got the machines booting ok!

Did the "Putting all together" from the wiki but still no nfs... even when I do "ls /mnt/" on the clients, there are just "sr0".

Maybe am I missing something? I get no erros too...

Put a default file at /tftpboot/pxelinux.conf/ with the menu described. Is it correct?

[gerald_clark]

The server you specify must have an nfs server running with the specified directory exported.

[Zendrael]

I have nfs-utils loaded into the server and already did the exportfs -a after changes in the /etc/exports.

Should I run any command to start the nfs server?

[gerald_clark]

/usr/local/etc/init.d/nfs-server start

[Zendrael]

Followed all the steps again and after starting the server, had some messages (attached because I could not copy and paste from the VM to here) and still does not work... I can't see the PXE menu either...

Edit: (Attached a client machine booting messages too)

[Rich]

Hi Zendrael
The  nfsd  message in the first picture suggests you need to install  filesystems-3.0.21-tinycore.tcz

[Zendrael]

Hi Rich!

I've installed and loaded it at boot now. But the clients still don't have a /mnt/nfs after booting...

Also I added the pxelinux.0 to the directory /tftpboot/ copying it from /usr/share/syslinux/ - nothing changed...

I tryied to change the default file in the pxelinux.cfg dir to become the client Mac Address and no luck with that too... When my client boots, the Terminal Server app in the server drops a lot of "tftp: can't open file" messages... like if it doesn't know where to find the files...