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.
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/.
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
--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
--name=ubuntu-desktop-32 \
--distro=ubuntu-desktop
Sync cobbler
sudo cobbler sync
Edit the pxelinux boot menu to add a few details (link the nfs)
sudo vi /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.