Adding multiple Linux OSes to PXE boot...

In a followup to this post, I figured out how to add other versions of Debian to my PXE boot server. I followed two guides for doing so (PXE install on Debian Lenny, and Ubuntu Help’s Multi-Distro PXE Install Guide).

1. After getting the single-distro (Debian Sid) working, I renamed the debian-installer directory (in /srv/tftp) to ‘sid’, created the ‘debian’ directory, and moved the ‘sid’ directory into ‘debian’:

   
   cd /srv/tftp
   mv debian-installer sid
   mkdir debian
   mv sid debian/
   
   

2. Next, I needed to edit /srv/tftp/debian/sid/amd64/boot-screens/menu.cfg, and replace all instances of ‘debian-installer’ with ‘debian/sid’. I used vim to do it, but this simple sed command should also have done the trick:

   
   sed -i 's,debian-installer,debian/sid,g' /srv/tftp/debian/sid/amd64/boot-screens/menu.cfg
   
   

   Note that I will repeat this process for each Linux distro and arch added.

3. I then added my next distro, Debian Wheezy amd64:

   
   cp -R /var/spool/mirror/dists/wheezy/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/* /srv/tftp/debian/wheezy
   
   

   I made the same change as (2) above, changing ‘debian-installer’ in menu.cfg to ‘debian/wheezy’.

4. Next I modified /srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg/default:

   
   default pxelinux.cfg/vesamenu.c32
   prompt 0
   timeout 0
   ontimeout BootLocal
   noescape 1
   
   label BootLocal
           localboot 0
           text help
           Boot to local hard disk
           endtext
   
   menu begin Debian
   menu title Debian
           label Previous
           text help
           Return to previous menu
           endtext
           menu exit
           menu separator
           menu include debian/menu.cfg
   menu end
   
   

5. I copied the syslinux file vesamenu.c32 to the pxelinux.cfg/ directory,
   
cp /var/spool/mirror/dists/sid/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/amd64/boot-screens/vesamenu.c32 /srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg/


6. Next, I created the file /srv/tftp/debian/menu.cfg

   
   menu background debian/splash.png
   menu begin Sid (amd64)
   menu title Sid (amd64)
           label Previous
           text help
           Return to previous menu
           endtext
           menu exit
           menu separator
           menu include debian/sid/amd64/boot-screens/menu.cfg
   menu end
   
   menu begin Sid (i386)
   menu title Sid (i386)
           label Previous
           text help
           Return to previous menu
           endtext
           menu exit
           menu separator
           menu include debian/sid/i386/boot-screens/menu.cfg
   menu end
   
   menu begin Wheezy (amd64)
   menu title Wheezy (amd64)
           label Previous
           text help
           Return to previous menu
           endtext
           menu exit
           menu separator
           menu include debian/wheezy/amd64/boot-screens/menu.cfg
   menu end
   
   
   

7. I copied sid’s dists/sid/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/amd64/boot-screens/splash.png to /srv/tftp/splash.png. That way, each distro family can have its own splash image!

After that, I added the other Sid distro (i386), following the same procedure. Here are some screenshots of the process (taken from my hosting workstation):

Next steps:

• Add a foreign distro to the mix (e.g. Fedora 18, Arch)
• Figure out how to boot and install a Windows image from this setup (probably very difficult).
  • Start with an old copy of Windows XP
  • Then go with Windows 7 (if I even have an ISO for it).