Amahi Netboot PXE resurrection

[damonq]

httpd help!
Have updated to gpxelinux.0
From my limited understanding it bypasses the "slow" tftp portion of image loading in favor of faster protocols.
Just need help with setting up directory sharing with http portion to test this,
so far,
Have set up a webapp/virtual server in hda dashboard called "netboot"

then created a symlink from var/hda/web-apps/netboot/html/ to /usr/share/amahi-netboot/tftp/images

I can see and navigate the link in console.

/netboot in browser brings me to "Fedora Test Page"

What to do from here I have no idea, Have tried messing about in webmin->apache->virtual server->netboot options with no luck

[ajaxmike]

Ajaxmike,

I just double checked this and it seems to work pretty well.
If you use the fedora 14 i386 install dvd just extract the /images/ folder into the same folder as your iso. If you are sharing the tftp folder over the network you can do it right from the desktop
and add this to your default/other menu :

LABEL Fedora 14 i386
MENU LABEL Fedora 14 i386
kernel /images/fedora14/i386/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz
INITRD /images/fedora14/i386/images/pxeboot/initrd.img
APPEND ks=nfs:hda:/usr/share/amahi-netboot/tftp/images/fedora14/i386/fedora14.ks

*Note i put the iso and kickstart in /images/fedora14/i386
Add entry into /etc/exports:



/usr/share/amahi-netboot/tftp/images/fedora14/i386 *(ro,no_root_squash)
restart nfs server

Pretty straightforward and should work anaconda should start up in < 1minute

For customizing your kickstart in order to automate it see:
http://www.centos.org/docs/4/html/rhel- ... owuse.html
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fed ... tions.html
Or if you have a fedora desktop you can use Kickstart configurator under System Tools
su - yum install system-config-kickstart

As to setting up your diskless client, sounds interesting.
Haven't looked into it specifically. Were u planning on using fedora as the os?
I've mostly been testing utility and recovery stuff.

Thanks for your suggestions damonq, but after about a week and probably 40 hours, I gave up. I was trying to setup a diskless client using fedora 16, but it was taking an long time and I was getting nowhere. I was using a 64bit OS, while you were using a 32 bit OS. When I considered that an 8GB USB 3.0 memory stick was only $15, I decided to use it as a hard drive and install F16x64 to that. However after another 5 days and probably 30 hours I just gave up on F16x64 on my machine (a Zotac Zbox mini PC with nVidia ION).

Apparently, Fedora does not like the Zbox (Linux is not officially supported by Zotac) or perhaps my 3.0 USB stick. I was getting error messages at initial boot, drivers were failing, and during the (desktop install) Anaconda halted while trying to load the kernel. A minimal installation went OK, but there is so little installed that I couldn't figure out how to install anything (no repos, network card not recognized, so no way to add repos...). I considered trying F16 32bit or F14, but there was no guarantee that either of those would work any better, so I decided to switch distros.

After some research I settled on Linux Mint with mythtv added manually, because of the rave reviews about the Linux Mint desktop and multimedia support. This is an HTPC after all. I chose Linux Mint over mythBuntu because I will run more than just mythvt. Either one would have been fine I'm sure.

The Fedora/mythtv distro is MythDora, but it is not well resourced, is several releases behind both Fedora and mythtv, and in a recent post, the principal mythDora developer announced that he is planning to discontinue support. I would have preferred to stick with Fedora, but I didn't see mythdora as an option.

Back to original subject of this post: In the end I think I had the pxe and tftp servers working, I just couldn't get Fedora or work with my client PC and the UBS 3.0 stick.

===============

An update: Linux Mint installed first time without any errors (very nice desktop distro BTW). It would appear to confirm that my problems were Fedora not working with my Zotac Zbox Ion-based PC. LM is running perfectly on a USB stick, but it is slow. I may revisit booting the Linux Mint client from the HDA in the future, once I get the client settled down.

[taa]

Hello,

I realize this is an old thread but ​amahi-netboot​​ will be quite useful for me.

Where can I find the amahi-netboot package, whether alpha, beta, whatever?

[bigfoot65]

If you are using Ubuntu, please PM your amahi.org user name. We are looking to get this tested so we can release it.

If using Fedora, it's in the Amahi repo.

[taa]

Hi Damon,

Thank you for all of your hard work in preparing such a detailed tutorial, and to the other contributors who have made improvements to your wiki pages.

Have setup pages in wiki with screenshots
http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Amahi_Netboot_for_noobs
http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Netboot ... Tutorial_2
http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Netboot ... Tutorial_3

tried to make it as "windows friendly" as possible
Please feel free to comment "constructively" at least more than "u suck"
Problems I noted
Updating the amahi-netboot package would to the latest syslinux version 4.05
No vesamenu.32 installed with amahi-netboot
Update default menu with more options

Regarding [wiki]Netboot_for_Noobs_Tutorial_3[/wiki]:

1. Is there a reason syslinux 4.05 is specifically mentioned? Can later versions of vesamenu.32 be used?

2. The page mentions, "Get syslinux 4.05. Problem is it comes with 2231 files and we only need a few" but from what I can see only vesamenu.32 is needed for the tutorial. What are the other "few" needed?

3. I'm confused by the term "Layered Menus" -- does this just mean menus with sub-menus?

[bigfoot65]

These tutorials were primarily written for Fedora 14. There is really no need to follow this one unless you really want the fancy menu. Some of the files mentioned may already be part of the amahi-netboot for Ubuntu.

I would caution you in following tutorials that are not specifically written for Ubuntu. There are subtle differences between it and Fedora, so often things don't work.

[taa]

I would caution you in following tutorials that are not specifically written for Ubuntu.

I wish I had known at the start that the tutorial was for Fedora, but I've gone this far so I'm still willing to continue and do what testing I can.

I only see one reference to Fedora in the 3-page tutorial, and it's in the section talking about setting up the VM under step 3 of [wiki]Amahi_Netboot_for_noobs[/wiki]:

NOTE: Fedora 14/Amahi require 384MiB for graphical install. Otherwise cannot customize the partition layout in text mode install

which to me seems to be about adding Parted Magic since it mentions, "customize the partition layout" but I'm not trying to setup Parted Magic. There's no mention of Ubuntu on any of the three tutorial pages. Is there some place I'm missing that says the tutorial was not specifically written for Ubuntu?

If you are using Ubuntu, please PM your amahi.org user name. We are looking to get this tested so we can release it.

If using Fedora, it's in the Amahi repo.

When I signed up for testing amahi-netboot I had PM'd my amahi.org user name because I am running under Ubuntu.

What exactly are the next steps I need to do/test for the release? After installing the package, nothing showed up under Webapps (I wasn't expecting it to, just saying nothing on the Webapps triggered me to do any testing) but it shows up under Installed Apps with a screen capture that matches the one in the tutorial, and there's only "Uninstall" and "more" options. Because of what I didn't see under Webapps, and what I did see under Installed Apps, it seemed to me the only logical next step to start testing was with the tutorial.

Or have I already done the steps needed to test amahi-netboot and I can give you a "go for release" thumbs up?

Is it possible I don't see any other amahi-netboot related pages on my HDA because the installed package is broken despite all indications the install was successful? I guess I'm missing something but I don't know what.

Still hoping for answers to the questions in my previous post.

[bigfoot65]

Yes when those pages were created, Amahi for Ubuntu did not exist. We are still updating the wiki to indicate Fedora and Ubuntu specific pages.

PXE server is not something for newbies, it's for advanced users. I presumed you were and advanced user, so if not I must apologize. This is one of those apps that will not show up in any UI, unless you try to connect netboot a client machine to the HDA. It can be quite complicated and will require testing by serveral users before it's released.

The tutorials in the wiki are not directly related to what we are doing with amahi-netboot. A user contributed those quite some time ago.

We do have some apps that use amahi-netboot that are in ALPHA status, but have not had time to update them or test if they are working with Ubuntu. Our current focus is on Fedora 18 release.

What you see in the wiki should be ignored in this case. If you want to try an app, I recommend you check out clonezilla. They have a nice install guide for adding it to a PXE server. There is also a plethora of info on the internet for configuring certain apps, like Partition Magic for a PXE server.

As I mentioned, if you are not an advanced user this is an area that you might want to stay away from.

[taa]

OK, good, so I'm not missing anything.

I am trying out netbooting a client to the HDA.

It can be quite complicated and will require testing by serveral users before it's released.

You're saying you need amahi-netboot testers, apparently for both Ubuntu and Fedora, then when I ask what do you need tested specifically I'm still not getting an answer other than "will require testing." This is very confusing and unclear. I'm trying to help. What precisely do you need?

(Still hoping for answers to the questions in my previous post about syslinux 4.05. I realize YOU won't be answering, just making sure any one else reading this thread knows what's still pending.)

[bigfoot65]

The person who contributed this app was asking for testers. I was just simply trying to continue it on. Our tester program is currently down, so this is more of a one off. My intent was to give you access to an app and did not realize there would be additional support required. Not that I don't what to help, just hard sometimes to find the time. Testing of this app entails basically that it allows you to PXE boot a client to the HDA. If there are apps available, those boot as well.

As I mentioned previously, don't worry about the syslinux 4.05. That was from a user who was adding the fancy menu. It was Fedora specific, so not sure if it would work with Ubuntu. Much of the netboot stuff in the wiki was written with Fedora 14 as the platform, so it may not work the same with Ubuntu. You should also note it says "Work in Progress" which means it's incomplete.

I am sorry for the mixed messages as that was not my intent. I guess I need to find out the experience of the person helping to better understand how they can help. What we need most right now is users testing Fedora 18 for Amahi. We are behind in the release and would like to get it out soon.

We appreciate the help with testing this and other apps. We rely on the users to sort out all the details and help the community. With only 3-4 of us volunteers and our overwhelming workload, it's tough to give everything the attention it needs.

If you would like to help and update the wiki for Ubuntu, that would be greatly appreciated. These are the types of apps that we rely on the users to help document for the community. I am sorry, we don't have the resources to help as much as we would like.