Amahi Netboot PXE resurrection

[ajaxmike]

This is awesome! I have spent days trying to manually install netboot capability for a mythtv front end. Although there are lots of how-tos on the web, they typically conflict with each other. I tried several different guides only to find that explanations were unclear and that files that were to be edited didn't exist or existed in multiple places. In frustration, I came here to see if anyone had figured out how to do it on Amahi. Much to my surprise, I found that there was an App.

This will save users a ton of time!

Bigfoot, there is no mention of this App in the available or beta app list. You need to get it listed!

Thanks Damon and Bigfoot.

[bigfoot65]

Which app? There are a few MythTV apps that are still in development/testing. Is it this one which is found on the web site?

http://www.amahi.org/apps/mythtv-backend

[ajaxmike]

Sorry Bigfoot, I wasn't clear. I was referring to the netboot app -- not listed in current or beta apps. I only found out about it in this thread.

Regarding mythtv, you may recall that you advised me to install it manually and report the results on the Wiki as the beta app was far from ready (for noobs anyway).

[bigfoot65]

Ok, well there is no netboot app. It is an RPM that installs the PXE server bits, but you need more as the wiki describes to make it work. We do have apps that use amahi-netboot in Alpha and Beta as reported in the wiki.

As for MythTV, yes is still is not being worked much if at all. There are just not enough resources available to make it stable as a one-click app. Hopefully one day someone will volunteer to work on it.

[ajaxmike]

Sorry, for referring to amahi-netboot as an app. I gather now that an "app" is a one click install. In any case, amahi-netboot was a breeze to install and setup vs. all of the other how-tos I found. I will search the wiki more in the future when I am trying to add something to my HDA.

I am discovering that mythtv is a very complicated install, so I assume that it will be a very complicated app. I tried installing mythtv-backend rpm on my F14 HDA (since I will only use it as a backend), but the resulting installation didn't seem to match the instructions. I then installed a full mythty rpm and everything seemed to line up with the instructions. I just skipped the video, audio, and LIRC sections.

My task now is setting up a diskless, mythtv frontend. I now have the PXE working (thanks to amahi-netboot) and I will refer to http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Fedora_ ... rk_install to create a directory for the diskless machine. Do you have a recommendation where to locate the directory?

[damonq]

bigfoot,
sorry with holidays didn't have chance to get back finish Tutorial #3 will do this weekend plus extra.

I think I have a simpler (less steps at least) pxe-install method for amahi/fedora14 I will check and post in wiki. If I remember according to fedora site you just need to extract the images directory from iso and put it in the same dir as the iso if your using an nfs share. no need to mount it. I tested it with fed14 and the amahi express cd and it worked well.

noticed weird bug in ubuntu/mint live cd wouldn't connect to internet when pxe booted. Could browse smb network shares on other computers but internet only if connected via wireless at the same time. Happened with vbox and physical pxe boot so wasn't virtual machine thing.

[bigfoot65]

No problem, this is one of those things that does not have a large audience. Those who are interested will benefit.

I put a link on the main wiki page to the original netboot page, then at the bottom it goes to your tutorials. Each of your pages is linked as well.

Thanks for your interest and helping educate the community. I would like to make more of these Amahi one-click apps, but realize it might be hard for some. That is the real intent, make it so any user can install without having to do any setup.

[ajaxmike]

Hmmm, I think I spoke too soon -- the netboot install of fedora (http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Fedora_ ... rk_install doesn't work on my system, at least for what I was trying to do.

I received the following anaconda error:

The following error was found while parsing the kickstart configuration file:
The following problem occurred on line 6 of the kickstart file:
selinux option: --disabled
exited abnormally [1/1]

Also I found that the .iso image took about two hours to load (until anaconda showed up with the error above). This was over a gigabit connection.

I was trying to build a diskless client and have the files system reside on the HDA. After a very helpful chat with GGD on the IRCchannel, I discovered that the wiki entry above is for installing F14 on a remote client with a hard drive. I will make a note in the wiki.

[bigfoot65]

That guidance is a work in progress, so it may need updated. I have not tried it myself, so cannot tell ya if it would work or not.

Keep in mind many of these tutorials in the wiki are community contributions and not officially supported by Amahi. Maybe the author of the wiki article can jump in and help.

[damonq]

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.