From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([69.77.167.62] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Ks6FB-0003RD-22 for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:41:09 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id CA1FCE0388; Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:41:08 +0000 (UTC) Received: from fk-out-0910.google.com (fk-out-0910.google.com [209.85.128.185]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6DEEAE0390 for ; Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:41:08 +0000 (UTC) Received: by fk-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id 18so2761735fks.2 for ; Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:41:06 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to :subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:references; bh=GIMcfOUiBk9YHS83IM9jiV/vWBZkOa1hlnpciNtdGjw=; b=Fx4dHwXuByLhaC4TDWNDlWfKl91jDcpuMlIfWDBwK4YrhR0ZaliclssKS+SYW0td9e 1hTjivGjfCl3i+aq90yKx/iFFjKy6EA5bMrQ6yarGAs9WT6s0E40wIm9wRENKgvG8Eur uBwPb7zPfpgqr1OJ7arqitIj7aLD3skA/floU= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version :content-type:references; b=Pxo5xymiWWUs1lrOBM3TcNQdbvCx+gJYmOgc3fBvLfY8APFxbCr3UAXxUjjZF/zRli UYOVueJG+SnknuEq5n8+paUqyXGkpQdc+w5UFQwYIuDfzGSjqtebHRXL9wkW0uW5gQLc yYtNHU7coTQY8Mj7P+Je59DHbmkprR/9GL90g= Received: by 10.187.242.19 with SMTP id u19mr1234302far.5.1224553266909; Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:41:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.187.157.9 with HTTP; Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:41:06 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:41:06 -0700 From: "Peter Abrahamsen" To: "Stanley Brinkerhoff" Subject: Re: [gentoo-server] Pure-initramfs boot Cc: gentoo-server@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <2b539210810201801w7904a2fw5dc3e07a9ff093ff@mail.gmail.com> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-server@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-server@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_Part_48_31720802.1224553266904" References: <2b539210810201801w7904a2fw5dc3e07a9ff093ff@mail.gmail.com> X-Archives-Salt: 9018144e-6bf0-442d-bc4c-9fc7ac80cfef X-Archives-Hash: 0de689e01161d3134bff97d11fb8796f ------=_Part_48_31720802.1224553266904 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline (Cc: list for posterity) Nice, thanks! I should have waited to send the message - I made a /init that exec's /sbin/init (maybe I can just symlink them?), removed any auto lines from /etc/fstab, and it worked like a charm. This is flippin' sweet. I can netboot into a re-imager, netboot into a rescue system, netboot into a BIOS updater (if I dare), netboot into a security thingie, or netboot a diskless webhead, just by changing a symlink and rebooting the target system (with IPMI if necessary). Thanks for the pointer to ThinStation, by the way, that looks really instructional, a cool project, and maybe useful at home. Cheers, Peter On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 6:01 PM, Stanley Brinkerhoff wrote: > I use ThinStation on ~50 thin client PC's which operates as you describe. > > Stan > > > On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 8:49 PM, Peter Abrahamsen wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> I got the crazy idea to boot my servers purely from netboot with their >> root filesystems being initramfs archives coming from tftp on pxeboot. >> >> Is this reasonable? I tried just passing a cpio of my desired root >> partition as the initrd option, but it ended up using my hdd as root, I >> think because my initramfs didn't have a file at /init. Everyone else seems >> to just use their initramfs in order to boot something else, like nfs, but >> I've got plenty of RAM and don't really want to introduce the additional >> complexity and latency of NFS. >> >> Anyone done anything like that? >> >> Thanks, >> Peter >> > > ------=_Part_48_31720802.1224553266904 Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline (Cc: list for posterity)

Nice, thanks!

I should have waited to send the message - I made a /init that exec's /sbin/init (maybe I can just symlink them?), removed any auto lines from /etc/fstab, and it worked like a charm.

This is flippin' sweet. I can netboot into a re-imager, netboot into a rescue system, netboot into a BIOS updater (if I dare), netboot into a security thingie, or netboot a diskless webhead, just by changing a symlink and rebooting the target system (with IPMI if necessary).

Thanks for the pointer to ThinStation, by the way, that looks really instructional, a cool project, and maybe useful at home.

Cheers,
Peter

On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 6:01 PM, Stanley Brinkerhoff <stan@vtwireless.com> wrote:
I use ThinStation on ~50 thin client PC's which operates as you describe.

Stan


On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 8:49 PM, Peter Abrahamsen <rainhead@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,

I got the crazy idea to boot my servers purely from netboot with their root filesystems being initramfs archives coming from tftp on pxeboot.

Is this reasonable? I tried just passing a cpio of my desired root partition as the initrd option, but it ended up using my hdd as root, I think because my initramfs didn't have a file at /init. Everyone else seems to just use their initramfs in order to boot something else, like nfs, but I've got plenty of RAM and don't really want to introduce the additional complexity and latency of NFS.

Anyone done anything like that?

Thanks,
Peter


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