[gentoo-user] pxe + initramfs

[gentoo-user] pxe + initramfs

[James]

All,

I have been experimenting heavily with netboot (PXE booting).

When I go to boot the Ubuntu LiveCD via the network I have to set up
an NFS share and export it with the content of the LiveCD so that the
kernel can boot from it.

However, when booting the Gentoo LiveCD from the network, everything
seems to be downloaded as one large initramfs image that is then
extracted and used to boot. i.e., no NFS required.

How would I go about taking a LiveCD and packing it into a LiveCD so
that I don't have to set up NFS exports for all the other Linux
distributions?

Thoughts appreciated.

-j

Re: [gentoo-user] pxe + initramfs

[Kyle Bader]

James:

> How would I go about taking a LiveCD and packing it into a LiveCD so
> that I don't have to set up NFS exports for all the other Linux
> distributions?

I assume you mean taking a livecd and packing it into a initramfs. I
would suggest you read this guide:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-initrd.html

RDSIZE will have to be substantially larger though, large enough to
fit whatever your putting into the image. Ubuntu Karmic netinstall is
about 12Mb [1] so 13000 might be appropriate, iirc initramfs cannot
exceed 16Mb (if this isn't true let me know :D).  Some hackery of the
"init" script will likely be required.

[1] http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/karmic/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/mini.iso
-- 

Kyle