Building an pxelinux memtest server

Building the system

Find a box

This step is real simple. Find a computer that will suffice it's use... If it's going to be just to run memtest, a thin, light system will work.

You should know this step by now, but if not it's just fine.

Set the NIC of the server you are working on to boot from the network, plug into the build intranet, when pxelinux boot, choose the install base server option. When this is finished don't forget to disable that feature. If the motherboard doesn't support this then use a boot floppy with pxeboot installed.

Install Base server

Installing the software

Our selection is of software for this project is: syslinux, dhcp3-server, tftpd-hpa, and memtest86+. You can find these packages through the apt program.

bash ~ # apt-get install dhcp3-server tftpd-hpa memtest86+ syslinux

Configuration

First the NIC

Make sure the main network interface is set up for a static IP.

bash ~ # cat /etc/network/interfaces 
# this file is blah blah blah information, see interfaces(5)
# The loopback interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
# The primary network interface
# replace ethX with your interface, see ifconfig(8)
auto ethX
iface ethX inet static 
# Set static ip like 10.0.0.10
  address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 
# And the netmask like 255.255.255.0
  netmask yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy

DHCP server

Now we must set up a DHCP server.

bash ~ # cat /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf
# see dhcpd(8)
# 
default lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;
log-facility local7;
# This next line is needed so so pxelinux doesn't stall when 
# selecting the configuration to use, and should be the address
# set in /etc/network/interfaces e.g. 10.0.0.10
next-server 10.0.0.10
subnet 10.0.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { 
   # range will only offer IP addresses between these numbers e.g. 10.0.0.20 - 10.0.0.30 
   range 10.0.0.20 10.0.0.30
   option broadcast-address 10.0.0.255;
   # This line is need for pxelinux 
   filename "pxelinux.0"
}

TFTP

tftp-hpa is a tfpt server without an authentication mechanism, which is perfect for what we need and easy to set up. It's contents will house our memtest86.bin image that we installed earlier, asw ell the pxelinux network boot utility that was installed with the syslinux package. We will take care of all the file placement in one swoop in this step!

The -p option passed to mkdir will create the path (e.g. it will make the directories tftpboot and pxelinux.cfg)

bash ~ # mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg

now check the contents of /etc/defaults/tftpd-hpa, and make sure it contains:

bash ~ # cat /etc/defaults/tftpd-hpa
RUN_DAEMON="yes"
OPTIONS="-l -v -s /var/lib/tftpboot"

double check inetd.conf (debian says that installing tftpd-hpa should configure this correctly, but just in case)

bash ~ # cat /etc/inetd.conf | grep tftp
tfpt dgram udp wait nobody /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd --tftpd-timeout 300 \
--retry-timeout 5 --maxthread 100 --verbose=5 --logfile /var/log/tftpd.log /var/lib/tftpboot

Now tftpd should be in running condition, you can start it with:

bash ~ # /etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa start

pxelinux

copy pxelinux.0 to the tftpboot root directory

bash ~ # cp /usr/lib/sysliux/pxelinux.0 /var/lib/tftboot/

now add the image we want pxelinux to boot (**do not link it**) and remove the .bin

bash ~ # cp /boot/memtest86+.bin /var/lib/tftpboot

Create the default configuration file

bash ~ # cat > /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

then add the contents:

bash ~ # cat /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
timeout 5
propmt 1 
default memtest
label memtest
      kenel memtest86+

Testing & trouble shooting

Starting the Servers

bash ~ # /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server start
bash ~ # /etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa start

Testing the server

find a thin client (diskless terminal), and a cross over cable. Connect the thin client to the server via ethernet, and boot the client.

trouble shooting

Got problems? so do I. but you should fix yours, and tells us how you did it here.

log files

tail /var/log/messages 
tail /var/log/tfpd.log

k-thanks-bye

Memtest server

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