Network booting windows images.

Agenda

If you have linux server, and you don't have USB stick to boot PC (merry! Talking horse!) then you can boot your PC over The network.

I assume we are using Ubuntu 14.04 server. Installation on other linux distributions will be pretty much the same.

Second thing is: I'm using /tftpboot directory as workdir. 

Preparing

Faster and less crazy way

1. We need to instal isc-dhcp-server, and configure the following

host BootMeJently  {

        hardware ethernet ;

        fixed-address 192.168.0.100;

        filename "pxelinux.0";

        next-server 192.168.0.1;

        option routers 192.168.0.1;

}

Now, theese two lines can be added either to whole dynamic address pool or to single host. Whichever suits your needs better. Everything elese you can configure as usual.

2. Next we'll need tftpd-hpa package.

We should make config file at /etc/default/tftpd-hpa as follows

# /etc/default/tftpd-hpa

TFTP_USERNAME="tftp"

TFTP_DIRECTORY="/tftpboot"

TFTP_ADDRESS="0.0.0.0:69"

TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure"

Right, don't forget to restart tftp server and open UDP 69 port on your firewall (iptables in my case).

3. Now we need to install syslinux package.

Next do the following

mkdir -p /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg

mkdir /tftpboot/win

mkdir -p /tftpboot/debian/wheezy

cd /usr/lib/syslinux 

cp menu.c32 pxelinux.0 memdisk /tftpboot

cd /tftpboot

vim /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

download debian files: initrd.gz and linux, for example from here: http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/wheezy/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/i386/

And put your windows iso files into win folder.

then fill /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default with following:

default menu.c32

menu title PXE Network Boot Menu

prompt 0

timeout 1200

label Boot from first hard disk

localboot 0x80

############### OS DEBIAN ########

menu begin

menu title Debian

label ..

menu exit

LABEL wheezy_i386_install

kernel debian/wheezy/i386/linux

append vga=normal initrd=debian/wheezy/i386/initrd.gz  --

LABEL wheezy_i386_linux

kernel debian/wheezy/i386/linux

append vga=normal initrd=debian/wheezy/i386/initrd.gz  --

LABEL wheezy_i386_expert

kernel debian/wheezy/i386/linux

append priority=low vga=normal initrd=debian/wheezy/i386/initrd.gz  --

LABEL wheezy_i386_rescue

kernel debian/wheezy/i386/linux

append vga=normal initrd=debian/wheezy/i386/initrd.gz  rescue/enable=true --

menu end

##################################

############## OS Windows ########

menu begin

menu title Windows

label ..

menu exit

LABEL Windows10 installer

kernel memdisk

initrd win/win10.iso

append iso

LABEL WindowsXP installer

kernel memdisk

initrd win/winxpsp3.iso

append iso raw

menu end

##################################

Save everything.