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Bug 74628

Summary: create pxe boot initrd for all platforms with support for serial console
Product: Gentoo Release Media Reporter: Martin Hierling <martin.hierling>
Component: NetbootAssignee: Gentoo Release Team <releng>
Status: CONFIRMED ---    
Severity: enhancement CC: garftd, gmsoft, nikize, pub_br_gentoo.org, vapier
Priority: High    
Version: unspecified   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Package list:
Runtime testing required: ---

Description Martin Hierling 2004-12-16 06:50:42 UTC
As weeve did it for Sparc
( http://dev.gentoo.org/~weeve/tftpboot/ ) could you guys please build a pxe boot initrd file with a busybox and thats it. A Kernel on top of that and ditribute it.

My Problems installing Gentoo on my production servers are: 
Headless (only ttyS0)
No CDROM/Floppy
only Netboot / PXE
No std. hardware so (in one Case where i have a cdrom) LiveCD hangs
Sparc64 and Opteron CPUs

So i neeeeed a pxe/tftp environment also for x86/x86-64 (Opteron/Xeon).

regards mad

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.
Comment 1 SpanKY gentoo-dev 2004-12-17 00:17:10 UTC
what's wrong with the catalyst netboot target ?
Comment 2 Martin Hierling 2004-12-17 00:24:39 UTC
dont even know that there is a netboot target.
sorry but i am not a catalyst user.

Where can i find this netboot image on the mirrors, i have searched several dirs to find something, but nothing. The only thing i found was tftp sparc netboot.
ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/Linux/gentoo/experimental/sparc/tftpboot/
So, can you point me to the x86 netboot images?

M.
Comment 3 SpanKY gentoo-dev 2004-12-17 00:30:05 UTC
we havent released any because no one's tested the netboot generation code in catalyst
Comment 4 Martin Hierling 2004-12-17 00:57:04 UTC
i cant test the generation code, but the images if you distribute some. 
i would apreciate if they appear in experimental 2005.0 .

M
Comment 5 Chris Gianelloni (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2004-12-17 05:31:40 UTC
They won't appear by 2005.0 as the netboot code is still evolving.  More than likely any netboot images would not be tied to a release, but rather released into /experiemental (with a note on www.gentoo.org and in the GWN) immediately.

The truth is that the livecd herd is just me.  The catalyst herd is just me and zhen and zhen is on temporary leave because of school.  The official Gentoo release media takes first priority, of course, which doesn't leave much time for experimenting with the new netboot code for me.

That being said, the netboot code is there.  Somebody just has to take the time to build an image set with catalyst.  If you're just looking for testing, then it might be some time, still.  Otherwise, "emerge catalyst" and start playing around with it.
Comment 6 Martin Hierling 2004-12-18 03:02:15 UTC
doesnt find anything specific about catalyst netboot target:
http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=site%3Awww.gentoo.org+netboot+catalyst&btnG=Suche&meta=
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/releng/catalyst/
There are only some specific pages about sparc/mips netboot.

there only appears some small notes in Changelog, nothing specific. 
I would give catalyst a try, if there would be a little more doku stuff, are there some resources i have not found?

M.
Comment 7 John Davis (zhen) (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2004-12-18 07:01:36 UTC
nope, you have found all of the ones that are available ;)

I would recommend joining the gentoo-catalyst mailing list and asking for some help there. GMsoft is the person that works mainly on the netboot code, and he should be on the list (cc'ing him on the bug so if he isn't, he can join the list ;) )
Comment 8 Guy Martin (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2004-12-19 11:01:31 UTC
I'll focus on fixing/enhancing the netboot stuff of catalyst this week. I should have a patch or two for wednesday :)
Comment 9 Martin Hierling 2004-12-19 23:46:18 UTC
catalyst-subscribe@gentoo.org
    SMTP error from remote mailer after RCPT TO:<catalyst-subscribe@gentoo.org>:
    host mail.gentoo.org [156.56.111.197]: 550 unknown user 

where is this catalyst list ? 
Comment 10 John Davis (zhen) (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2004-12-20 07:18:27 UTC
gentoo-catalyst-subscribe@gentoo.org
Comment 11 Guy Martin (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-01-02 02:04:35 UTC
I've got a fix for the current catalyst. The patch and specs for hppa are there.
http://dev.gentoo.org/~gmsoft/work/catalyst-netboot/

It should be easy to create specs for other arches.

However, it currently only fixes the build process. I'll test this in 2-3 days when kde will be compiled on my hppa :)

To make the netboot target works you'll need a freshly cvs up busybox-1.00-r1 ebuild marked stable in your snapshot.

Comment 12 John Davis (zhen) (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-01-03 17:01:43 UTC
is the patch ready to be added into CVS then? ;)
Comment 13 SpanKY gentoo-dev 2005-01-03 17:16:18 UTC
gmsoft and i are testing it on hppa/alpha ... i'd say hold off for now
Comment 14 Guy Martin (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-01-10 16:20:58 UTC
The 'final' patch is here :
http://dev.gentoo.org/~gmsoft/work/catalyst-netboot/catalyst-netboot-fix-20050110.patch

You need a snapshot with the latest netboot-base (20050110) and a cvs'ed up version of busybox-1.00-r1 stable for your arch.

There is a spec file for hppa near the patch. It should be easy to port to another arch. All you need is a kernel configured as said in the README file.
You don't need a busybox config. The default one should work for you.
Comment 15 Guy Martin (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-01-11 06:04:56 UTC
Updated patch. It simply removes debug info for kernel config md5 checks.
This patch is still against the current cvs snapshot.
http://dev.gentoo.org/~gmsoft/work/catalyst-netboot/catalyst-netboot-fix-20050111.patch
Comment 16 Chris Gianelloni (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2006-02-02 05:58:24 UTC
I know that this has sat for *way* too long and I apologize.  It simply got lost in all of the shuffle.

I'm going to see what it would take to port the patches to catalyst2.  If anyone feels up to the task, feel free to post the patch here.  Otherwise, I'll get to it as time permits.
Comment 17 Chris Gianelloni (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2006-06-08 17:29:10 UTC
*** Bug 134752 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 18 James 2018-07-17 17:31:20 UTC
This old bug is exactly what I've been looking for. Hopefully, the fact it was not closed means that others are also interested. in pxe boot mechanisms. 
I'd need a mentor to fix this up, for auto_booting minimal gentoo systems
into a  'loosely coupled' gentoo cluster. My idea is for heterogeneous gentoo
systems (many common processors) particularly x86 and arm varieties to be able to be booted up and shutdown upon some central system command, on an as needed basis.
I'd like to support usb devices and ethernet cards with eeproms or accessible
firmware. Eventually, many systems that can run at least an embedded gentoo or a minimized gentoo, would be the targets of this system.

I'd consider doing this under (i)pxe or any other suggested standards
or existing projects or protocols.

Any mentors  with ideas, backgound and suggestions would be appreciated.
Assembler and C are languages of choice. (no forth). I would also be willing to 
experient with containers, VMs, and unikernels too.


James
Comment 19 Christian Nilsson 2021-07-18 16:31:40 UTC
PXE boot and serial is working with current minimal
One request is for Gentoo to host the needed files as is without needing to extract them from iso (BUG #494300)

Other than that the only thing needed is to add console=ttyS0,115200 to the cmdline and everything works.

So it seems that the only thing that is needed is to have this documented?