PXE Boot FreeBSD 8.1

A

atwinix

Hello All,

I am currently experimenting with PXE Booting under FreeBSD. I have been trying to get mine to work since last week and so far I haven't had much luck.

I have mounted the filesystem from the memstick version to a directory on my hard-drive which I am using for PXE-boot.

If I tell my DHCP server to serve boot/pxeboot, I get an error along the lines of "tftp download complete, but unable to load file." I hence implemented a linux pxeboot-loader using syslinux files. With that I manage to get the FreeBSD kernel loaded and it boots until it gets stuck at something like "NFS ROOT: 192.168.1.1:/pxe/tftpboot/images/freebsd". I thought there was a problem with my NFS mounts. I tried to loopback mount them and they work fine.

So, I tried with using another approach -- the one specified in the FreeBSD Handbook's chapter 31.7 Diskless Operation. With this image it gets stuck at "Timecounters tick every 10.000 msec" while loading.

Code: 
dhcpd.conf

subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        option routers 192.168.1.1;
        range 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.150;
        next-server 192.168.1.1;

        filename "gpxelinux.0";
        #filename "pxeboot";
        option root-path "192.168.1.1:/pxe/tftpboot/images/freebsd"; # NFS Root
}

Code: 
/etc/exports

/usr            -alldirs -ro
/pxe/tftpboot   -alldirs -maproot=root  -network 192.168.1.0/24


/root # showmount -e
Exports list on localhost:
/usr                               Everyone
/pxe/tftpboot                      192.168.1.0

Code: 
#Menu to load kernels: /pxe/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

ui menu.c32
menu title Utilities

label freebsd
        menu label FreeBSD LiveFS
        pxe  tftp://192.168.1.1/images/freebsd/boot/pxeboot

label reboot
        menu label Reboot
        kernel reboot.c32
Does anyone have a recent experience in setting up PXE boot that could help?

Your time and advice are much appreciated,

Cheers,

atwinix
 
That's the tutorial I tried which gets stuck at
Code: 
NFS ROOT: 192.168.1.1:/pxe/tftpboot/images/freebsd
 
atwinix said:
That's the tutorial I tried which gets stuck at
Code: 
NFS ROOT: 192.168.1.1:/pxe/tftpboot/images/freebsd
Click to expand...

What Ethernet controller is in the NFS-booting machine?
 
Server has an Intel Pro/1000 from memory.
Client has an embedded one - Realtek 8111C from what I found in the motherboard doc.
 
atwinix said:
Server has an Intel Pro/1000 from memory.
Client has an embedded one - Realtek 8111C from what I found in the motherboard doc.
Click to expand...

Should be okay. Try using HTTP instead of TFTP:
Code: 
label freebsd
  menu label FreeBSD LiveFS
  pxe http://192.168.1.1/images/freebsd/boot/pxeboot
 
Changed it to http and I am still getting the same problem! Maybe I should restart from scratch.
 
Just tested successfully here on a motherboard with a Realtek 8111C and the FreeBSD LiveFS setup. The server has an Intel gigabit card, and it's going through a 3Com switch. The software setup is exactly as described in the article. Your DHCP root path is different from mine; I don't know if FreeBSD's pxeboot can handle a URL-style path. NFS exports are different, too.
 
Thanks for all your help and time wblock. I greatly appreciate it. I shall try installing again.

cheers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top