Configure PXE Boot menu¶
Configure the boot menu pxelinux.cfg/default
The final piece is to prepare the boot menu to load and present a selection that will install the Ubuntu OS.
This file is already with the configuration below.
Validate the file content of pxelinux.cfg/default matches the code below.
vi /srv/tftp/efi64/pxelinux.cfg/default
DEFAULT Bootlocal
TIMEOUT 50
UI vesamenu.c32
MENU RESOLUTION 1024 768
MENU BACKGROUND splash/pine-green-splash.png
MENU TITLE PXE Boot Menu
LABEL ubuntu-iso-remote #iso downloaded from http. Requires 4GB of Memory
MENU LABEL ubuntu-iso-remote (iso downloaded - 4GB Memory)
KERNEL http://192.168.100.1/tftp/ubuntu/casper/vmlinuz
INITRD http://192.168.100.1/tftp/ubuntu/casper/initrd
append url=http://192.168.100.1/tftp/iso/ubuntu-20.04.6-live-server-amd64.iso autoinstall ds=nocloud-net;s=http://192.168.100.1/autoinstall/ ip=dhcp fsck.mode=skip ---
LABEL ubuntu-DVD-local (Ubuntu DVD locally mounted - 1GB Memory)
MENU LABEL ubuntu-iso-local (iso locally mounted 1GB of Memory)
KERNEL http://192.168.100.1/tftp/ubuntu/casper/vmlinuz
INITRD http://192.168.100.1/tftp/ubuntu/casper/initrd
APPEND autoinstall ds=nocloud-net;s=http://192.168.100.1/autoinstall/ ip=dhcp fsck.mode=skip ---
LABEL ubuntu-nfs-boot (Ubuntu iso mounted on nfs - 1GB Memory)
MENU LABEL ubuntu-iso-local (iso locally mounted 1GB of Memory)
KERNEL http://192.168.100.1/tftp/ubuntu/casper/vmlinuz
INITRD http://192.168.100.1/tftp/ubuntu/casper/initrd
APPEND netboot=nfs boot=casper root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=192.168.100.1:/srv/isoubuntu autoinstall ds=nocloud-net;s=http://192.168.100.1/autoinstall/ ip=dhcp fsck.mode=skip ---
LABEL Bootlocal
MENU LABEL Bootlocal
LOCALBOOT 0
Private 192.168.100.0/24 network that has Network boot configured will be able to boot successfully.
What happens next?¶
When the remote client boots, it will get the DHCP options for the tftp server. The syslinux.efi will load and then present the boot menu. Choosing either option will present with the Ubuntu install window. The usual process to setup can now continue.
Lessons Learnt¶
As I performed the configuration, I faced some issues , and the following had configuration errors mostly. i.e. wrong IP, typos etc.
- Check DHCP
Check the logs to see if the IP is being assigned. If it does not it could be a network related configuration.
- Check nginx
If a URL is part of the process, check the nginx access logs for reference to queries to the specific url.
- ensure VM has minimum 4GB of memory to load the Ubuntu OS setup. This is for the ISO to be extracted to memory.
- URL path incorrect.
- the selection of ubuntu-iso-local`` is actualy looking at for the ISO to be mounted locally. The files are not loaded fromnfs`.
Next step¶
The PXE boot to install Ubuntu is now complete. If you are looking to automate the entries for the Ubuntu installation, the next step will review the relevant points.