How to pxe boot cent os 7

[Tom Elliott]

@dureal99d That’s the issue you can’t mount a full path. Only mount up to the bootimgs folder.

Instead of:
mount 192.168.1.109:/opt/bootimgs/fedora /mnt use :
mount 192.168.1.109:/opt/bootimgs /mnt

[dureal99d]

This post is deleted!

[dureal99d]

@Tom-Elliott said in How to pxe boot cent os 7:

mount 192.168.1.109:/opt/bootimgs /mnt

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on 192.168.1.109:/opt/bootimgs,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
(for several filesystems (e.g. nfs, cifs) you might
need a /sbin/mount.<type> helper program)

   In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
   dmesg | tail or so.

[Tom Elliott]

@dureal99d and output of dmesg | tail -20?

[dureal99d]

@Tom-Elliott said in How to pxe boot cent os 7:

dmesg | tail -20

[ 8605.032191] nfsd: last server has exited, flushing export cache
[ 8605.178847] NFSD: Using /var/lib/nfs/v4recovery as the NFSv4 state recovery directory
[ 8605.179097] NFSD: starting 90-second grace period (net ffffffff81ef3ec0)
[177245.456195] nfsd: last server has exited, flushing export cache
[177245.571541] NFSD: Using /var/lib/nfs/v4recovery as the NFSv4 state recovery directory
[177245.571572] NFSD: starting 90-second grace period (net ffffffff81ef3ec0)
[504820.256179] nfsd: last server has exited, flushing export cache
[504820.379183] NFSD: Using /var/lib/nfs/v4recovery as the NFSv4 state recovery directory
[504820.379211] NFSD: starting 90-second grace period (net ffffffff81ef3ec0)
[505766.396169] nfsd: last server has exited, flushing export cache
[505766.443252] NFSD: Using /var/lib/nfs/v4recovery as the NFSv4 state recovery directory
[505766.443281] NFSD: starting 90-second grace period (net ffffffff81ef3ec0)
[512189.424200] nfsd: last server has exited, flushing export cache
[512189.469462] NFSD: Using /var/lib/nfs/v4recovery as the NFSv4 state recovery directory
[512189.469507] NFSD: starting 90-second grace period (net ffffffff81ef3ec0)
[512652.019883] FS-Cache: Loaded
[512652.045276] FS-Cache: Netfs ‘nfs’ registered for caching
[512652.087294] NFS: Registering the id_resolver key type
[512652.087309] Key type id_resolver registered
[512652.087310] Key type id_legacy registered

[dureal99d]

@Tom-Elliott Should i be trying to mount this share locally or on another machine?

[Tom Elliott]

@dureal99d you could try readding the -t nfs

[Tom Elliott]

@Tom-Elliott also can you run yum -y install portmap nfs-utils nfs4-acl-tools

[dureal99d]

@Tom-Elliott yum doesn’t apply to me I’m on Ubuntu 16.04.1. it does offer for me to install it should I? @Tom-Elliott I have installed yum. and am executing the program you have told me too.

[dureal99d]

@Wayne-Workman said in How to pxe boot cent os 7:

@dureal99d The syntax is:

ln -s <source> <destination>

You should remove the left/right carrots when running the command.
If all the ISOs are in /opt/bootimgs the command would be:
ln -s /opt/bootimgs /var/www/html

Of course, apache needs access to this new directory also. It’s fine to set ownership of /opt/bootimgs to apache:root or 777 or something.

And your resultant web path to these files would then be:
http://<IP>/bootimgs/whatever

How would I give apache permissions to the new folder?

I set the folder as chmod 777 and can now write into the folder on the local machine. but when I try to load any distro I now get the dreaded permissions denied on nfs mount. and the nfs is exported.

[dureal99d]

@Tom-Elliott I have successfully mounted the nfs on my remote machine. on my other linux machine i did not have the nfs system installed once i did wala it mounted. however i cant write to it its read only. and when i boot the linux ditro it all goes good utill its time to mount the nfs then i get a permissions denied error

[Sebastian Roth]

@dureal99d If you want to make it writeable you need to say so in the NFS exports file:

/images *(ro,sync,no_wdelay,no_subtree_check,insecure_locks,no_root_squash,insecure,fsid=0)
/images/dev *(rw,async,no_wdelay,no_subtree_check,no_root_squash,insecure,fsid=1)
/var/www/fog/service/ipxe *(ro,sync,no_wdelay,insecure_locks,no_root_squash,insecure)
/opt/bootimgs *(rw,sync,no_wdelay,insecure_locks,no_root_squash,insecure)

See I put rw where it said ro in the config you posted last.

Can you please post a picture of the permissions error you see on boot?

[dureal99d]

@Sebastian-Roth I can care less about being able to write to it, i just want the permissions to be granted when linux distros try to mount and yess ill post the pic.

[Sebastian Roth]

@dureal99d Now that you have clead up your exports file it seems like you need to add those again. Please change your last entry to /opt/bootimgs/16.04.1_64 *(rw,sync,no_wdelay,insecure_locks,no_root_squash,insecure) and see if it boots up.

[george1421]

OK lets step back and regroup here. Lets do the following

1. Insert the Centos 7 dvd into your FOG server’s cdrom drive
2. Key in the following commands into your fog server’s console as root:

# we are going to put all of our boot images into the web server and issue the files
# with apache and cut out all of this NFS crud
mkdir /var/www/html/bootimg

# connect to the centos dvd to the /mnt directory
mount -o loop /dev/cdrom  /mnt

#show me there is content there
ls /mnt

# Create a destination directory for the centos installer files
mkdir /var/www/html/bootimg/centos7x64

# Copy the content of the dvd to the proper location
cp -r /mnt/*  /var/www/html/bootimg/centos7x64

# Change the access level for world read
chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/bootimg/centos7x64

# Unmount the dvd drive since we already have the files
umount /mnt

3. Now in the FOG Configuration->iPXE New Menu Entry enter the following:
   Menu Item: Centos7PXEInst
   Description: Install Centos x64
   Parameters:
   initrd http://${fog-ip}/bootimg/centos7x64/images/pxeboot/initrd.img
   chain http://${fog-ip}/bootimg/centos7x64/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img method=http://${fog-ip}/bootimg/centos7x64/ devfs=nomount ip=dhcp
   boot || goto MENU
   Menu Show with: All Hosts
4. Now pxe boot your target computer and select the Install Centos x64 menu item.
5. You should see the installer boot and run.

This process can be replicated to other linux distributions. I just tested this, this morning on my dev fog server running 1.3.0-rc8 and it works.

As for a live boot, these settings don’t work, the installer still runs. I don’t have time right now to figure out why the live boot bits are not working.

Live OS boot

initrd http://${fog-ip}/bootimg/centos7x64/images/pxeboot/initrd.img
chain http://${fog-ip}/bootimg/centos7x64/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img root=live:http://${fog-ip}/bootimg/centos7x64/LiveOS/squashfs.img ip=dhcp rootflags="loop" rootfstype=auto ro rd.live.image quiet rhgb rd.luks=0 rd.md=0 rd.dm=0 
boot || goto MENU

[dureal99d]

@Sebastian-Roth ok, I’m trying it now

[dureal99d]

@george1421 ok I will try it shortly

[dureal99d]

@Sebastian-Roth said in How to pxe boot cent os 7:

/opt/bootimgs/16.04.1_64 *(rw,sync,no_wdelay,insecure_locks,no_root_squash,insecure)

it works now, I see I had this line “nfsroot=${fog-ip}:/var/www/html/bootimgs/16.04.1_64/” wrong.

I had nfsroot=${fog-ip}:/bootimgs/16.04.1_64/ which did not work but once I seen the path @george1421 was using I realized I had nfsroot= wrong.

thank you all @Developers . all I have to do now is try the cent os method made by @george1421. I’m on that now

[dureal99d]

@george1421 said in How to pxe boot cent os 7:

OK lets step back and regroup here. Lets do the following

1. Insert the Centos 7 dvd into your FOG server’s cdrom drive
2. Key in the following commands into your fog server’s console as root:

# we are going to put all of our boot images into the web server and issue the files
# with apache and cut out all of this NFS crud
mkdir /var/www/html/bootimg

# connect to the centos dvd to the /mnt directory
mount -o loop /dev/cdrom  /mnt

#show me there is content there
ls /mnt

# Create a destination directory for the centos installer files
mkdir /var/www/html/bootimg/centos7x64

# Copy the content of the dvd to the proper location
cp -r /mnt/*  /var/www/html/bootimg/centos7x64

# Change the access level for world read
chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/bootimg/centos7x64

# Unmount the dvd drive since we already have the files
umount /mnt

3. Now in the FOG Configuration->iPXE New Menu Entry enter the following:
   Menu Item: Centos7PXEInst
   Description: Install Centos x64
   Parameters:
   initrd http://${fog-ip}/bootimg/centos7x64/images/pxeboot/initrd.img
   chain http://${fog-ip}/bootimg/centos7x64/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img method=http://${fog-ip}/bootimg/centos7x64/ devfs=nomount ip=dhcp
   boot || goto MENU
   Menu Show with: All Hosts
4. Now pxe boot your target computer and select the Install Centos x64 menu item.
5. You should see the installer boot and run.

This process can be replicated to other linux distributions. I just tested this, this morning on my dev fog server running 1.3.0-rc8 and it works.

As for a live boot, these settings don’t work, the installer still runs. I don’t have time right now to figure out why the live boot bits are not working.

Live OS boot

initrd http://${fog-ip}/bootimg/centos7x64/images/pxeboot/initrd.img
chain http://${fog-ip}/bootimg/centos7x64/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img root=live:http://${fog-ip}/bootimg/centos7x64/LiveOS/squashfs.img ip=dhcp rootflags="loop" rootfstype=auto ro rd.live.image quiet rhgb rd.luks=0 rd.md=0 rd.dm=0 
boot || goto MENU

@george1421 This worked like a charm. Cent os boots, I have to do the net install type but it boots and is able to be installed.

Thank you all.

Side note, this should work for fedora? yet fedora is refusing to boot. I think because fedora does that live boot thingy. gices this error >>dracut: FATAL: No or empty root=argument dracut: Refusing to continue. yet this thread is solved.

[george1421]

@dureal99d The live boot bits that didn’t work for centos was from a fedora pxe boot guide. That is all I did and then just translated what was needed for the structure that fog uses. You will get much faster boot speed with http over ftp, or tftp that is why I kept everything in the same protocol by specifying http:// when making an object reference.

Also from my instructcions I moved the files out of the fog directory where they will get clobbered when you update FOG. By putting them on the web server in a different root folder (i.e. not /fog) the fog installer scripts will not touch them. It would be very depressing if you created this monster boot menu and then have a fog upgrade eat all of your hard work.