Installing Slackware Linux on an EeePC 701 by PXE

Just a few notes on this matter. I've used my notebook (running slackware 13.0 too) as a pxe server to install slackware on my Asus EeePC 701.

• Install dhcpd

  slackpkg install dhcp
  

• Sample dhcpd config:

  floyd[~]$ cat /etc/dhcpd.conf
  # dhcpd.conf
  #
  # Configuration file for ISC dhcpd (see 'man dhcpd.conf')
  #
  
  option domain-name "eulinux.org";
  authoritative;
  default-lease-time 600;
  max-lease-time 7200;
  log-facility local7;
  ddns-update-style none;
  
  allow bootp;
  option tftp-server-name "10.0.0.1";
  next-server 10.0.0.1;
  
  subnet 10.0.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
          option domain-name "eulinux.org";
          option broadcast-address 10.0.0.255;
          option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
          option domain-name-servers 192.168.2.1;
          option routers 10.0.0.1;
          range dynamic-bootp 10.0.0.50 10.0.0.100;
          use-host-decl-names on;
          if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient" {
   filename "/slackware-13/pxelinux.0";
          }
  }
  

• Mount the slackware 13.0 .iso to some folder, and copy a few files

  root[floyd]# mount -o ro,loop -t iso9660 ~/iso/slackware-13.0-install-dvd.iso /mnt/slack/
  root[floyd]# mkdir -p /tftpboot/slackware-13/
  root[floyd]# cp /usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /tftpboot/slackware-13/
  root[floyd]# cp /mnt/slack/isolinux/message.txt /tftpboot/slackware-13/
  root[floyd]# cp /mnt/slack/isolinux/f2.txt /tftpboot/slackware-13/
  root[floyd]# cp -a /mnt/slack/kernels/ /tftpboot/slackware-13/
  root[floyd]# cp -a /mnt/slack/usb-and-pxe-installers/pxelinux.cfg_default /tftpboot/slackware-13/pxelinux.cfg/default
  root[floyd]# cp -a /mnt/slack/isolinux/initrd.img /tftpboot/slackware-13/
  

• Sample pxe loader config (/tftpboot/slackware-13/pxelinux.cfg/default):

  default hugesmp.s
  prompt 1
  timeout 1200
  display message.txt
  F1 message.txt
  F2 f2.txt
  label huge.s
    kernel kernels/huge.s/bzImage
    append initrd=initrd.img load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 rw SLACK_KERNEL=huge.s
  label hugesmp.s
    kernel kernels/hugesmp.s/bzImage
    append initrd=initrd.img load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 rw SLACK_KERNEL=hugesmp.s
  label speakup.s
    kernel kernels/speakup.s/bzImage
    append initrd=initrd.img load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 rw SLACK_KERNEL=speakup.s
  

• Also we must export /mnt/slack/ directory by nfs:

  echo "/mnt/memory 192.168.2.0/24(ro,all_squash) 10.0.0.0/24(ro,all_squash)" >> /etc/exports
  

• Start up dhcpd, start your eeepc, press as the system boots, and choose the pxe boot option.

• The rest is fairly simple, usual slackware install, except that when selecting the source, you will choose "NFS" over "CD/DVD"

Have fun!