multi-frontends with netboot pxelinux

[jonno]

I needed to use DHCP netboot with pxelinux for separate MM frontends. I wanted to make sure I could keep the boots isolated from each other. I wanted a very simple way of doing this. There is a post over on the Myth site that is incorrect and led me down the wrong path. I found the perfect model that worked great for me.

Here's what I did:

1. Flashed my WRT310 router with dd-wrt (lots of good reasons to do this anyway)
2. Added this to DNSMasq Options in router using the dd-wrt interface:

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dhcp-boot=pxe/minimyth/pxelinux.0,icarus,192.168.1.201 

3. Installed and enabled tftp on icarus (my ubuntu box)
4. Copied the pxelinux.0 into the tftp folder (so it agrees with path in step 2)
5. Created the boot files under "pxe/minimyth/pxelinux.cfg" using the mac addresses of the frontends for the names, prefixing with "01-" and using lower case. Like this:

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pxe/minimyth/pxelinux.cfg/01-00-1d-60-ba-26-72
pxe/minimyth/pxelinux.cfg/01-00-1d-92-f2-dd-de
pxe/minimyth/pxelinux.cfg/01-00-22-15-b6-8f-d8

(this is the 'pxelinux' means of controlling which kernel and rootfs the client downloads)
7. Here's the critical part, I added the MM_DHCP_HOST_NAME to the boot line for each of those files in step 6, like this:

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DEFAULT minimyth-ram

LABEL minimyth-ram
	KERNEL ram-minimyth-0.21.0-64-nvidia.180.22/kernel
	APPEND ro root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=96000 initrd=ram-minimyth-0.21.0-64-nvidia.180.22/rootfs MM_DHCP_HOST_NAME="peeper"

8. Under "pxe/minimyth/conf", I created the "default" dir, and I created a dir for each host name. The host names must match the MM_DHCP_HOST_NAME entries in step 7. Like this:

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pxe/minimyth/default
pxe/minimyth/toro
pxe/minimyth/peeper
pxe/minimyth/geronimo

9. Copied minimyth.conf to each dir and edited accordingly for each machine.

This will allow the mm machine to discover it's custom bootline using it's mac address. And because the MM_DHCP_HOST_NAME is on the boot line, MM can then come back and download its appropriate minimyth.conf,
xorg.conf, etc.. from the correct host name folder.

I also used the "mm_minimyth_conf_include minimyth-common.conf" option in each host-specific minimyth.conf so I could keep them tiny.

Hope this save you time!

[jeauxbleaux]

Thanks! This is great. I had it -almost- right.

How did you handle the conf-rw and themecaches?

[opel70]

Thanks from me as well. I'm at work, configuring my home PCs remotely (shhh) I was also wondering whether the conf-rw folder will work. Guess I'll find out when I get home.

[hak]

Am a bit confused with what you are trying to do..

Could I have a (multimedia or not) router attached to my LCD screen, and connected to a client over 60 metres of cabling.. With a signal from a mythtv backend?
Can you reflash routers to enable usage as diskless frontends?

Is this not a possible scenario, that is without the resource consuming parts such as fast forward/backward television etc.

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I fear a flaming may have been called for, but certainly hope not.