network install using pxe

[noob_]

hello,

I'm trying to install Debian Etch via local-network.

I set up DHCP and tftp server on the other computer.
I put contents extracted from netboot.tar.gz in tftpboot directory, and contents from iso-CD1 in "root-path" directory on the server machine.

Servers themselves are OK because I actually installed Sarge in this way.

But when booting the target computer into which I'm trying to install, the boot-screen says:

"Trying to load: pxelinux.cfg/00-aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-ff"
(aa-bb...ff denotes MAC address of the NIC that computer has.)

I tryed renaming "default" to 00-aa-bb...ff but this didnt work.
Does anyone know how to?

[IsaacKuo]

What are the contents of /etc/inetd.conf? I know that when I got netbooting to work, I had to try a couple different tftp servers. IIRC, atftpd conveniently put in an entry in /etc/inetd.conf pointing the tftp directory to /tftpboot/, but for some reason it just didn't work. I had to install tftp-hpa, which actually worked (but put nothing in /etc/inetd.conf).

Another thing which might be necessary is to include the following at the top of /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf

next-server 192.168.1.4;

Replace that IP address with the tftp server's IP address (the same as the DHCP server's address, if they're one and the same, of course).

I don't know what exactly that does and exactly why it may be needed. I needed it in order to get diskless workstation netbooting to work. I only ever messed with netbooting the Debian 4.0 installer after already setting up diskless workstations.

[noob_]

What are the contents of /etc/inetd.conf?

That server is FreeBSD box, and all I did was remove commenting '#'.

next-server 192.168.1.4;

thanks, that's correct. After I added "next-server" line to dhcpd.conf and restarted dhcpd, the target machine finally booted.

But, another problem occurred. I noticed that this installer doesn't have the option of mounting NFS during installation in neither case of "expert" nor "install"(default).
I remember that the previous(maybe) version of installer allowed me to mount ISO-image via NFS. I think it was much better.

[IsaacKuo]

Sorry, I can't help you with that. I only ever started messing with PXE install starting with Debian 4.0, and I'm entirely unfamiliar with such an option.