[mythtv-users] Questions on PXE booting a frontend

[Brian Long]

On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 9:04 PM, Jim Stichnoth<stichnot at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a Zotac IONITX frontend that I'm interested in making
> completely diskless and PXE booting, and I have a bunch of questions.
> Currently it boots off a 4GB USB flash drive.  It is running MythDora
> 10.21, using the kernel 2.6.27.9-159.fc10.i686.  I have rsync'd the
> root file system to the backend machine, and that directory is
> NFS-exported.  I understand that I will need to set up dhcp, tftp, and
> syslinux (i.e. pxelinux.0) on the server.
>
> 2. Can the DHCP service in a home router and a Linux DHCP/PXE server
> coexist on the same network?  I would prefer the home router to handle
> most DHCP requests and the Linux server to handle just the PXE-related
> requests for this frontend, so that e.g. my wife doesn't lose DHCP for
> her laptop computer when the Linux server is down.

Jim,
If you install DD-WRT on your router, you can install Apache and GPXE
on your Linux box and tell DD-WRT's DNSMasq service to forward
requests properly.  This is what I have on my router (under Services,
Additional DNSMasq Options):

dhcp-boot=linux-install/gpxelinux.0,lorien,192.168.1.5
dhcp-option-force=210,http://192.168.1.5/linux-install/
dhcp-option-force=211,30i

Since GPXE supports loading via HTTP instead of TFTP, MiniMyth's
initrd is able to download much quicker.

/Brian/