On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 11:25 AM, Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom <chrome at real-time.com> wrote: > You'll first need to set up a DHCP and TFTP server. Get the MAC for your > hardware, and put an entry into your dhcpd.conf file something like this: > > host xterm { > hardware ethernet 00:80:96:04:87:72; > fixed-address 192.168.1.45; > filename "/tftpboot/path/to/netboot/kernel"; > next-server 192.168.1.10; > } Not bad for pulling that off the top of your head. For best results Use PXELinux, which consists of a pxelinux.0 and pxelinux.cfg/default file to do all the dirty work: > host xterm { > hardware ethernet 00:80:96:04:87:72; > fixed-address 192.168.1.45; > filename "/tftpboot/pxelinux.0"; > next-server 192.168.1.10; > } The main thing is passing the 'next-server' directive, almost every DHCP server has this function but of course they're all different syntax's. Obviously you'll need an accebible TFTP server for this to work. You don't need to rebuild kernels and initrds for this stuff anymore. Most distros have a netboot package (just a kernel and initrd). You can set these up in the pxelinux.cfg/default file, which looks just like a syslinux config if you've ever mucked with that. > A simpler solution would be to pull the hard drive from the laptop and put > it into a different machine that did have a CD-ROM drive. Do your install on > the other machine and move the drive back to the Toshiba laptop. Linux isn't > so sensitive to hardware changes as Windows; so swapping hardware out from > under the OS isn't usually a problem. Or just plop the netboot kernel and initrd packages on the drive, then install in the laptop. Less mucking around that way. I built myself a home PXE server about 6 months ago, and I LOVE IT. I can net install debian/ubuntu/fedora as well as running DBAN and memtest with no need for media. Everyone needs one. Really. Brian