[debian-lan-devel] Usage of debian-installer netboot packages with di-netboot-assistant

[Sascha Korzen]

Hi List,
hi Andi,

I want to use di-netboot-assistant to automatically boot a host with PXE and install it with preseed.
I tried to use the packaged debian-installer netboot packages, but I'm unsure which paths to use for
the linux-kernel and initrd.

I followed the 3 steps documented in /usr/share/doc/di-netboot-assistant/README.gz:

I set the TFTP_ROOT variable in di-netboot-assistant.conf:
TFTP_ROOT=/srv/tftp

I bind mounted the path as described in the README.gz of di-netboot-assistant:
mount -o bind,ro /usr/lib/debian-installer/ $TFTP_ROOT/d-i/n-pkg/

ls -la /srv/tftp/d-i/n-pkg
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 27 22:24 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Jan  6 19:57 ..
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 27 22:24 images


I uncommented the "LABEL autoinstall" lines in pxelinux.HEAD:
LABEL autoinstall
    MENU LABEL Debian stable (amd64) + preseed
    kernel ::/d-i/n-a/stable/amd64/linux
    append initrd=::/d-i/n-a/stable/amd64/initrd.gz auto=true ...

But I'm unsure which kernel and initrd Paths I should configure?

build the menu:
di-netboot-assistant -v rebuild-menu

After building the menues I can't find {initrd.gz,linux} files in /srv/tftp/d-i/n-a?


# di-netboot-assistant -V
di-netboot-assistant 0.60

# di-netboot-assistant -v rebuild-menu
I: Building menu entries for the netboot-images.
I:     • stable-amd64
I:    Using splash screen from debian-installer-*-netboot-* package.
I:    Building menu entries for u-boot.
I: Building menu entries for debian-installer-*-netboot-* packages.
I:     • Debian 10 (buster) 20190702+deb10u7 amd64/gtk
I:     • Debian 10 (buster) 20190702+deb10u7 amd64/text
I:   Building menu entries for u-boot.


Kind regards,
Sascha