Re: mandrake 10 status

> I'm not running Mandrake on my desktop machine, and haven't found
> adequate instructions for setting up a PXE boot in my environment (I
> have a Linksys WAP acting as a DHCP server, though I guess I could
> turn that off, and install DHCP (and maybe PXE and a TFTP server?)).

> Or I suppose I could install Mandrake on my desktop machine on an
> unused partition. I don't know how much space it takes, though.

> Any suggestions as to which might be the easiest thing to do?

I managed to do a full Debian installation via PXE with a TC1000 that
came without anything preinstalled. It took me about two hours to setup
PXE boot. Unfortunately I lost most of my host-pc's configuration since
then... Some points of interest:

  If you use the old Debian Woody installation's 2.4 boot-flavour, the
  kernel will be unable to access the network, once booted, since the
  old kernel version used does not have support for the intel ethernet
  chip. You will have to compile your own 2.4 kernel (newer than
  2.4.20?) with all necessary drivers statically enabled (no modules).
  I might be able to help with a kernel-config...

  When I tried the Debian Sarge installer about 4 months ago, it hung
  somewhere in the installation. But newer version might work better.
  Recommended... this should work without having to recompile a kernel

  TFTP had some permission problem when run from inetd. I ended up
  starting it manually as a daemon from the command line. BTW there is
  not something like PXE to be installed. You only create a DHCP entry
  for your TC1000 like this:

   host ant {
      hardware ethernet 00:0b:cd:ac:a6:c3;
      filename "pxelinux.0";
      fixed-address 192.168.0.7;
      option routers 192.168.0.100;
   }

   The TC1000's hw-address is output when you boot it with PXE enabled
   in the bios.

More information about PXE-installation can be found via Google and
AFAIR quite some documentation is contained in the Debian installation
manual. With the new Debian-Sarge you should even be able to put the
boot-images onto a USB stick (kernel + root-fs-image, see `man
syslinux'), boot the installer and from there on continue via network
installation...

BTW PXE-installation also relies on a branch of syslinux called
pxelinux. AFAIK it is part of the syslinux distribution.
  
David

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