Configuring BOOTP and TFTP

Note: this assumes that you have dhcpd installed; if you use bootp then you need to look up the appropriate documentation.

To use rarpd, the configuration is very much simple. The file /etc/ethers on the server needs to contain a line like :


00:40:33:29:53:AB 192.168.87.131
      

I (bam) used dhcpd, with the following configuration:


shared-network mynet {

subnet 192.168.87.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
  option domain-name-servers 192.168.87.129;
  option domain-name "chocbit.org.au";
  option routers 192.168.87.129;
  option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
  option broadcast-address 192.168.87.255;
  default-lease-time 3600;
  max-lease-time 7200;
}

[...]
}

host louie {
        hardware ethernet 00:40:33:29:53:AB; # PN16CT Card ?
        fixed-address 192.168.87.131;
        server-name "snoopy";
        filename "linux_2.2.1";
}
[...]
      

Some of these details aren't used by Linux, but are used when the computer is booted in Win98.

I have heard that there is another option, "option root-path" that sets the default NFS-root path. I haven't been able to get it to work though.


        option root-path                "imagedir/root";
      

Replace imagedir with the group of this host. This should avoid the need for /tftpboot.

I use tftpd configured in /etc/inetd.conf with:


tftp            dgram   udp     wait    nobody  /usr/sbin/tcpd  /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /var/lib/diskless/boot