Why use PXELINUX

You may have a running Linux server supporting network boot via PXELINUX, because it allows a nice selection menu of bootable images, and want to add a NetBSD kernel to the menu.

In an experimental environment, this would allow to boot diagnostic tools like memtest, Linux kernels like GRML, a variety of Linux installers, and also to install NetBSD without removable devices.

However, if the networked machine is already dedicated to NetBSD, using pxeboot_ia32.bin directly to boot a NetBSD kernel for repairs or boot a diskless workstation with NetBSD would be better.

Using PXELINUX to chain boot

PXELINUX can not only boot Linux kernels, but also a boot sector. Thus, we can instruct PXELINUX to load the NetBSD netboot loader pxeboot_ia32.bin, which then can load a NetBSD kernel.

The only tricky thing is where to put which files. The two files needed are e.g. on a bootable CD-ROM.

copy pxeboot_ia32.bin to the same directory where pxelinux.0 resides. The DHCP config file may contain filename="/lts/i386/pxelinux.0", then copy pxeboot_ia32.bin to e.g. /tftpboot/lts/i386/
copy the kernel, e.g. netbsd-INSTALL.gz, to the directory denoted option root-path "/opt/ltsp/i386" in the DHCP config file, possibly renaming it to the default netbsd.
Edit the pxelinux.cfg/default (or any other file there) e.g. like this


# NetBSD
 label netbsd
 kernel pxeboot_ia32.bin

In case of a NetBSD installation, proceed as in Example installation, using probably FTP, HTTP or NFS as installation source.

Remarks:

The kernel(s) can and should stay gzipped
Unless an installation kernel is used, it will try to NFS-mount the root-path from the DHCP config file as root and assume it is writable, i.e. try to be a diskless workstation, see link below
For NetBSD 5, use NETBSD_INSTALL_FLOPPY.GZ as installation kernel

Why use PXELINUX

Using PXELINUX to chain boot

See also