Netinstall of Linux and Ubuntu made Easy

Do you want to install Linux on a laptop or other computer without a CD drive? Does your computer support network boot? Read on!

Introduction

PXE Boot, also called Preboot Execution Environment,is a way of booting computers that cannot boot from their own hard drives or from a CD/DVD drive.

How PXE Works

• The user requests "network boot" from BIOS during the BIOS boot phase (as opposed to more usual booting from a hard drive or CDROM).
• BIOS sends a DHCP request to obtain network settings.
• There is a DHCP Server on the local network. It assigns to the workstation, the IP address and routing information.
• (IMPORTANT!) DHCP server ALSO provides the so called "next server" statement, which tells the BIOS the IP address of a machine to connect to, next, to obtain boot files.
• The workstation that is booting, connects to the "next server" specified above, and requests boot files via TFTP. (the TFTP server is what I provide, along with files that I host).
• The downloaded files are executed by BIOS and begin to run the workstation. In case of netinstall of Linux, they show a menu and know how to install Linux from their respective Linux distribution repository. All packages are downloaded from the network, so the install may take longer than if you could install from a DVD. But you don't have a DVD.