Installation of Woody on a VIA C3 embedded device with PXE network boot capabilities with a 2.5 inch hdd built in and no floppydisk interface onboard.
To realize an installation this way you need an already installed Debian system with a fast internet connection and
with the following packages installed.
dhcp
tftpd-hpa (other tftp deamons did not work)
syslinux
Get the following files (bf2.4 kernel-version) from a debian mirror: debian/dists/woody/main/disks-i386/current/bf2.4/linux.bin debian/dists/woody/main/disks-i386/current/images-1.44/bf2.4/root.bin (different paths!!)
Create a directory named tftpboot
Place linux.bin and root.bin in this directory.
Copy the file pxelinux.0 from the /usr/lib/syslinux directory to the tftpboot directory.
Create a directory named pxelinux.cfg in the directory tftpboot.
Create in the pxelinux.cfg directory a file with the name: default.
Add the following lines to this file:
PROMPT 1
LABEL pxe
KERNEL linux.bin
APPEND initrd=root.bin flavor=bf2.4
IPAPPEND 1
The flavor parameter is important else the installation program will try to find files on the wrong locatiion of a Debian mirror
Change the following line in /etc/inetd.conf :
tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/in.tfppd -s /tftpboot -r blksize
In the above line /tftpboot needs to point to the location of the tftpboot directory you created earlier.
Add the following lines to /etc/dhcpd.conf
host pxeinstall {
hardware ethernet [mac-address of pxe networkcard without brackets];
filename "pxelinux.0";
}
The above mac-address in the following form: 0:40:c4:47:c3 Make sure you have changed and enabled the necessary sections to actually make the machine perform as a dhcp server. (domain name, subnetmask ip-range etc)
Stop and start the tftp, dhcp and inet deamons so the changed configurations are activated.
Boot up your PXE device, enter pxe at the prompt. Now things should start to look familiar. Choose the option to do a http /ftp installation when asked at Install Operating System Kernel and Modules.
Do your installation.