Network booting Linux with Win2k Server box?

[Diaconal]

Hello,

I have Windows Server 2000 setup at home and two clients, one of which is my computer. I have ECS k7s5a and it has network boot capabilities. What I am considering to do is instead of installing a second OS: Linux on my box and fooling around with boot stuff, i'd like to boot LInux from my server which is running win2k server. So, does anyone have an suggestions, links, procedures, experience or opinions to this? 🙂

 

[mgpaulus]

If I am following you correctly, what you want to do is setup your PC to be either
1: Similar in function to an XTerm
2: similar in function to a diskless workstation, which would remotely mount it's Filesystem via NFS

Either of those options still would require you to install linux somewhere, somehow...... And it get's even
more interesting in that your Linux box will have to have SAMBA installed in order to talk to your
Win2K Server.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but I think you will learn a LOT from this exercise......

 

[Nothinman]

Generally you'll setup dhcp, tftp and NFS on the server and have the Linux box get an IP from the dhcp server, download the kernel from tftp and boot it then mount the root filesystem via NFS (you could use a ramdisk image if you have the memory).

Atleast that's how I installed Linux on my Sparc, wasn't terribly hard, but I didn't use Windows for the server side so YMMV =)

 

[FUBAR]

You may want to look around the web for "Jumpstarting Linux." Usually the people who write the howto's are in general, come from the angle of working inside a windows network, when appropriate. There may be a good somthing or other in one of those.

Now if you're running diskless, look for that in the same places.