PXE install from HTTP/FTP/NFS server?

Support Installation and Configuration
1

Hello,

I am very new to Parrot linux but as it based on Debian [which I was using for extended period of time] I attempted to use PXE netboot and installation from HTTP/FTP/NFS server.

My attempt has failed regardless what approach I tried. I have copied initrd.img and vmlinuz from install directory in installation media [ISO file]. During the installation it expects for USB drive or CD/DVD disk with installation file [the installation has reference to /dev/sda and /dev/fd0].

Can somebody confirm that there is no way to run installation with current and initrd.img/vmlinuz over network?

At the same time I have found that PXE server can boot live image with installation media made available through web server. Looking through menu in running ‘live’ image I did not find any method to run installation [same approach as it is done in Ubuntu destributions].

If somebody would like to know settings to boot live image from PXE server I would be glad to share my findings.

Andromeda_x

What version of Parrot are you running? (include version, edition, and architecture)
Parrot 4.5.1 security/home/mate
What method did you use to install Parrot? (Debian Standard / Debian GTK / parrot-experimental)
PXE netboot approach
Configured to multiboot with other systems? (yes / no)
No
If there are any similar issues or solutions, link to them below:
???
If there are any error messages or relevant logs, post them below:
Installation expects to have installation media on /dev/sda or /dev/fd0 media – which does not work for PXE netboot approach [the installation media should be available through NFS/HTTP/FTP media]

3

Hi,

I did some additional research and read some forum’s post – in one of them was a reference to netboot [I was not aware of it’s existence before]

https://cdimage.parrotsec.org/parrot/dists/stable/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/

I copied ‘linux’ and ‘initrd.gz’ files to PXE server and proceeded with and installation [the installation script is quite similar to standard debian’s].

When I got to the point where I was offered to specify ‘mirror’ for installation and pointed the installation script to my web server where I’ve mounted installation ISO image.

Note: although I select ‘manually specify mirror’ the installation script offers to specify ‘web proxy’ only and then proceed to http://deb.parrotsec.org – what is not my intention. I had to enter a wrong ‘proxy server’ to reach a point where I could specify my web server with installation media [at this step I’ve cleared http ‘proxy’ server].

The installation script attempts to contact my web server and attempts to download Release file, at this stage the script complains that installation [netboot] does not match installation media. The situation looks quite strange and I continued to investigate the issue.

I found if I proceed with default mirror then it find mirror and continue with installation.

I have compared Release files in ISO file and at web mirror – the difference was in ‘Suite: ****’ specification. ISO image has ‘Suite: parrot’ and Web mirror has ‘Suite: stable’ – my understanding is that installation script probably expects to see ‘Suite: stable’.

Does anybody can clarify on my findings about the issue?

With other distributions I was able to utilize ISO image as installation media on my web server [NOTE: I have multi-distribution configuration PXE server {Debian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, OpenSUSE, RHEL, Fedora, Scientific, …}].

Other installation option is to create a full blown mirror with requirements of a few hundred Gigabytes of diskspace – what is not desirable at this moment of time.

Thank you for any information

Andromeda_x

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