PXE installation Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Question

How to install pxe on ubuntu 24.04? How to configure TFTP and DHCP ?

Answer 1

Update your package manager

sudo apt update 

Install the tftp service package

sudo apt install tftpd-hpa

create the /tftpboot directory in the root directory

sudo mkdir /tftpboot

Go to the location of the configuration file and configure it

sudo nano /etc/default/tftpd-hpa

TFTP_USERNAME="tftp"
TFTP_DIRECTORY="/tftpboot"       # place the target /tftpboot directory in the root directory
TFTP_ADDRESS="0.0.0.0:69"
TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure"

restart the tftp service

sudo service tftp-hpa restart

---

install dnsmasq service

sudo apt install dnsmasq

Go to the location of the configuration file and configure it

sudo nano /etc/dnsmasq.conf

you need to configure the ip addresses according to your network
do not change the rest of the information
Note:
1.)You need to change which interface to listen to
2.) dhcp ip pool must change
3.)You need to change the default gateway and dns address

1. On which interface will we listen?
interface=enp2s0
2. To avoid infiltrating other interfaces when doing DHCP-only work
bind-interfaces
3. DHCP IP pool: 192.168.2.100-192.168.2.150, lease duration 12h
dhcp-range=192.168.2.100,192.168.2.150,12h
4. Default gateway and dns address
dhcp-option=3,192.168.2.1
dhcp-option=6,172.16.0.103
5. PXE bootloader for BIOS (Legacy)
dhcp-boot=pxelinux.0
6. Mapping according to customer architecture (DHCP option 93)
dhcp-match=peecees,option:client-arch,0       # x86 BIOS
dhcp-match=efi32,option:client-arch,6        # UEFI IA32
dhcp-match=efi64,option:client-arch,7        # UEFI x86-64
7. PXE service according to customer architecture (pxe-service)
For Legacy BIOS
dhcp-boot=tag:peecees,/bios/pxelinux.0
For UEFI 32-bit
dhcp-boot=tag:efi32,/uefi/syslinux.efi
For UEFI 64-bit
dhcp-boot=tag:efi64,/uefi/syslinux.efi

restart the dnsmasq service

sudo service dnsmasq restart

---

create two different directories within the root directory /tftpboot

sudo mkdir /tftboot/bios
sudo mkdir /tftpboot/uefi

install the syslinux-common package

sudo apt install syslinux-common

Copy the three required legacy files into /tftboot/bios that you created in the root directory

sudo cp /lib/syslinux/modules/bios/ldlinux.c32 /tftboot/bios/.
sudo cp /lib/syslinux/modules/bios/libcom32.c32 /tftboot/bios/.
sudo cp /lib/syslinux/modules/bios/menu.c32 /tftboot/bios/.

Install the pxelinux package

sudo apt install pxelinux

Copy the pxelinux.0 legacy file to /tftboot/bios

sudo cp /usr/lib/PXELİNUX/pxelinux.0 /tftpboot/bios/.

Copy the three required legacy files into /tftboot/uefi that you created in the root directory

sudo cp /lib/syslinux/modules/efi64/ldlinux.e64 /tftpboot/uefi
sudo cp /lib/syslinux/modules/efi64/libutil.c32 /tftpboot/uefi
sudo cp /lib/syslinux/modules/efi64/menu.c32 /tftpboot/uefi

Install the syslinux-efi package

sudo apt install syslinux-efi

Copy the syslinux.efi uefi file to /tftboot/uefi

sudo cp /lib/SYSLINUX.EFİ/efi64/syslinux.efi /tftpboot/uefi

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download the operating system live

sudo wget https://downloads.sourceforge.net/gparted/gparted-live-1.7.0-1-amd64.iso

mount the operating system to /mnt

sudo mount gparted-live-1.7.0-1-amd64.iso /mnt

Copy the three files necessary to start the operating system live to both uefi and bios

sudo mkdir /tftboot/bios/gparted
sudo cp /mnt/live/vmlinuz /tftpboot/bios/gparted
sudo cp /mnt/live/initrd.img /tftpboot/bios/gparted
sudo cp /mnt/live/filesystem.squashfs /tftpboot/bios/gparted
sudo mkdir /tftpboot/uefi/gparted
sudo cp /mnt/live/vmlinuz /tftpboot/uefi/gparted
sudo cp /mnt/live/initrd.img /tftpboot/uefi/gparted
sudo cp /mnt/live/filesystem.squashfs /tftpboot/uefi/gparted

Create directory named pxelinux.cfg

sudo mkdir /tftpboot/uefi/pxelinux.cfg
sudo mkdir /tftpboot/bios/pxelinux.cfg

Create and configure the file pxelinux.cfg/default for legacy

sudo nano /tftpboot/bios/pxelinux.cfg/default

configuration settings
Note:
1.) fetch=tftp://"your ip address">/uefi/gparted/filesystem.squashfs
Change ‘your ip address’

UI menu.c32
MENU TITLE PXE operating systems
label GParted Live
MENU LABEL GParted
kernel /gparted/vmlinuz
append initrd=/gparted/initrd.img boot=live config components union=overlay username=user keyboard-layouts=tr noswap noeject vga=788 fetch=tftp://192.168.2.2/bios/gparted/filesystem.squashfs

Create and configure the file pxelinux.cfg/default for uefi

sudo nano /tftpboot/uefi/pxelinux.cfg/default

configuration settings
Note:
1.) fetch=tftp://"your ip address">/uefi/gparted/filesystem.squashfs
Change ‘your ip address’

UI menu.c32
MENU TITLE PXE operating systems
label GParted Live
MENU LABEL GParted
kernel /gparted/vmlinuz
append initrd=/gparted/initrd.img boot=live config components union=overlay username=user keyboard-layouts=tr noswap noeject vga=788 fetch=tftp://192.168.2.2/uefi/gparted/filesystem.squashfs

Finally, the directories should look exactly like this!

/tftpboot
├── bios
│   ├── pxelinux.0
│   ├── menu.c32
│   ├── libutil.c32
│   ├── ldlinux.c32
│   ├── pxelinux.cfg 
│   │   └── default
│   └── Gparted
│       ├── vmlinuz
│       ├── initrd.img
│       └── filesystem.squashfs
├── uefi
│   ├── syslinux.efi         
│   ├── menu.c32
│   ├── libutil.c32
│   ├── ldlinux.e64
│   ├── pxelinux.cfg
│   │   └── default
│   └── Gparted
│       ├── vmlinuz
│       ├── initrd.img
│       └── filesystem.squashfs