Tip: Install OS via netboot.xyz without ISO support

ehab

It can happen your vm provider has a broken iso mount or does not support it at all. You can install your OS using netboot.xyz the following way:

1- Have your vm already installed with one of the provided templates e.g: debian 9. ssh into your vm as root install the ipxe package:

# apt-get install ipxe
# update-grub

Get your ip, gateway from your vm info email, provider cp or on debian this way and store it as it will be needed later.

# cat /etc/network/interfaces
or
# ip r

# reboot

2- From your vnc or console, you should be able to see similar grub menu

after you press enter then quickly keep pressing CTRL+B ,or you can set to boot from CD only in you cp... then you should

enter your ip info you stored from the above step 1 like show in next image

if your vm supports ipv6 then it may try to configure it so you press enter like shown:

let it boot and should be good

I wrote this article when i got a HH vm and uploading iso is broken at time of this article.

References :
1- https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/190865/is-it-possible-to-add-some-pxe-network-boot-option-to-grub
2- http://www.panticz.de/Install-GRUB-iPXE-netboot

ehab

@AnthonySmith @vyas @Ympker @Not_Oles @Mason

hopefully this will help all the HH iso lost souls.

Ympker

Looking nice mate

ehab

wish i knew how to do this since 3 years ago.

vyas

@ehab said:
wish i knew how to do this since 3 years ago.

Don't we all ?
:-)
Nice and short How To btw

p.s

Upgraded to Debain Bullseye while moving from Debian 9, lack of coffee is my excuse

InceptionHosting

@ehab said:
wish i knew how to do this since 3 years ago.

I wish I knew how to do this 3 days ago...

Not_Oles

I like it! Congrats!

InceptionHosting

Thanks for the guide @ehab

Chievo

Thanks for the guide. It is illustrative and done easy step by step

mikho

thanks alot!
This finally made it possible for me to install my OS on an old Dedicated server.

Follow up tip, if you have a IPMI or iLo that messes with you.
I installed Centos, selected the text-based installation and was then asked if I wanted a VNC server started instead of running the text-based installation.

Much faster and more stable then my "broken" IPMI.

aRNoLD

Imgur

Unlucky, that's what I experience from Vultr.

System halt...

ehab

@aRNoLD said:

did you try another booting another os?

aRNoLD

@ehab said:

@aRNoLD said:

did you try another booting another os?

No, I copied from the thread. Debian OS is my fav and recently deployed. If Debian fails, users around the globe may encounter the same issue. Probably Vultr has sth. wrong.

valkyrie

Arch won't work out it seems

cybertech

is there a Centos version of this?

ehab

@cybertech said:
is there a Centos version of this?

not sure, but you can add the kernel and update the grub yourself.

cybertech

@ehab said:

@cybertech said:
is there a Centos version of this?

not sure, but you can add the kernel and update the grub yourself.

Thanks, used Debian 9 instead and followed this guide. Works pefect

aRNoLD

@cybertech said:
is there a Centos version of this?

guess the following two lines could do the job ( and the third to finalize the boot menu). you may have to adjust the GRUB_TIMEOUT value, making it larger so the screen may stop for a while rather than splash away when you get into the VNC.

sudo wget https://boot.netboot.xyz/ipxe/netboot.xyz.lkrn -O /boot/netboot.xyz.lkrn

sudo sed -i '$a menuentry "Boot from http://netboot.xyz" {\n\ \ \ \ linux16 /boot/netboot.xyz.lkrn\n}' /etc/grub.d/40_custom

sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg && sudo reboot

aRNoLD

it looks CloudCone's VPS/KVM doesn't support this booting method. have updated grub and menu but when rebooting there's no ipxe item on the screen. guess theirs are not compatible.

ehab

@aRNoLD said:

install debian
then

# apt-get install ipxe
# grub-reboot "Network boot (iPXE)"
# reboot

have vnc open and this should get into the ipxe boot, try it.

aRNoLD

apt install ipxe produce the following output

Unpacking ipxe (1.0.0+git-20190125.36a4c85-1) ...
Setting up ipxe (1.0.0+git-20190125.36a4c85-1) ...
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-4.19.0-14-amd64
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-4.19.0-5-amd64
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done

the second line, grub-reboot "Network boot (iPXE)" produced the following

Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.

    GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

       [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.   For
         the   first   word,  TAB  lists  possible  command
         completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
         completions of a device/filename. ]
grub> savedefault --once --default=Network boot (iPXE)

Error 23: Error while parsing number
grub> quit

Do you want to reboot now? [y/N]

then from the splash screen, it said "Falling back to Grub Legacy" and then gave only four options of original OS/Debian booting, but without ipxe options.

guess CloudCone doesn't support ipxe booting?

ehab

@aRNoLD is it a kvm? just asking since you grabbed all the text! how did you do that

aRNoLD

@ehab said:
@aRNoLD is it a kvm? just asking since you grabbed all the text! how did you do that

https://imgur.com/a/AQf6272

Yes, the control panel shows its platform is KVM. That's one point that I feel weird.

the text is copied from SSH terminal.

ehab

i have some credit with them, when i get time i will try to have me some fun.

valkyrie

I noticed that some Live CDs or even network boot won't really boot at all and just stucks at the initramfs fallback terminal or even kernel panic
on static IP configuration, must be something, or probably they need DHCP to work

ehab

@valkyrie said:

if the provider does not have DHCP you must manually add those in the boot menu command line "press e" or at the seed file. But if you get a kernel panic then either ram is not enough or you are an unlucky b* j/k

valkyrie

@ehab said:

@valkyrie said:

if the provider does not have DHCP you must manually add those in the boot menu command line "press e" or at the seed file. But if you get a kernel panic then either ram is not enough or you are an unlucky b* j/k

Okay will def trying that later to see it works

aRNoLD

@cybertech said:
is there a Centos version of this?

yum install ipxe-bootimgs

or maybe, it depends

yum install efibootmgr

but I am not sure how to run them, the specific commands.

from URL: https://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/centos/7.9.2009/x86_64/Packages/ipxe-bootimgs-20180825-3.git133f4c.el7.noarch.html , and you'll see there are several files

/usr/share/doc/ipxe-bootimgs-20180825
/usr/share/doc/ipxe-bootimgs-20180825/COPYING
/usr/share/doc/ipxe-bootimgs-20180825/COPYING.GPLv2
/usr/share/doc/ipxe-bootimgs-20180825/USAGE
/usr/share/ipxe
/usr/share/ipxe/ipxe-snponly-x86_64.efi
/usr/share/ipxe/ipxe.dsk
/usr/share/ipxe/ipxe.efi
/usr/share/ipxe/ipxe.iso
/usr/share/ipxe/ipxe.lkrn
/usr/share/ipxe/ipxe.usb
/usr/share/ipxe/undionly.kpxe