installing redhat via pxe ....

[K.C. Chan]

All,
I am trying to install redhat 8.0 via pxe, but it failed on inserting NIC driver for the Tigon 3 (BCM9570A46). I believe this is 100/1000 bit NIC.

Since all I need for pxe boot is vmlinux with corresponding initrd that loads the correct tg3 driver, then I can roll my own correct?

[Bryce Wade]

Yep, basically. See my answer to your other question about the right driver in the initrd.img file (basically download it from HP):

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/19403.html

I'm using PXE to load grub (compiled for the proper network driver) which gives me a chance to select from multiple options. Of course I haven't tested this with the gigabit drivers, so you it might not work for you. :(

Here is my dhcpd.conf file (I sanitized the numbers, so there might be some syntax errors created by that):

deny unknown-clients;
not authoritative;

option domain-name "my.domain.com";
option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.2, 192.168.1.3;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;

allow bootp;
allow booting;

option ip-forwarding false; # No IP forwarding
option mask-supplier false; # Don't respond to ICMP Mask req
ddns-update-style ad-hoc;

subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
option routers 192.168.1.1;
}

group {
next-server 192.168.1.4; # name of your TFTP server
filename "pxegrub"; # name of the bootloader program

host node1 {
hardware ethernet 00:01:02:03:04:05;
fixed-address 192.168.1.5;
}
host node2 {
hardware ethernet 00:01:02:03:04:06;
fixed-address 192.168.1.6;
}
}

Then here is my /tftpboot/grub/boot/menu.lst file:

default=0
#timeout=10
title Bogus Safety Image
root (hda0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz
initrd /initrd.img
title Oops, I wanted to boot off the hard drive. Please try booting from (hd0)
root (hd0)
chainloader +1
title Fedore Core 2 Rescue Image
root (nd)
kernel /vmlinuz rescue
initrd /initrd.img
title Fedore Core 2 Text Install
root (nd)
kernel /vmlinuz text
initrd /initrd.img

Hopefully this make sense.