On Apr 25, 2004, at 2:04 PM, Frank van der Linden wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 25, 2004 at 01:28:26PM -0400, Jason Lixfeld wrote:
>> Can someone give me some pointers on doing a netboot install?  My
>> machine supports PXE boot and I've looked at some of the netboot
>> documentation at http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/network/netboot/
>
> You need to look at the i386 specific parts of those pages, they all
> apply to the amd64 port as well (just replace i386 with amd64 
> anywhere).
>
> You need to:
>
> 	* Set up dhcpd on a machine on your network. This is
> 	  described on that webpage as well as the i386 pxeboot(8)
> 	  manpage.

There doesn't seem to be a pxeboot(8) manpage.  man -k pxe yields 
nothing.  FreeBSD's pxeboot(8) manpage was the closest thing I could 
find, although it's circa 2000 so hopefully things haven't changed that 
much.

> 	* Set up tftpd on the same, point it at your netboot
> 	  directory.
> 	* Put the pxeboot_ia32.bin file (from the base.tgz file on
> 	  the ISO image, in ./usr/mdec) in the netboot directory.
> 	* Put the amd64 INSTALL kernel in the netboot directory
> 	  you configured. Put it there as "netbsd", uncompressed. If
> 	  the ISO image was a full release, the INSTALL kernel should be
> 	  present in amd64/binary/kernel/
> 	* Boot the kernel (make sure PXE boot is configured in the boot
> 	  devices in the BIOS), and continue with the installation as
> 	  if you booted from CD or floppy.

So if I understand correctly, the pxeboot_ia32.bin points the client 
back to the tftp server to download the NetBSD-install kernel (renamed 
netbsd)?  The install kernel will boot and load the netbsd installer?

> Good luck,
>
> - Frank