PXE install of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1
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PXE install of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1

Jurjen Bokma

April 2012

I needed SLES11 SP1 on an ESX VM, but it wouldn't install from DVD image. The image loaded allright, but the machine hung while booting the kernel. So I installed from my Debian DHCP/PXE server:

  1. Download the SLES11SP1 DVD (or get it from a colleague).

  2. Copy the DVD contents to a webserver.

    sudo mount -oloop,ro SLES11SP2_64bit.iso /mnt/iso/
    sudo cp -rp /mnt/iso /srv/www/pub/misc/sles11

  3. In e.g. /srv/www/boot/sles11sp2install.txt: 

    #!gpxe
ifopen net0
dhcp net0
imgfree
echo "Fetching the kernel:"
kernel http://www.domain.com/pub/misc/sles11/boot/x86_64/loader/linux
echo "Fetching the initial RAMdisk:"
initrd http://www.domain.com/pub/misc/sles11/boot/x86_64/loader/initrd
imgargs linux initrd=initrd append vga=0x314 showopts install=http://www.domain.com/pub/misc/sles11/
echo "Here we go:"
boot linux
echo "Pxe booting cancelled, using local disk instead.."

  4. ... with this config: 

    group sles11sp2-install {
  if exists user-class and option user-class = "gPXE" {
      # This is when gPXE is already loaded
      filename "http://www.domain.com/boot/sles11sp2install.txt";
  }
  else {
      # This is the first step: the PXE bootROM loads the gPXE bootstrap
      next-server  192.168.63.171;
      filename "/tftpboot/undionly.kpxe";
  }

 host vm02 {  # Virtual ESX
    hardware ethernet 00:50:56:89:00:d0 ;
    fixed-address 192.168.63.79 ;
 }

} # end group sles11sp2-install