eOS PXE

elementary OS Preboot eXecution Environment

A standalone self-contained PXE server designed to work in any Linux or Mac OS runtime environment without installing system software. The server allows you to boot unmodified elementary OS Luna Live CD ISO on any PXE-supported equipment.

A very useful tool for booting the installer on machines without a CD-ROM drive or to save time on creating a bootable USB flash drive. Ethernet patch cord is the only additional hardware that you will need to work.

elementary OS

elementary OS is one of the best Linux desktop distributions.

It includes an entire operating system based on Ubuntu, a desktop environment (Pantheon) and all its components, several applications (Files, Noise, Audience, Maya, Terminal, Scratch, Snap, and Switchboard to name a few), a developer toolkit (Granite), a set of design requirements and a Human Interface Guideline.

How to use

Host machine:

  1. Prepare a separate Linux or Mac OS machine (host) with a free Ethernet interface.
  2. Install VirtualBox, Vagrant and Ansible.
  3. Download eOS PXE.
  4. Download the Elementary OS Luna LiveCD (elementaryos-stable-i386.20130810.iso) and put it in the eos_pxe/files/ directory.
  5. Configure eOS PXE and run it.

Target machine:

  1. Configure BIOS boot order to boot over the network.
  2. Connect the host and the target machine using an Ethernet patch cord.
  3. Reboot and wait for the Elementary OS to start.

Configuration

The software requires a private subnet for its operations. To change settings, edit eos_pxe/roles/common/vars/main.yml.

  • bridged_network
    The name of the Ethernet interface.
    "en0: Ethernet" is Mac OS network interface card.
  • server_ip
    Host IP. Must be from a private subnet.
    Possible values: "192.168.x.x", "172.16.x.x" and "10.x.x.x"
    Default value: " 192.168.0.1"
  • dhcp_subnet, dhcp_range_start and dhcp_range_end
    DHCP server configuration. Default values:
    dhcp_subnet: "192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0"
    dhcp_range_start: "192.168.0.100"
    dhcp_range_end: "192.168.0.200"
  • iso_file
    The name of the downloaded elementary OS ISO file name.

Configuration example:
bridged_network: "en0: Ethernet"
server_ip: "192.168.0.1"
dhcp_subnet: "192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0"
dhcp_range_start: "192.168.0.100"
dhcp_range_end: "192.168.0.200"
iso_file: "elementaryos-stable-i386.20130810.iso"

Run

To instantiate the virtual machine and start the server:
$ eos_pxe/start.sh

To stop the server:
$ eos_pxe/stop.sh

To uninstall:
$ cd eos_pxe/cache && vagrant destroy

Windows version

The current version of the software is not intended to run on the Windows platform. However, this feature may be added in the future. Please express your opinion in the comments if you need Windows support or not.

Download

Development

System requirements

Year of Production

2014