I guess I a linux wannabe?
All geek/nerd brethren
help greatly appreciated in advance!
Is this my
first step?:
Download Link: (Make sure to check the SHA-256 after download.)
- https://github.com/ventoy/PXE/releases
second step - download?:
3rd?:
unpack the .zip?
If I'm good so far, then I got
lost, as I cannot find an 'iso' file in the 'iso' folder,
which is 'empty'?
Help? Now what??
INVENTOY PXE BOOT TEST WITHIN SAME LAN FOR CLIENT WITH WIRED INTERNET
I was finally able to run the iventoy pxe server on my linux computer with both client and server in the same LAN (my home wifi):
SERVER SETUP:
I have a computer with linux connected to my home wifi router through wifi (the server).
#I downloaded the iventoy setup zip file in my web browser (I use thorium, an optimized version of google chrome) which put the iventoy-1.0.20-linux-free.tar.gz archive in my Downloads folder;
#I opened a bash terminal and cd into my apps folder where I put all my applications
cd /home/$USER/apps
#extract the iventoy tar archive
tar -xvf ~/Downloads/iventoy-1.0.20-linux-free.tar.gz
#I copied the lubuntu iso file from my backup drive to the iventoy iso folder and flushed all the i/o buffers with sync to make sure it finishes copying the large iso file completely.
cp ~/bak/isofiles/lubuntu-22.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso /home/$USER/apps/iventoy-1.0.20/iso && sync
#if you do not have the iso file available on a backup drive you can just download it through your web browser from
https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/jammy/release/ (the latest iso is lubuntu-22.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso and is a little newer than the one I had but the older version of the iso file is still ok just to run the pxe boot test)
in that case you could just move the file instead of copying it which is much faster if on same partition:
mv ~/Downloads/lubuntu-22.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso /home/$USER/apps/iventoy-1.0.20/iso && sync
#I started the iventoy service that allows to configure it using your web browser (per instructions on the inventoy website
https://www.iventoy.com/en/doc_start.html)
cd /home/$USER/apps/iventoy-1.0.20
sudo bash iventoy.sh -R start
#I went to my thorium web browser ,opened a new tab and put the address of the iventoy web server: 127.0.0.1:26000
#this will open the configuration screen for the inventoy pxe server.
#I clicked on the "image management" on the left side and click the refresh button to update the contents of the iso with the file I just copied,so the name of the iso file should appear immediately.
# I did not change any settings for the server, I just ran it clicking boot information on the left and then on the play button,then it will show you a red square with "running".
CLIENT CONNECTION
#I went to another computer (the client) connected with an ethernet cable to my home wifi router.
I turned on the computer and immediately pressed the key to bring up the boot menu at power up (my pc is an hp and the key is F9, but it can change depending on your computer model)
I selected the boot option called "UEFI N/W IPV4 network"
After a few seconds it was able to find the server address and show the iventoy pxe boot menu
at this point I just selected the lubuntu iso (there was only one in my example) press enter and it started the lubuntu live desktop.
NOTES ABOUT MORE A MORE GENERIC CONNECTION
if the client is connected to the internet through wifi or the client and server are on different LANS the setup is different and more complex,I have not tried those cases.
NOTE ABOUT THE NECESSITY OF NETWORK INSTALLATION:
As Lynx said,if you already have available a computer with internet access and a removable installation media with a capacity larger than the size of the iso file (like a usb drive or flash memory stick) ,you really do not need to do a network installation,you can just download the iso file from your browser and write the iso file to the usb drive.
There are some programs that can do that for you,in linux I use this simple command from a bash terminal:
(for example if /dev/sdb is the name of my usb drive device,usually you can find the name of your usb device using the lsblk command in bash )
dd bs=4M if=/home/$USER/Downloads/lubuntu-22.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdb && sync
Also there are many programs with graphical gui to write a iso to a drive, for example I just saw this free program that works on different platforms (mac,windows,linux),although I have not tried it, from their screenshot it looks fairly easy to use:
sourceforge.net/projects/blackisoburn
Once you wrote the iso to your removable (Typically usb) drive,
Then just plug the usb drive in your other computer you want to install on and boot from the usb drive by pressing the key to bring the bios boot menu at power up; this key will change depending on your computer model (for example in some old HP is F9,in some old dells F12)