netboot.me

Download and save netbootme.iso, then burn it to CD using your usual CD burning program. In linux, you can use cdrecord, OSX users can use the built-in Disk Utility, and windows users can use tools such as Nero Burning Rom.

Once you have burned netbootme.iso to a CD, make sure your target computer is set up to boot from CD, insert the CD in the drive, and reboot it.

You can also boot from USB. To do so, download and save netbootme.usb, then follow the OS specific instructions below.

Writing a USB image in Linux

Insert the USB key, and establish which device Linux has assigned to the USB key. Then, enter the following command: dd if=netbootme.usb of=/dev/sdX where /dev/sdX is the device assigned to your USB key. Make sure you enter the right device name - this will erase anything on the device you choose!

Writing a USB image in Mac OSX

Insert the USB key, and run mount to see what device OSX has assigned to your USB key. You should see something like this: /dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local)
fdesc on /dev (fdesc, union)
/dev/disk3s1 on /Volumes/UNTITLED (msdos, local, nodev, nosuid, noowners) The last line is your USB device. Unmount it and write the netboot.me image to it with: sudo umount -f /dev/disk3s1
dd if=netbootme.usb of=/dev/disk3 If successful, OSX will pop up an error dialog telling you it doesn't recognize the disk. Click 'Eject', remove the USB key, and you're done.

Writing a USB image in Windows

1. Download UNetbootin.
2. Insert the USB key and start UNetbootin.. In UNetbootin, select the 'Diskimage' method, and select 'ISO' from the pulldown list.
3. Download netbootme.iso
4. Click the '...' button next to 'Diskimage' and select the netbootme.iso file you downloaded in the previous step.
5. Verify that 'USB Drive' is selected as the media type at the bottom of the dialog, and that the correct drive letter is selected for your USB key.
6. Click 'OK' and wait for the process to complete.
7. When complete, you will be prompted to reboot the computer - this is optional, unless you wish to run netboot.me immediately on that computer.

If you have a computer that still has a floppy drive, it's possible to boot from that, too. Download and save netbootme.dsk, then follow the same steps as described above for writing the USB disk image.

Most computers are capable of netbooting when configured correclty, without the requirement of a boot disk of any sort. This can be used to bootstrap from 'regular' netbooting to the HTTP-based approach used by netboot.me. There are two major steps required to configure netbooting:

Setting up DHCP

In order for your computer to know where to find the netboot servers, you need to change your DHCP settings to return some extra information. The two relevant pieces of information: next-server, which should be "tftp.netboot.me", and "filename", which should be "netbootme.kpxe". How to set these settings depends on your DHCP server. For dhcpd, simply add the following to the relevant 'subnet' section of your configuration: next-server "tftp.netboot.me"
filename "netbootme.kpxe" For dnsmasq, the following line in /etc/dnsmasq.conf will achieve the same effect: dhcp-boot=netbootme.kpxe,tftp.netboot.me

Setting your computer to netboot

How to configure your computer to netboot varies from computer to computer. Many computers will automatically try to netboot if they don't find any bootable devices. Check your BIOS settings to see if there's a way to explicitly enable network booting, and to set its priority relative to other boot devices. Some bioses also provide the option to netboot if you press a function key while booting - watch your boot screen carefully.

Debugging

The method described above relies on bootstrapping from your computer's built in PXE (netboot) support by sending a copy of a more sophisticated bootloader (gPXE) over TFTP, the Trivial File Transfer Protocol. Unfortunately, TFTP isn't the most reliable protocol across the internet, and it doesn't always work if the computer you're booting is behind NAT, either.

If you've completed the steps above and your computer can't download the image, you may be running into such problems. Not to worry, though, there's a simple alternative: you can host the bootstrap image yourself. See the section below for instructions.

The option described above for netbooting is simple, but doesn't work for everyone due to the issues inherent in using TFTP across the internet. You can host your own copy of the bootstrap image, however, which will allow you to use netboot.me without boot disks.

If you're using dnsmasq, doing this is really easy. Download netbootme.kxpe and save it to the machine running dnsmasq, under /var/lib/tftp. Then, add the following lines to /etc/dnsmasq.conf: enable-tftp
tftp-root=/var/lib/tftp
dhcp-boot=netbootme.kpxe

If you're using DHCPd, you'll need to set up your own TFTP server - tftpd-hal is a good choice. Once you've set it up, add the location of your TFTP server to the DHCPd configuration file, as shown above.