boot knoppix-live from ftp server ?

[larrycow]

Hi all :)
I would like to know if there is any means to boot knoppix from an other pc :-/
For instance : i put the contain of iso (or the iso) of knoppix on the hd of the pc 192.168.0.16. where a ftp sever is running.
I want to run knoppix from the pc 192.168.0.18.
Is it possible to boot a floppy from the 0.18 and then run knoppix live from the 0.16

Why ?
No need to burn any iso image on a cd
Access to ftp is more speed than access to cdrom drive

thanks :)

have a nice day

[madkat]

I understand This (http://dev.brantleyonline.com/wiki/index.php/PXE_Booting_-_Knoppix) usually works, though at least 2 of us are having trouble getting the Terminal Client to even get an IP address.

[larrycow]

Thx for answer ;)
Nevertheless it seems that no ftp server is used. The problem i have is that i use k12ltsp that runs DHCP. But i also have other computers on the network running windows or FC4. There i can use ftp server.
So i prefer ftp servers...
But i gonna see what may be done from your answer.
Thanks a lot

[larrycow]

i mean, i prefer use floppy disk to boot, and configure it to boot the ip address i could specified ...

But it's maybe not possible at all with knoppix !
( with fc or red hat, there is a special cdrom rescue that allows to boot from ftp server : one have just to give ip address and path ... and installation begins. It is not exactly what i want to do with knoppix : i would like to run live-cd, but in the way that i have just explained).

bye

[madkat]

You use a TFTP server (rather than FTP server) coupled with a DHCP server to drive the serverside of the PXE boot process. The DHCP is required by PXE, but it *SHOULD* be possible to specify an IP address (and "nodhcp") in the APPEND line of the pxelinux.cfg/default file, though it doesn't work for me. You then use a Network File System (NFS) server to mount the image over the network so that it can be read by the client.

While FTP is capable of GETting designated parts of files by resuming then closing, there is no "FTPFS" for Linux - and even if someone wrote one now, it would need to be integrated into the Knoppix startup. It would probably also be a rather messy setup with many corners cut for general filesystem compatibility.

You *could* TFTP the entire Knoppix image to the client at PXE time, but that would take ages and you'd need about 800Mb RAM to make it useable. As I understand it, NFS allows the client to access bits of the file instead of having to load the whole thing in first. That's why the CDROM keeps spinning while you're using Knoppix - it keeps going back for more.

IF you only have 1 client machine, you can set up your DHCP to give out IPs with a range of 1, e.g. from 192.168.0.65 to 192.168.0.65. Then your client would always get the same address. What I have found, using the Tftp32d by Ph. Jounin, is that if I'm using only one client it always gets the first IP address anyway, which is 192.168.0.128.

[madkat]

FTP is OK for transferring entire files to unpack onto a harddisk, but it is not OK for "Random Access" - i.e. accessing bits of files.

And you can configure a boot floppy to use SYSLINUX which is the same as using PXELINUX without the DHCP or TFTP servers. You'd still need the NFS server to give you access to the files on the server.

[larrycow]

Thx a lot for all this!
i do understand that image couldn't be loaded at boot ... :(
The reason i wish to try this was that i sometimes need tools to access broken windows or linux. Thus i was looking for any kind of rescue-linux, and thougt knoppix could do that.
I think RUNT should be better for this kind of work : with floppy disk one can boot usb-key and run runt with many tools to access and repear broken systems. as there is no graphical tools, it is easier to load within 64mo ram.

Any way i thank you for the time you gave me about this question.

and ... sorry for my very poor english :-P

[madkat]

You can boot a USB key/memory stick on its own, you don't need a floppy disk!!