For PXE, have you tried out rom-o-matic? You can create a boot CD or lilo image to simulate PXE booting for network cards that don't support it. I have used it on some old computers with relatively little trouble. You need to know the exact type of network card you have, or be prepared to do a little experimentation. To use it with lilo, just get the zlilo image, put it somewhere on your HD, and create a lilo entry with image=/wherever/.../eb-XXXX.zlilo and a label like label="Netboot", and that should do it. To do clustering with a HD install, I would recommend using ordinary Knoppix to do the HD install, then follow the steps to let you use MPI from there. Good luck, Michael