Setting up network boot on a Linux Server

Install the base server OS

See any number of guides for this. I will be using Ubuntu 18.04.1 Server for the base below

Setup DNSMasq to server TFTP and DHCP-Proxy, install NGinx to serve the HTTP files

1. Install and enable DNSMasq

sudo apt install dnsmasq nginx
sudo systemctl enable dnsmasq
sudo systemctl enable nginx

2. Create a custom config for DNSMasq, remember to change both of the included IP's to the one your server has

sudo nano /etc/dnsmasq.d-available/ipxe

#Disable DNS
port=0

#Set the below to your IP range
dhcp-range=192.168.43.0,proxy,255.255.255.0

#Filter out iPXE
dhcp-match=ipxe,175
#Change the below IP to your servers IP
pxe-service=tag:ipxe,X86PC,'Wipe',http://192.168.43.209/wipe.ipxe
pxe-service=tag:!ipxe,x86PC,"Load iPXE",undionly.kpxe
log-queries

#Setup TFTP server
enable-tftp
tftp-root=/var/ftpd/

3. Enable the config

ln -s /etc/dnsmasq.d-available/ipxe /etc/dnsmasq.d/ipxe

4. Start dnsmasq and create it's ftp directory

sudo mkdir -p /var/ftpd
sudo systemctl restart dnsmasq

5. Download the iPXE Binary into the tftp root

sudo wget http://boot.ipxe.org/undionly.kpxe -O /var/ftpd/undionly.kpxe

6. Download the DiskSlaw.iso (0.3 or higher)

wget https://github.com/maltob/DiskSlaw/releases/download/v0.3-alpha/diskslaw_0.3.iso -O diskslaw.iso

7. Mount the iso so we can copy the files off it

sudo mkdir /mnt/diskslaw
sudo mount -o loop diskslaw.iso /mnt/diskslaw

8. Copy the kernel, initrd and filesystem.squashfs into the nginx server directory

sudo cp /mnt/diskslaw/casper/{filesystem.squashfs,vmlinuz,initrd.lz} /var/www/html/

9. Unmount the ISO

umount /mnt/diskslaw
umount /mnt/debian

10. Create the iPXE file, again remember to replace the HTTP portion with your IP nano /var/www/html/wipe.ipxe

#!ipxe
kernel http://192.168.43.209/vmlinuz
initrd http://192.168.43.209/initrd.lz
imgargs vmlinuz boot=live dhcp fetch=http://192.168.43.209/casper/filesystem.squashfs nouveau.modeset=0 nomodeset --
boot

11. Start nginx

sudo systemctl start nginx

12. Test your image works by booting a machine to network