Index > Help Tutorials > Create Ubuntu for Ram

Note: I did the whole (server & client) setup on my laptop running Ubuntu Desktop 12.04 LTS

Server Setup

Install the required packages, please exclude isc-dhcp-server from the list you are going to use exisitng dhcp.

sudo apt-get install isc-dhcp-server tftpd-hpa syslinux nfs-kernel-server initramfs-tools -y

Set DHCP

nano /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf

Paste the following and save the file

allow booting;
allow bootp;

subnet 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
  range 192.168.2.xxx 192.168.2.xxx;
  option broadcast-address 192.168.2.255;
  option routers 192.168.2.xxx;
  option domain-name-servers 192.168.2.xxx;

  filename "/pxelinux.0";
}

# force the client to this ip for pxe.
# This is only necessary assuming you want to send different images to different computers.
host pxe_client {
  hardware ethernet xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx;
  fixed-address 192.168.2.xxx;
}

Restart DHCP server

sudo service isc-dhcp-server restart

Set up TFTP server

nano /etc/default/tftpd-hpa

Make changes like following

TFTP_USERNAME="tftp"
TFTP_DIRECTORY="/tftpboot"        
TFTP_ADDRESS="0.0.0.0:69"
TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure"

Configure TFTP root directory

sudo mkdir -p /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
sudo cp /usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /tftpboot

Create configuration file

nano /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

Copy the boot image to home directory

sudo cp /boot/vmlinuz-$(uname -r) ~

Copy the /etc/initramfs-tools to /etc/initramfs-pxe and change the boot flag using initrramfs.conf in /etc/initramfs-pxe folder rather than modifying the original

cp -r /etc/initramfs-tools /etc/initramfs-pxe

Now edit the file

nano /etc/initramfs-pxe/initramfs.conf

Find MODULES=most and replace it with MODULES=netboot, BOOT=local with BOOT=nfs, and DEVICE= DEVICE=eth0
Now run mkinitramfs

mkinitramfs -d /etc/initramfs-pxe -o ~/initrd.img-$(uname -r)

Now copy boot image and kernel to tftp

sudo cp ~/{vmlinuz-$(uname -r),initrd.img-$(uname -r)} /tftpboot/

Now setup the pxe option for new boot system

echo "default linux" >> /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
echo "label linux" >> /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
echo "kernel vmlinuz-$(uname -r)" >> /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
echo "append root=/dev/nfs initrd=initrd.img-$(uname -r) nfsroot=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:/nfs ip=dhcp rw" >> /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

Change the permission

chmod 755 /tftpboot -R

finally restart the tftp service

service tftpd-hpa restart

Now you are almost done with server setting, lets move to next part

Client Setup

This setup can be done on server or desktop, I used desktop. Install the tools we needed to create base image

apt-get -y install debootstrap

Install the base system (Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 32)

debootstrap --arch i386 precise /nfs

Set /nfs as NFS share

nano /etc/exports

Paste the following and save the file

/nfs             *(rw,no_root_squash,async,insecure)

Sync you exports

sudo exportfs -rv

Set the mount option

nano /nfs/etc/fstab

Paste the following and save the file

proc            /proc         proc    defaults 0 0
/dev/nfs        /             nfs     defaults 0 0
none            /tmp          tmpfs   defaults 0 0
none            /var/tmp      tmpfs   defaults 0 0
none            /media        tmpfs   defaults 0 0
none            /var/log      tmpfs   defaults 0 0

Change /nfs/etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/original file and update dns according to your enviornment.

nano /nfs/etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/original

Now copy the timezone, localtime, sources.list and modules over to the new base system.

cp /etc/{timezone,localtime} /nfs/etc/
cp /etc/apt/sources.list /nfs/etc/apt/

If you are going to use lxde then you dont need to do this

cp -r /lib/modules/$(uname -r) /nfs/lib/modules/

Now chroot the base system, all following need to be done in chroot enviornment

chroot /nfs

Set the locales

locale-gen en_US.UTF-8
update-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8
dpkg-reconfigure -u tzdata

Set the host name, I am leaving it empty

echo "local" > etc/hostname

Add user account

adduser view

Exit out of chroot

exit

Now boot the client to PXE and make sure you can login with view user. If everything looks good then install desktop if needed, there are two ways to install it.
1) Install it in chroot enviornment, (you might ran into some issues)
2) Add view to sudo group chroot /nfs and add view to sudo group usermod -a -G sudo view && exit. Boot the client to PXE. Login as view user and make him root sudo bash and install packages you like. I used the second method and recommend using it.

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

Or without add ons

sudo aptitude install --no-install-recommends ubuntu-desktop ssh

Or lighter GUI

apt-get install lxde lxdm nano ssh -y

Or even lighter GUI

sudo apt-get install xfce4

Run cleanup

apt-get autoremove && apt-get autoclean

Install the acpid, it allow you to control the power button behavior

apt-get install acpid

Reference