Install Windows over network with PXEYou may have read in a previous post how i installed Ubuntu on my sisters laptop with PXE, well this worked great, but i couldnt for the life of me get WPA to work on the wireless card, so after about a week of trying i decided to try and PXE boot windows as the laptop had no floppy drive, no CD drive and couldnt boot from USB, what follows is the result of the trials and tribulations of that experience. enjoy. If you want a quicker, simpler installation with a vanilla XP check this Easy way to PXE Boot Windows guide. Downloads pxelinux.0 (13.1 KiB, 50,567 hits) memdisk (19.6 KiB, 40,978 hits) DVD Generator (2.5 MiB, 24,575 hits) W98.IMA (1.4 MiB, 12,966 hits) w98se-netboot.IMA (2.8 MiB, 21,123 hits)

Step 1: Getting started.What youll need:1. 2. 3. 4. The Server Any PC running 2000/XP The Source Windows 2000/XP CD (we need to get the i386 directory) The Client Laptop capable of booting over PXE (such as the L400). Tftpd32

5. SysAngel DVD Generator here or if you already have .NET framework 1.1.4322 or higher you can get the self extractible here 6. A Share. The Server must be able to share files (any Microsoft Windows computer can). 7. Working router or plain crossover cable.

Once youve collected all of the above, do the below:1. Download and install latest DVD Generator. It s a single EXE, double-clicking it will install / upgrade it. 2. Create a C:\OUTPUT directory to store the necessary files for your RIS Service. (There should be at least 600 Mo of free space on the selected drive, but it could be as big as 5 or 6 Go if you choose to download every available software.) 3. Share the C:\OUTPUT directory, according Read rights to everyone. Let s keep the default share name (OUTPUT).

Downloading necessary sources using the DVD Generator.1. Launch the SysAngel DVD Generator. 2. In the 1. Select your output folder textbox, enter C:\OUTPUT. 3. In the 2. Indicate your Windows XP source , browse to the i386 directory of the Windows XP you want to deploy. 4. In the 4. Enter Windows Serial number textbox, you may provide a serial but this is optional. 5. Now, click the 5. Generate the SYSANGEL DVD ISO button. Of course, we don t really need the ISO image that will be generated, but we do need the software to download or update files used to generate the ISO. We also need the DVD Generator to prepare the Windows release. 6. When everything is done, click the Finished the custom. Generate the ISO! button and wait until you get to the final screen : 7. The C:\OUTPUT folder should be all right. If you want to install Windows with a bootable DVD at a later date, burn the ISO (C:\OUTPUT\DVD.iso). Else, you can simply delete this file. 8. If DVD Generator fails to burn the DVD.iso try using your favourite burning software, you can now close the DVD Generator.

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Step 2: Setting up a TFTP Server.1. 2. 3. 4. Install TFTPD Create the following directory c:\OUTPUT\pxelinux.cfg\ In the c:\OUTPUT\ directory download pxelinux.0 In the C:\OUTPUT\pxelinux.cfg\ directory, create a text file that you ll name default, (not default.txt) containing:DEFAULT rescue PROMPT 0 LABEL rescue KERNEL kernel APPEND vga=normal devfs=nomount pxe ramdisk_size=70000 load_ramdisk=1 init=/linuxrc prompt_ramdisk=0 initrd=initrd.gz root=/dev/ram0 rw noacpi noapm pci=noacpi lba acpi=off apm=off

5. Launch TFTPD and configure it the following way: 6. Tip : if you close and reopen TFTP32 and the Current Directory defaults to your home directory rather than to C:\OUTPUT, right-click your TFTPD32 shortcut, go to Properties, and set the Start in textbox as C:\OUTPUT.

7. switch to the tab DHCP Server and fill in your network setup. Note that the PC you want to boot must be in the same Subnet. Enter pxelinux.0 as the boot file. The Screenshot below shows my setup. 8. Dont forget to SAVE.

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Step 3: The WINNER Way Part 11. Press F12 when the laptop is booting and select Network boot. If you don t see the Network option in your boot sequence, you ll probably have to modify your BIOS settings.

2. The Linux kernel will load.

3. Choose the install interface that most suits your needs. In this guide we ll use the graphical one, but both have exactly same possibilities. With some specific video adapters, the graphical interface cannot work properly (X11 will fail to display).

4. Select Install Windows and click OK.

5. Select the Yes option, the system will try to get an IP from DHCP (it should work, of course, since DHCP has been needed to boot on PXE).

6. Choose the No option as we have created a windows share, the next screen will allow you to find the share.

7. Select SMB

8. Give the IP of the box that shares the C:\OUTPUT folder in my example it was 192.168.2.100 this can be seen in the Tftpd32 dialog.

9. Type the name of the share, which is OUTPUT in our sample

10. Type a valid user to access the share (domain\user syntax is valid; a user with no domain, like in this example, means this is a local user)

11. Type the users password

12. Finally, the path to the source files. In our example, there is a \\192.168.2.100\OUTPUT share, no subdir, and therefore the path here is just /. But we could also say the share was \\192.168.2.100\C$, and then, the path would have been /OUTPUT

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Step 4: The WINNER Way part 21. If you did not enter a Windows serial number when building your own DVD with the DVD Generator, then you have an opportunity to enter it now. Else, you won t even see this screen. (If you still do not enter it, or enter a wrong serial number, then Microsoft genuine Windows Setup will finally ask or re-ask for a valid one later.) and click OK.

2. Select what you want the Computer Name to be and click OK.

3. Enter computers owners name and click OK.

4. Enter the name of the your organization and click OK.

5. If the Windows XP source you used to generate your DVD was the English version, then it is multi-language-capable. In this screen, you can choose several MUI (multi-language interfaces) to be added, so the computer users will be able to have Windows menus displayed in their languages. If your source is not the English version, any choice made here will be ignored.

6. Subsequently, if you are to build a MUI system, you can choose here what will be the default language for the future users of the computer which Windows is going to be installed. If your source is not the English version, any choice made here will be ignored.

7. Many people find it useful to have the Windows i386 directory copied into the C:\ drive, so that they don t have to look for the CD each time a new driver needs to be installed. Click on Yes if you want a C:\i386 folder too.

8. The system can install SUN Open Office on your computer. All available versions will be displayed for you to choose. (On the screenshot, there s an old French one, and a more recent English one.) If you plan to use your own Office distribution (say, MS Office), choose nothing

9. Some people (clearly, dotnet developers) like to have MS .Net SDK on their PC. Click Yes if you do too. Note that the SDK has nothing to do with the .Net Framework. The Framework will be installed on your computer even if you click on No here. Most people should choose the No option.

10. Basically, there are two ways your DVD can install Windows. If there s already a NT, 2000, 2003 or XP bootable system on your PC, you can say Yes there. In this case, the system will be able to keep the boot sector, which is safer in some cases. The data you ve got on your C partition will be kept. Only the C:\Windows and C:\Program Files folders will be deleted, and replaced with new, clean ones. Old Documents and Setting will be renamed to Documents and Settings.OLD . The Windows setup will not format anything.

11. On another hand, you might want to format the whole drive, so to start with something as clean as possible. In this case, say No there, and the system will format the whole drive. Afterwards, it will create two partitions: a C: drive for the system, and a D: drive for your data. The C: drive will have to be at least 6 GB. All remaining space will be given to the D: drive.

12. Even if you ve chosen No in the previous screen, it s worth avoiding the writing of a new bootsector if there s already a working one on your system. Say YES if your PC can currently boot Windows NT4, 2000, 2003 or XP (even if the Windows system does not work after the boot has begun.)

So hopefully this is the last step, and you should have a working XP Install However, that wasnt the case for me, if the windows install screen comes up telling you to press Enter to Install Windows, R for recovery or F3 to quit, when you press enter it says it cant detect a cdrom and tells you to press F3 to quit, then dont worry, carry on to the next page. If you reboot back to sysangel, quit and make sure that your boot options arent set to boot to PXE/Network first. Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 Step 5: The last bastion of hope Ok so we have come so far, for me, to get to this point, was a testing experience, and when i got stuck at the windows install screen it was very frustrating, but with a bit more digging this is the last piece of the jigsaw.1. Create the following directory c:\DOS\pxelinux.cfg\ 2. In the c:\DOS\ directory download the following files pxelinux.0 memdisk menu.c32 w98senetboot.IMA 3. In the C:\DOS\pxelinux.cfg\ directory, create a text file that you ll name default, (not default.txt) containing:DEFAULT menu.c32 TIMEOUT 300 ALLOWOPTIONS 0 PROMPT 0 MENU TITLE PXE Boot System LABEL NetworkBoot MENU LABEL ^Network Boot kernel memdisk append initrd=w98se-netboot.IMA LABEL BootNormal MENU LABEL ^Boot Normal LOCALBOOT 0

4. Configure tftpds Current directory to c:\DOS. 5. Boot laptop, select Network Boot. 6. At command prompt type.c: cd i386 winnt

7. If the installer says smartdrive is not running, ignore it and tell it to continue the install anyway, however without smartdrive it takes a VERY long time to do 8. Get a coffee and a book, its going to be a long night If the Install seems to hang on Please wait while Setup copies files to your hard disk wait it out, according to microsoft http://support.microsoft.com/kb/296814 this can take up to 4 hours, it didnt take that long for me, but it did take a VERY long time to come up with the progress bar.

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Index of /RELEASEy y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y

Parent Directory BT/ SP/ bootsect.dat bootsect.dat.md5 bs98.perl bs98.perl.md5 bsnt.1 bsnt.1.md5 bsnt.2 bsnt.2.md5 bsnt.3 bsnt.3.md5 initrd.gz initrd.gz.md5 isolinux.bin isolinux.bin.md5 isolinux.cfg isolinux.cfg.md5 kernel kernel.md5 lilo.conf lilo.conf.md5 linux.fat.bs linux.fat.bs.md5 oem.7z oem.7z.md5 sources_muixp.all.7z sources_muixp.all.7z.md5 sources_muixp.ara.7z sources_muixp.ara.7z.md5 sources_muixp.chh.7z sources_muixp.chh.7z.md5 sources_muixp.chs.7z sources_muixp.chs.7z.md5 sources_muixp.es.7z sources_muixp.es.7z.md5 sources_muixp.fr.7z sources_muixp.fr.7z.md5 sources_muixp.ger.7z sources_muixp.ger.7z.md5 sources_muixp.heb.7z sources_muixp.heb.7z.md5 sources_muixp.it.7z sources_muixp.it.7z.md5

y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y

sources_muixp.jpn.7z sources_muixp.jpn.7z.md5 sources_muixp.kor.7z sources_muixp.kor.7z.md5 sources_patchs.all.7z sources_patchs.all.7z.md5 sources_patchs.ar.7z sources_patchs.ar.7z.md5 sources_patchs.chs.7z sources_patchs.chs.7z.md5 sources_patchs.cht.7z sources_patchs.cht.7z.md5 sources_patchs.de.7z sources_patchs.de.7z.md5 sources_patchs.en.7z sources_patchs.en.7z.md5 sources_patchs.fr.7z sources_patchs.fr.7z.md5 sources_patchs.he.7z sources_patchs.he.7z.md5 sources_patchs.it.7z sources_patchs.it.7z.md5 sources_patchs.ja.7z sources_patchs.ja.7z.md5 sources_patchs.ko.7z sources_patchs.ko.7z.md5 sources_patchs.sp.7z sources_patchs.sp.7z.md5 sources_updater-1.02-en.exe.md5 sources_wd_langinstall-1.0-en.7z sources_wd_langinstall-1.0-en.7z.md5 sources_winxp_plainpassword-1.0-ml.7z sources_winxp_plainpassword-1.0-ml.7z.md5 win98.bs win98.bs.md5 winnt.sif winnt.sif.md5

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