nixos/doc/manual/from_md/installation/installing-pxe.section.xml


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<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xml:id="sec-booting-from-pxe">
  <title>Booting from the <quote>netboot</quote> media (PXE)</title>
  <para>
    Advanced users may wish to install NixOS using an existing PXE or
    iPXE setup.
  </para>
  <para>
    These instructions assume that you have an existing PXE or iPXE
    infrastructure and simply want to add the NixOS installer as another
    option. To build the necessary files from your current version of
    nixpkgs, you can run:
  </para>
  <programlisting>
nix-build -A netboot.x86_64-linux '&lt;nixpkgs/nixos/release.nix&gt;'
</programlisting>
  <para>
    This will create a <literal>result</literal> directory containing: *
    <literal>bzImage</literal> – the Linux kernel *
    <literal>initrd</literal> – the initrd file *
    <literal>netboot.ipxe</literal> – an example ipxe script
    demonstrating the appropriate kernel command line arguments for this
    image
  </para>
  <para>
    If you’re using plain PXE, configure your boot loader to use the
    <literal>bzImage</literal> and <literal>initrd</literal> files and
    have it provide the same kernel command line arguments found in
    <literal>netboot.ipxe</literal>.
  </para>
  <para>
    If you’re using iPXE, depending on how your HTTP/FTP/etc. server is
    configured you may be able to use <literal>netboot.ipxe</literal>
    unmodified, or you may need to update the paths to the files to
    match your server’s directory layout.
  </para>
  <para>
    In the future we may begin making these files available as build
    products from hydra at which point we will update this documentation
    with instructions on how to obtain them either for placing on a
    dedicated TFTP server or to boot them directly over the internet.
  </para>
</section>