Getting a client to boot to PXE
Instructions for getting an individual computer to boot to the PXE server.
gPXE boot CD
The easiest way to PXE boot a computer is to the use the gPXE boot CD. There should be a lot of them laying around, but if you need to recreate the .iso, then see here for build instructions. (for some reason, I couldn't find anywhere on the internet that has the .iso pre-built, even though it's really small and incredibly useful)
Network card ROMs
Always be on the lookout for incoming NICs that have ROMs on them. Most cards have a single chip socket, either a large DIP socket or a smaller socket, look for that, and if there's a ROM in there, then place it in the "NIC ROMs" box that's located in the back room. Some NICs don't have a socket, but have an obvious place where a DIP chip can be soldered down. Regardless, most of these are empty, so it takes all of a second to look over most cards, as long as you know what to look for.
However, by far most of the ROM NICs we've gotten are 3Com 3C905C-TX-M cards, since they come from the factory with an integrated ROM (Atmel AT49BV512). They're also easy to spot since they're edged in yellow and all of their chips are soldered down, there aren't any sockets.
Flashing NIC ROMs
This can be a complicated process, but I (David Newcum) have tried to document it as much as I could. Here are the instructions for flashing the 3C905C-TX-M in particular.
Setting up the server to PXE-boot different operating systems
Ubuntu
See the Ubuntu documentation here.
The files (vmlinuz, initrd, etc) you should use are from the 'netboot' installation package. They can be downloaded from here:
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