# Netboot for FreeBSD?



## balanga (Feb 8, 2018)

I just tried Arch Linux Netboot yesterday and am very impressed with what it can do... Basically you just need to copy a file to your PXE server and then boot your system from LAN and it automatically boots up Arch Linux over the Internet - no downloading installation files and burning CD's... Just copy a single 300kB file and off you go.

Is such a file available for FreeBSD?

I was trying to build an IPXE file for FreeBSD but never managed it, and have not previously seen IPXE in action but having seen it, would love to have a Netboot for FreeBSD.


----------



## balanga (Feb 8, 2018)

Found something here - not sure what to make of it yet....


----------



## tingo (Feb 8, 2018)

Yes, it is in the Handbook even: https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-diskless.html


----------



## balanga (Feb 8, 2018)

No - that is about PXE booting, ie from a local PXE server. I'm talking about booting from a remote server using IPXE.


----------



## SirDice (Feb 8, 2018)

iPXE is an open source implementation of PXE with some, non-standard, additions. Like support for iSCSI or FCoE. So you need to be more clear about which protocol you are using.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPXE

Note that booting from iSCSI is sometimes already builtin on certain UEFI/BIOS. You typically find those features on enterprise grade servers.


----------



## balanga (Feb 8, 2018)

If anyone has a PXE server, just try this.

There is a FreeBSD option, but there are no i386 options so have not been able to test it so far.


----------

