Boot into a minimal Linux/busybox system created using mkbootfs via HTTP.

No physical disks present. System configured to boot from NIC equipped with gPXE ROM.

Apache HTTP server providing gPXE script, kernel, initrd, and modules as separate files. gPXE script set to instruct client to download kernel, initrd and relevant modules. DHCP server providing network configuration and path to gPXE script on HTTP server.

Success is defined as reaching the busybox shell prompt.

• x86 uClibc toolchain (configured with RPC and large-file support)
• wrapper script for uClibc compiler named uclibc
• git
• x86 Linux kernel (TODO: this should be built from source as well)
• HTTP and DHCP servers

git clone git://git.etherboot.org/scm/people/mcb30/mkbootfs.git
cd mkbootfs
git-submodule init
git-submodule update

In the mkbootfs directory, ensuring the uclibc wrapper is in the $PATH, simply make.

Copy all .bp files from the mkbootfs directory to the HTTP server.

Copy the x86 Linux kernel bzImage to the HTTP server.

Write a gPXE script on the HTTP server to boot Linux with the .bp files as initrds:

#!gpxe
kernel http://server/dir/bzImage
initrd http://server/dir/skeleton.bp
initrd http://server/dir/busybox.bp
initrd http://server/dir/policy.bp
initrd http://server/dir/iscsi.bp
boot

Configure the DHCP server to instruct the device under test to boot from this gPXE script:

filename "http://server/dir/script.gpxe";

Start the test machine; it should boot to a busybox shell prompt with a “gPXE Universal Boot” banner.