Hi,
I would like to thank ebelange to put us on that track of PXE booting over NFS for our repurposing solution! Here's our runlogs from our experience:
Create appropriate directory structure Ex. /srv/diskless/12_04XFCE
Debootstrap Ubuntu 12.04
sudo debootstrap --arch i386 precise /srv/diskless/12_04XFCE http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
Copy APT source.list file
sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /srv/diskless/12_04XFCE/etc/apt/
sudo chroot /srv/diskless/12_04XFCE/
mount /proc
Edit /etc/fstab and make sure it contains this:
vi /etc/fstab
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/nfs / nfs defaults 0 0
none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
#none /var/run tmpfs defaults 0 0
#none /var/lock tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /var/tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /media tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /var/log tmpfs defaults 0 0
Edit initramfs.conf
vi /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf and make sure that BOOT=nfs BEFORE installing kernel image
Configure Keymaps (In our case)
locale-gen en_CA.UTF-8
Configure Timezone
dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
Search available Kernel Images matching your server Kernel Image
apt-cache search linux-image-
And install it... in my case it was:
apt-get install linux-image-3.2.0-23-generic-pae
Answer yes to he question "Continue without installing GRUB"
Set root password and create a view user
passwd
useradd -m view
passwd view
Our machine name are provice by DHCP server we need to empty /etc/hostname
echo "" > /etc/hostname
Edit /etc/network/interfaces and make sure there is no entry for eth0
Edit /etc/apt/source.list to make sure that these lines are uncomment
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner
apt-get update
Install Alsa-base to enable sound and add view user to audio group
apt-get install alsa-base
usermod -a -G audio view
Install Vmware view client and all dependencies
apt-get install vmware-view-client
Install XFCE4 Window Manager and all dependencies
apt-get install xfce4
Install ca-certificate to be able to import your root CA certificate
apt-get install ca-certificates
Google the vmware-view-usb file from HP on and copy to /usr/bin/vmware-view-usb chmod it to 4755
chmod 4755 /usr/bin/vmware-view-usb
Make the user view autologin
vi /etc/init/tty1.conf
Replace this line: exec /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty1
By this: exec /bin/login -f view < /dev/tty1 > /dev/tty1 2>&1
Autostart XFCE on logon
vi /home/view/.profile
Add this at the end of the file:
if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && [ $(tty) = "/dev/tty1" ]; then
startx
fi
Numlock ON
apt-get install numlockx
Create a file /home/view/viewstart that contains this:
#!/bin/bash
while true; do
vmware-view.bin --serverURL=view01.xxxxxxxxxxxxx.qc.ca --domainName=INFO --nomenubar=TRUE --nonInteractive --desktopSize=full
done
Autostart /usr/bin/numlockx on + Viewstart script when XFCE start
Create to file in /home/view/.config/autostart
File VMWare-View.desktop that contains:
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=0.9.4
Type=Application
Name=VMWare-View
Comment=
Exec=/home/view/viewstart
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
Hidden=false
File NumLock.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=0.9.4
Type=Application
Name=NumLock
Comment=
Exec=/usr/bin/numlockx on
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
Hidden=false
Import our ROOT CA Certificate
Create extra directory in /usr/share/ca-certificates and copy your root CA .CRT file
Edit the /etc/ca-certificates.conf and add the new .crt file
vi /etc/ca-certificates.conf
Ex: extra/root-ca.crt
dpkg-reconfigure ca-certificates (answer yes and make sure that your new root CA is in the list)
At this point you can customize the look of your XFCE desktop
Remove all panels from XFCE
Exit the chroot environnment
exit
Copy initrd.img and vmlinux for TFTPBOOT
sudo cp /img/i386/12_04XFCE/boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-23-generic-pae /tftpboot
sudo cp /img/i386/12_04XFCE/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-generic-pae /tftpboot
Thank you again for that great thread!
S. Mignacco