Hi, for the last week. I've been trying to setup ubuntu on one of my dell servers. However, I've burned about 6 cds, from 4 seperate ISO which all had good checksums. I think the cd rom in that server is toast, because they're all corrupt.

So, I figured it was time to setup a tftp-hpa for a nice netinst ubuntu server.

I setup tftp-hpa according to the ubuntu wiki, using xinitd to run it. However, each time I try and connect, and issue the get pxelinux.0 file, I get a permission denied error.

What's even more mind boggling, I stop xinitd, killall in.tftpd, etc... and the tftp server is still running. Which makes me think something isn't right.

My eyes are killing me from staring at text files for the last 24 hours, and I was hoping someone might have a better setup guide which I haven't been able to locate with my googlefoo skills.

If anyone might know how I screwed up, and couple provide some guidance, that would be awesome!

I've forgotten the details, but tftpd-hpa is "quirky". I did figure it out once, but nowadays I generally just avoid it and install the traditional tftpd server instead.

As for xinetd, that thing is also a bloody nuisance. I suggest you initially just avoid it completely, and run a standalone tftpd server. Once you get *that* working, then think about converting it to use the xinetd superserver. But only then.

Cheers

On my own pxeboot server, I launch it from inetd (avoiding ugly xinetd),
so the /etc/default/tftpd-hpa file looks like this (and is never used):

#Defaults for tftpd-hpa
RUN_DAEMON="no"
OPTIONS="-l -s /var/lib/tftpboot"

.. and I have this one line in my /etc/inetd.conf file:

tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd -vvv -t 10 -s /tftpboot

My boot stuff is all under the /tftpboot directory.

did you get this working?

I use 'atftpd' for 2 diskless boxes with e1000 and nvidia (forcedeth) pxe cards - works a charm too, no quirks. If you can't get tftpd-hpa to work, it may be worth a try.

inetd.conf (as set by apt-get)
Code:

---

tftp            dgram   udp     wait    nobody /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd --tftpd-timeout 300 --retry-timeout 5     --mcast-port 1758 --mcast-addr 239.239.239.0-255 --mcast-ttl 1 --maxthread 100 --verbose=5  /tftpboot

---

HTH

Oh, whilst we're on tftp - be aware of acl-tftpd .
I first learned about it in a 'secure' environment... it supports very granular IP driven ACLs so clients only get access to their own data - good for routers writing backups of config files etc...

Goodness knows why it's not in Debian...

in my inetd.conf file I had this...
tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd -s /var/lib/tftpboot
I changed it to match your example.

and in my default/tftp file, I had it set to run in as a demon, and I had it set to start with xinitd. I guess after a couple of days scratching my head, I modified one to many files

Anyways, I just ran the get pxelinux.0, and didn't get a permissions denied error, so after work I'll head down to the shop and see if ubuntu will netinstall correctly now.

Thanks again for the help!

Yup, works like a charm... It's currently installing the server distro. Hopefully I don't get a file corrupt message or this server is broken