NFS-Root Mini-Howto: General Overview
2. General OverviewGenerally speaking there are the following problems for the
workstation:It must find out it's own IP-address, and if needed also the
rest of the Ethernet configuration.It must know the NFS-server and the mount path to it's root
filesystem.The current implementation of NFSROOT in the Linux kernel (as of
1.3.7x) allows for
the following ``solutions'':The IP-address may be discovered by RARP, or the full
ethernet configuration may be passed to the kernel via kernel
parameters by LILO or LOADLIN.The NFS-path to mount can be passed via kernel
parameters. If this is not done, the kernel assumes the
RARP-server also as NFS-server, and uses compiled in default
for the path part. (current default value in the kernel:
/tftpboot/<IP-address of the machine>.)The client configuration may be discovered by BOOTP.Before starting to setup a discless enviroment, you should decide if
you will be booting via LILO or LOADLIN. The advantage of
doing so is flexibility, the disadvantage is speed. Booting a Linux
kernel without LILO is faster. This may or may not be a
consideration.