[MinnowBoard] SOLVED Re: Using PXE boot to install Linux on a Minnowboard Turbot

[Rick Thomas]

Well…

With a little help from my friends on the list, I finally figured it out.

The problem was that the MinnowBoard firmware is only able to boot UEFI, and I didn’t have my server configured to serve UEFI.

After some serious googling, I finally found the Debian packages “di-netboot-assistant” and “debian-installer-9-netboot-amd64” which, between them, automate most of the steps of setting up a UEFI tftp boot server.

The instructions in /usr/share/doc/di-netboot-assistant took a bit of head scratching to interpret correctly, but I was eventually able to net-boot the Debian 9.4 installer and get it to run to the end.

Good Stuff!
Thanks for all the help!
Rick


On Jul 2, 2018, at 2:47 AM, Rick Thomas <rbthomas at pobox.com> wrote:

> 
> I’m trying to install Debian Linux on a Turbot dual-core, single ethernet.
> 
> I want to network boot (PXE boot) the Turbot into the debian installer.  I’ve set up a TFTPboot server as described in the Debian documentation at
>     https://wiki.debian.org/PXEBootInstall
> I’ve tested it with a Dell laptop, and been able to use it to boot the Debian installer on the laptop.
> 
> But when I try to PXE boot the Turbot, the screen flashes a few times — way too fast for me to read anything — and then returns to the BIOS boot menu.
> 
> The Minowboard’s BIOS is version 097, the latest.
> 
> Anybody have a clue?
> 
> ADVthanksANCE,
> Rick