NetBoot OS 9 from a Modern Linux Server

[saybur]

Guide updated for Debian trixie and associated package version changes (including Netatalk 4 being much easier to install now its available in official packages, yay!). This also updates the hooks library to address a breaking change made starting in Kea 2.6.3 and includes some more concrete instructions for preparing the images. As before, feedback is welcome!

 

[superpete]

I got kind of excited that the legacy netBOOT stuff @bbraun was looking at was resurrected.

Mac68k Forums: netBOOT ROM driver ...

Sorry to see mac68k.info disappeared.

 

[saybur]

That's neat! Never knew there was any netbooting support for the earlier systems at all. Good read.

Another approach these days might be one of the network-attached modern SCSI devices presenting a network file as though it was local storage. Not sure how practical that would be with all the local storage available on the device but might still be a fun hack for someone to add!

 

[Mk.558]

Does the build of Netatalk 4.0 in your repository enable AppleTalk or is it only using AFP over TCP?

 

[saybur]

The writeup assumes you're using the official Debian packages for all the services, though this should work on any distro or BSD assuming similar service versions. The only custom code is the hooks library for Kea (and if you need it, the C program used one time to help prep the images).

Configuration-wise you can have regular AppleTalk on or off per your needs. I personally run with it on to support my older systems but my iMac boots fine either way.

 

[Andrew-R]

{snip }

From what I've read this is implementing “NetBoot 1.0” (BOOTP with vendor additions) and will only work with the New World ROM systems from before, roughly, the summer of 1999 (from the first iMac through the earliest revisions of the iBook). Later models use DHCP/BDSP aka “NetBoot 2.0,” which requires a different approach.

I wonder if this wiki page of any help for netbooting newer machines from Linux? It talks about some specific server, but from comments it appear to be just specialized Debian/ubuntu?

How to get Macintosh's Netboot working with your FOG server - FOG Project

wiki.fogproject.org

 

[Andrew-R]

Netboot Shenanigans: Mac network boot using ISC-DHCP as a BSDP server – bennettp123

web.archive.org

includes some links how to netboot EFI based intel Macs from 2012 era, but also link to BSDP.doc from Apple source tree for bootp

Wayback Machine

 

[saybur]

Skimming the config it would need updates for Kea at minimum, what's there looks to be for the old ISC DHPC server. I personally don't have interest in BDSP since the systems I've got that support it have no trouble booting from USB, but if you wanted to collect/update those instructions I bet someone here would find it useful.

 

[Andrew-R]

aah, there was set of links on @saybur's github page, one including ~2001 vintage instructions on how to set up netatalk/dhcpd (2.05 patched) for netbooting Macs from Linux

netbooting howto

but I think your link to BSDP.doc died ? May be it need https now .. but for me some older link from archive.org worked.

Thanks anyway, it surely interesting project (I recently got 11.2 G5, so I plan some experiments there)

 

[Andrew-R]

http://docs.macsysadmin.se/2014/pdf/NetBoot_Deconstructed.pdf

and another old (2006) netbooting macs from Linux guide from afp548.com site mentioning NFS path limitation in ISC DHCP daemon.

https://www.afp548.com/2006/12/20/howto-configure-gnulinux-to-provide-bsdp-netboot-services/

 

[Apache Thunder]

Oh man I wish I saw this a few years ago when I was messing around with netbooting stuff on my iMac G3. Was annoying having to find space to fire up my eMac with Tiger just to run the netboot server. I think I also messed around with hackintosh VMs after I decided to stop using the eMac for that. (it has some failing capacitors on the mobo so while it still works I wanted to avoid using it until I fixed it).

It would be awesome if someone managed to port this into a Raspberry Pi project of some kind. Would be awesome to just toss a DMG image on a SD card and pop it into a simple Pi based device that you can plug into the router/switch the iMac is plugged into.

Better yet you could get a crossover ethernet cable and just plug the Pi directly into the iMac like it was a flash drive or something. That would be pretty rad. Forgo all the router shannagins and plug it in like you would a USB optical drive or something.

For some reason when I had netboot stuff working, it felt faster then internal IDE. Vintage IDE was pretty slow as I recall. I wish Apple kept to using SCSI.