[mdlug] Ubuntu PXE install

[Ingles, Raymond]

We were recently given a laptop with a dead battery, hard drive, and CD-ROM drive.
I managed to scavenge a 10GB disk, but installing without a CD drive looked to
be mildly irritating. Boot floppies again, oy.

 However, while the BIOS won't boot from CD, it *will* boot from the network. So, a
bit of Googling, and:

 http://wiki.koeln.ccc.de/index.php/Ubuntu_PXE_Install

 A bit of tweaking (I use xinetd instead of inetd and had to tweak the config
for tftp) and the thing booted right up off our wired network into the Ubuntu
installer. It took a while to install the packages over the network (over an
hour, actually) but it's operating quite well, and my little 802.11b wifi card
is connecting up. We have a semi-mobile workstation, now. I'll doubtless spend
some xmas money on a battery for it to make it fully mobile.

 The only sticking point is the onboard "Geforce2 Go" graphics. The screen
locks up if I used the closed-source Nvidia drivers, though the open-source
"nv" one works fine. I'll have to see if I can get the binary ones working;
I'm really curious to see if this machine can handle Compiz. :->

 Sincerely,

 Ray Ingles                                           (313) 227-2317

 "DRM 'manages access' in the same way that jail 'manages freedom.'"
                         - Mr. Chaotica
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