PXE - HTTP fetch root file system

[Laurent Dumont]

Hi gents,

I'm working on setting up a diskless PXE system where the root 
filesystem is served by http instead of the traditional TFTP method. 
TFTP is a rather slow process and I can have up to 30-40 computers 
booting up. I know that NFS is also an option but the downside is that 
only what is actually being used by the remote OS is being transferred 
into RAM. Each time a new application is accessed, the remote system has 
to fetch the files.

It's also a pretty big point of failure if the NFS server is down and a 
remote host needs to access something.

I was able to get the PXE HTTP to work using a Kali ISO and a Debian 
live CD. When I attempted the same using a Ubuntu ISO, I get a Kernel 
panic with a "cant mount /scripts/live".

Here is the relevant configs.

pxelinux.cfg/default

> label Ubuntu 16.04
> MENU LABEL Patate
> KERNEL vmlinuz.efi
> APPEND initrd=initrd.lz boot=live 
> fetch=http://192.168.25.167/filesystem.squashfs

initrd.lz and vmlinuz.efi from the latest Ubuntu CD. TFTP and HTTP 
files/permissions are okay.


Thanks!

Laurent