Summer of Code results: PXE Bulk Install

Overview

I mentored Maxwell Winderbaum for this year's NetBSD's Google Summer of Code. His project was titled "PXE Bulk Install".

Goals

I have a set of shell scripts that allow one to install NetBSD automatically over a network using a NFS mounted root on a system the either uses PXE boot or some other form of net booting. To adapt these scripts to a new release takes quite a bit of manual work that could be easily automated. The goal of this project was to improve the bulk install scripts and to write a tool to create a complete bulk install setup with limited interaction with a user.

Results

Maxwell did produce the improved scripts and write the bulk install creation tool. He demonstrated a working system where he could install NetBSD/i386 from a bulk install infrastructure created by his new tool.

After GSOC, when we sat down together to actually use his tool, we ran into a few minor issues that he is currently working on resolving. Once those issues are resolved we plan to add his source code to the NetBSD tree.