PXE boot Raspberry Pi 3 B from x86_64 Stacki 5.0 frontend

[David Juntgen]

Hello -

Based on the documentation here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/bootmodes/net_tutorial.md

I have successfully enabled my Raspberry Pi 3 B to send DHCP discovery UDP packs.  Good first step.

Here is the question, (yes I"m aware of Stacki-Ace but I don't want to build a Raspberry Stacki-ACE frontend and ACE still requires you to load up a kickstart image to on an SD card)

1) Can Stacki FrontEnd 5.0 running on x86_64, load an ARM Debian img, like Rasbian, or even a CentOS 7 image?

2) I have tried to add these as pallets, but Stacki seems to be on an ISO diet only.

Thanks in advance!

[Joe Kaiser]

Hi David,

Answers in-line.

On Sun, Feb 11, 2018 at 8:11 PM, David Juntgen <djun...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello -

Based on the documentation here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/bootmodes/net_tutorial.md

I have successfully enabled my Raspberry Pi 3 B to send DHCP discovery UDP packs.  Good first step.

Cool! Didn't know you could do that. 

 

Here is the question, (yes I"m aware of Stacki-Ace but I don't want to build a Raspberry Stacki-ACE frontend and ACE still requires you to load up a kickstart image to on an SD card)

1) Can Stacki FrontEnd 5.0 running on x86_64, load an ARM Debian img, like Rasbian, or even a CentOS 7 image?

Installing a debian/raspbian/or centos image would require crafting a bootaction with the appropriate kernel, ramdisk, and args.

You can install anything as long as you get the bootaction right. But if you're not installing stacki on backends raspberry pis why are you using Stacki at all? 

Just use your frontend pi to serve whatever you want to install on the backends. The power to Stacki is in the kickstart.

 

2) I have tried to add these as pallets, but Stacki seems to be on an ISO diet only.

Yup, that's not going to change. That being said, we've installed esxi, coreos, and others by adding a bootaction. But then Stacki is only serving as the DHCP server and nothing more than that. 

 

Thanks,

Joe