Howto explaining how to install Ubuntu and Centos with PXE from Windows.

Requirements

You need :

• TFTP32
• SYSLINUX (google is your friend)
• Centos or Ubuntu netinstall ISO (google is your friend)
• A computer that support PXE booting
• A second computer running either XP or win2k3

Installation

Here is the recipe (Ubuntu way is the same, I use CentOS in this example) :

1. Extract the SYSLINUX compressed file to c:\pxe or any other directory
2. create c:\pxe\centos and copy pxelinux.0 in that directory
3. Extract the Centos netinstall ISO in c:\pxe\centos
4. create the directory c:\pxe\centos\pxelinux.cfg\ and copy the file isolinux.cfg (from c:\pxe\centos\) and rename it "default" with NO EXTENSION
5. Now we need to configure TFTP32 a bit. Set up the DHCP server with your network settings. The "boot file" is pxelinux.0. Make sure the "current directory" is set to c:\pxe\centos. Here is the screenshot of what my configuration look like (with a DSL modem/router at 192.168.2.1) :
6. Set your client to boot from network in the bios
7. Install the files from any ftp mirrors

Thats it!