GParted Live on PXE Server

Besides GParted Live CD and Live USB, we can put the GParted Live image on a PXE server so that a client can boot via the network to use GParted. The steps to do this are as follows:

1. Set up a PXE server. You might refer to documentation, such as setting up a server for PXE network booting, or DRBL (Diskless Remote Boot in Linux) to assist you.
   In these steps we assume the pxelinux config file is /tftpboot/nbi_img/pxelinux.cfg/default, and the image files are in /tftpboot/nbi_img/.
2. Set up an http service on the PXE server.
3. Download GParted live zip file. You have to use 0.3.7-2 or later because network drivers are only included after that.
4. Unzip all the files in a temp dir /tmp/gparted/. You can do this with a command such as:

       mkdir -p /tmp/gparted; unzip gparted-live-*.zip -d /tmp/gparted/
       

   NOTE: Replace gparted-live-*.zip with the file name you just downloaded.
5. Copy the necessary boot files (vmlinuz and initrd.img) to /tftpboot/nbi_img/. For example:
   

       cp /tmp/gparted/live/{vmlinuz,initrd.img} /tftpboot/nbi_img/
       

6. Copy /tmp/gparted/live/filesystem.squashfs to your http server. For example:
   

       cp /tmp/gparted/live/filesystem.squashfs /var/www/
       

7. Edit your PXE config file /tftpboot/nbi_img/pxelinux.cfg/default, and append the following:
   

       label GParted Live
               MENU LABEL GParted Live
               kernel vmlinuz
               append initrd=initrd.img boot=live config components union=overlay username=user noswap noeject vga=788 fetch=http://$webserverIP/filesystem.squashfs
       

   If the GParted live version you are using is <= 0.22.0-1, then the config file is like:

       label GParted Live
               MENU LABEL GParted Live
               kernel vmlinuz
               append initrd=initrd.img boot=live config union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=788 fetch=http://$webserverIP/filesystem.squashfs
       

   NOTE1: Replace $webserverIP with the IP address of your http server.
   NOTE2: Remember to check the boot parameters in syslinux/syslinux.cfg from the zip file. You should replace the above listed parameters with these more recent ones because these newer boot parameters might be different. For example the vmlinuz path might be different.
   NOTE3: Do not use the parameter "ip=frommedia" in your PXE config file.
   

For more information about pxelinux, refer to the following article on PXELinux.