pyrox.dev
1# Booting from the "netboot" media (PXE) {#sec-booting-from-pxe}
2
3Advanced users may wish to install NixOS using an existing PXE or iPXE
4setup.
5
6These instructions assume that you have an existing PXE or iPXE
7infrastructure and simply want to add the NixOS installer as another
8option. To build the necessary files from your current version of nixpkgs,
9you can run:
10
11```ShellSession
12nix-build -A netboot.x86_64-linux '<nixpkgs/nixos/release.nix>'
13```
14
15This will create a `result` directory containing: \* `bzImage` -- the
16Linux kernel \* `initrd` -- the initrd file \* `netboot.ipxe` -- an
17example ipxe script demonstrating the appropriate kernel command line
18arguments for this image
19
20If you're using plain PXE, configure your boot loader to use the
21`bzImage` and `initrd` files and have it provide the same kernel command
22line arguments found in `netboot.ipxe`.
23
24If you're using iPXE, depending on how your HTTP/FTP/etc. server is
25configured you may be able to use `netboot.ipxe` unmodified, or you may
26need to update the paths to the files to match your server's directory
27layout.
28
29In the future we may begin making these files available as build
30products from hydra at which point we will update this documentation
31with instructions on how to obtain them either for placing on a
32dedicated TFTP server or to boot them directly over the internet.