In some cases a Trivial File Transfer Protocol Daemon (tftpd) comes handy. One case were it is almost mandatory is to boot systems via the Intel Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE). But also some very simple devices as embedded systems or Systems On Chip (SOC) like Board Management Controller (BMC) the TFTP daemon is sometimes the only method to copy a file onto the device.

TFTP Server On CentOS

Check if already installed

rpm -q tftp-server
tftp-server-0.49-2.el5.centos

Activate for some run-levels via xinetd

/sbin/chkconfig --level 245 xinetd on
/sbin/chkconfig --level 345 tftp on

Setting the verbose level

vim  /etc/xinet.d/tftp

Add -vvv to ‘server_args’ that will help the initial debugging.

HPA TFTP Server On Debian

Install the HPA TFTP server. HPA stands for Hans Peter Anvin who maintained this version. Back in 1995 this was the best alternative of TFTP servers, as other where quiet buggy. There is also the tftpd package under Debian. The configuration and supported protocols can differ between flavours of TFTP servers.

aptitude install tftpd-hpa

Install DHCPD

aptitude install dhcp3-server

Configure DHCPD

cd /etc/dhcp3
cp dhcpd.conf dhcpd.conf-original
vim dhcpd.conf

option domain-name-servers 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220;

    subnet 10.0.10.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        range 10.0.10.10 10.0.10.15;
        filename "pxelinux.0";
        next-server 10.0.10.150;
        option routers 10.0.10.150;
    }

Configure TFTPD For CentOS

The boot directory is at /var/lib/tftpboot

mkdir -v /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
mkdir -vp /var/lib/tftpboot/centos6/i386 /var/lib/tftpboot/centos6/x86_64 
rsync -av rsync.hrz.tu-chemnitz.de::ftp/pub/linux/centos/6/os/i386/images/\
pxeboot/ /var/lib/tftpboot/centos6/i386
rsync -av rsync.hrz.tu-chemnitz.de::ftp/pub/linux/centos/6/os/x86_64/\
images/pxeboot/ /var/lib/tftpboot/centos6/x86_64/
touch /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default
vim /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

Add this content:

DISPLAY boot.txt

DEFAULT  centos6_x86_64_install

MENU TITLE PXE Menu

LABEL centos6_x86_64_install
kernel centos6/x86_64/vmlinuz
append vga=normal initrd=/centos6/x86_64/initrd.img devfs=nomount
#append vga=normal initrd=/centos6/x86_64/initrd.img devfs=nomount\
ramdisk_size=9216

LABEL centos6_i386
kernel /centos6/i386/vmlinuz
append initrd=/centos6/i386/initrd.img devfs=nomount
#append initrd=/centos6/i386/initrd.img devfs=nomount ramdisk_size=9216

PROMPT 1
TIMEOUT 10

History

Version	Date	Notes
0.1.1	2022-06-18	History, shell->bash
0.1.0	2016-06-22	Initial release