commit 6b4fd60e904e9a6f27f034b90fd8e7067529f0b9
Author: Tobias <tobias@tobiastime.xyz>
Date:   Sat Oct 3 15:01:37 2026 +0000

    Add README.md

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+# Documentation and information relating to my PXE boot server
+
+## Brief Infrastructure Overview
+
+Hosted on a headless Debian 13 VM
+
+dnsmasq used for TFTP, Nginx for HTTP and GRUB serving as the bootloader
+
+DHCP options handled via my already existing OpenWrt router
+
+Kernel, initramfs and other required files exist in a dedicated storage directory/disk and are exposed to Nginx via symbolic links
+
+## High Level Architecture Overivew
+
+```
+Client (bare-metal or VM) configured to network boot turns on
+                ⇣
+DHCP request broadcast
+                ⇣
+OpenWrt DHCP server responds, assigning an IP and providing PXE options in the response
+                ⇣
+Client downloads the GRUB bootloader, its theme and configuration files via TFTP
+                ⇣
+Once the client is within GRUB you can select the desired environment to boot into
+                ⇣
+Kernel, initramfs and other required files are loaded over HTTP via Nginx
+                ⇣
+If needed, additional files are now downloaded from the Internet
+                ⇣
+Selected OS / installer or environment is now loaded
+```
+## Features
+
+- Lightweight, with less than 2GB of disk space and under 200MB of RAM used for the VM with fresh headless Debian 13 install
+
+- UEFI and BIOS support
+
+- Custom GRUB theme for UEFI based systems
+
+- Zero DHCP dependency on server, will work in an existing environment
+
+- TFTP for bootstrapping, HTTP for payloads
+
+- Easy to add additional operating systems as additional menu entries and HTTP payloads
+
+- Currently supports booting into AlmaLinux, Arch Linux, Clonezilla, Debian, Memtest and SystemRescue all from the same menu
+
+- Installer files reside in dedicated storage directory which Nginx reads via symbolic links, allowing storage for payloads to be easily expanded
+
+- Default option of booting into the already existing local disk allowing clients to remain configured for network boot
+
+## Extremely useful documentation
+
+https://manpages.debian.org/wheezy/dnsmasq-base/dnsmasq.8.en.html
+
+https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4578.html
+
+https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/base-system/dhcp
+
+https://clonezilla.org/livepxe.php
+
+https://www.system-rescue.org/manual/PXE_network_booting/
+
+https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/html_node/Network.html
+
+https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/html_node/Theme-file-format.html
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