How to Guide – Setup OS using Netboot

Sometimes you don’t want a prebuilt image, you want to run a real OS installer and make your own choices about partitioning, filesystems and setup. Our panel does not mount ISOs, but you can get the same result with netboot.xyz. It is a tiny bootloader you write over your VPS disk, that on boot loads a menu and pulls an OS installer over the network straight into RAM. Because the installer runs from RAM, the disk is free for it to wipe and install onto, which is exactly what a plain install ISO cannot do on a single-disk VPS. This guide shows you how.

This article assumes you are already logged into your VPS/Dedicated Server. Don’t have an account with us, feel free to sign up over at our Portal. Once registered check out our selection of VPS and Dedicated Servers.
Already have one? Then feel free to proceed to follow the how-to guide below.

Important – this is destructive and irreversible. Writing netboot.xyz overwrites the disk, and the install you run afterwards wipes it again to lay down your new OS. Everything currently on the server is lost. Back up anything you need first. The only way back to a working template is a fresh OS reload from your control panel. Do not run this on a server holding data you care about, spin up a fresh VPS for it instead.

Before You Begin – Use the Console, Not SSH

You drive this entire process from the server’s screen, so you must use the noVNC / HTML5 console in your Packetra client area, not SSH. Two reasons: your SSH session drops the instant the disk is overwritten, and the netboot.xyz menu and the OS installer both run on the console, there is nothing to SSH into while they are up.

You will find the console under your service in the client portal. Log into your server there as cloudvpsXXX/root before continuing.

What netboot.xyz Is and When to Use It

netboot.xyz is a small iPXE-based bootloader. You write it to the disk once, and on boot it reaches out over the internet and presents a menu of operating systems and utilities. Pick one, and it netboots that installer or live system into memory. From there you install your OS the normal way, choosing your own partitioning, filesystem and options.

Use this instead of writing a finished disk image when you want control over the install rather than someone else’s prebuilt layout. It also gives you a handy rescue path, the Utilities menu includes tools for disk wiping, cloning and recovery. Note that netboot.xyz is only a springboard: once you install an OS, that install overwrites netboot.xyz on the disk and your server boots your new system from then on.

Select your Linux OS to Prepare the Tools

You only need wget to download the loader image. Select the tab matching the OS your VPS is currently running.

Download netboot.xyz into RAM

We download the image into /dev/shm, which is a RAM-backed folder. This matters because we are about to overwrite the disk, the source image needs to live somewhere that isn’t the disk we are wiping. The loader is only a couple of megabytes and comes as a ready-to-write .img, so there is nothing to extract.

cd /dev/shm
wget https://boot.netboot.xyz/ipxe/netboot.xyz.img -O netboot.xyz.img

Verify the Image Before Writing

Confirm the download is a real disk image, not an error page saved under the wrong name.

ls -la
file netboot.xyz.img

The file command must report something like DOS/MBR boot sector or data. If it reports HTML document or the size is only a few kilobytes, the download failed, run wget again before continuing.

Identify Your Target Disk

Find the disk your server boots from, this is the device we write netboot.xyz onto. It is usually vda or sda, but confirm rather than assume.

lsblk

Example: a line reading sda   25G disk with a partition sda1 mounted at / tells you the boot disk is /dev/sda. Use the whole disk (sda), not the partition (sda1). Note the name for the next step.

Booting mode: All Packetra VPS boot in BIOS (SeaBIOS) mode. The standard netboot.xyz.img supports Legacy BIOS as well as UEFI, so it works here out of the box, there is no need for the separate UEFI-only bootloaders.

Write the Loader and Reboot into the Menu

Write the loader to the disk. Replace /dev/sda with the disk you confirmed with lsblk. The sync flushes the write, then echo b forces an immediate reboot.

dd if=/dev/shm/netboot.xyz.img of=/dev/sda bs=4M conv=notrunc oflag=direct
sync
echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger

The console will freeze briefly, then the server reboots. SeaBIOS loads, iPXE starts, and after it pulls the menu over the network you will see the netboot.xyz menu on the console.

Boot an OS Installer from the Menu

Use the arrow keys and Enter to navigate. To install a Linux distribution, go to Linux Network Installs, choose your distribution (for example Debian), then the version. netboot.xyz loads that installer into RAM and starts it. The Utilities menu is also here if you need a rescue or disk tool instead of an install.

Text installer, not graphical: Over the console you get the installer’s text (ncurses) interface, not the graphical one. It is the same installer with the same steps, just keyboard-driven, which suits a console session well.

Install to the Disk & Set Networking

Run through the installer as you normally would. Two points specific to running on your VPS:

• Target disk: when the installer asks where to install, pick your VPS disk (the vda or sda you identified earlier). Since the installer is running from RAM, it can wipe and partition that disk freely.
• Networking: the installer will usually pick up networking automatically. If it asks you to configure it manually, enter the values from your VPS’s page in the client area, your IP address, gateway, netmask/prefix and a DNS server such as 1.1.1.1.

When the install finishes it writes a bootloader to the disk and reboots. netboot.xyz is now gone, replaced by your freshly installed OS, which boots straight from the disk. Watch the console for the login prompt, then connect over SSH as normal.

Final Words

You have installed your own operating system on your Packetra VPS from a real installer, with full control over partitioning and setup, and no ISO mounting required. netboot.xyz served as a one-time springboard and has been replaced by your new system. If you ever want to go back to a clean template, reload the OS from your control panel.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from writing a disk image?
A disk image is a finished OS you write and boot with no choices to make. netboot.xyz runs the real installer instead, so you decide the partitioning, filesystem and setup yourself. Use the image method when you want fast and prebuilt, use netboot.xyz when you want control.

Is the installer graphical?
Over the console you get the text (ncurses) installer, not the graphical one. It is the same installer with the same options, driven by the keyboard.

The menu will not load, or there is no network in iPXE.
netboot.xyz has to reach boot.netboot.xyz over the internet to fetch the menu, which needs working networking at boot. On most setups this is automatic. If your server’s network does not hand out an address automatically, iPXE cannot self-configure, and you would need to set its networking by hand at the iPXE prompt or open a support ticket for guidance.

Does netboot.xyz stay on my server?
No. It is only a springboard. Once you install an OS, that install overwrites netboot.xyz on the disk and your server boots your new system from then on. Remember, the netboot is in your RAM memory, that goes away after the reboot.

My SSH session froze and dropped during the write. Did it fail?
No, that is expected. The moment dd overwrites the running OS, SSH has nothing to talk to and drops. This is exactly why we use the console.

Good to Know
Always run this from the noVNC console rather than SSH, since the menu and installer live on the console and SSH drops the moment the disk is written. The standard netboot.xyz.img is the right file for Packetra’s legacy BIOS boot. The trick that makes this work on a single-disk VPS is that the installer loads into RAM, which frees the disk for it to wipe and install onto, something a plain install ISO cannot do here. Have your network details from the client area ready in case the installer asks for them. Want to revert? Reload the OS from your control panel for a clean template. Run into any issues? Open a support ticket through the client portal and our team will help you.