[mythtv-users] OT: netboot is extremely slow to boot

[Paul Bender]

On 9/19/2010 11:32 AM, Mike Perkins wrote:
> Richard Morton wrote:
>> Tftp as opposed to ftp is
>> A) very simple to implement
>> B) very slow to transfer large amounts of data.
>>
>> I have thought about netbooting but currently I am very happy with the
>> compact flash card booting I am currently using.
>>
>> I have never used netbooting but I use tftp for transfer of firmware
>> files
>> on ip phones at work and they are (relatively) slow to transfer...
>>
>> A netboot image assuming it is all transferred via tftp is going to be
>> slow,
>> and I believe many tftp server only handle a single transfer at a
>> time... so
>> the more clients booting the slower it gets.
>>
>> Tftp is fairly trivial to implement though and hence often used in
>> firmware
>> bootloaders.
>>
> It's not that slow, and the amount of data isn't large where mythtv is
> concerned. I run a PXE-netbooted minimyth installation and it boots in
> well under a minute. I also run LTSP (old: 4.2) and I can get from
> power-on to a login screen in 35 seconds on the thin client I am
> currently using.
>
> You probably have something configured non-optimally.

Additionally, if you find TFTP to be somewhat slow, then you can use use 
HTTP instead.

I net boot MiniMyth using HTTP not TFTP. Rather than using PXE to load 
the kernel and root file system, I use PXE to load gPXE 
<http://etherboot.org/wiki/index.php>. After that, gPXE loads the kernel 
and root file system image using HTTP.