Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE

Re:Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE by deathanatos on Thursday May 07, 2026 @01:56AM (#48045924)

> UEFI fixes that to some extent, but it’s a pain to maintain the UEFI entries manually and change them every time the kernel updates.

… you don't have to update the UEFI entries every time the kernel updates. (I guess you might if you do like a kernel w/ CONFIG_EFI_STUB, and you place the new kernel under a different filename than what the UEFI boot entry point to then you might … but I was under the impression that that'd be kind of an unusual setup, and I thought most of us booting w/ EFI were doing so with Grub.)

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Re:Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE by yjftsjthsd-h on Thursday May 07, 2026 @02:00AM (#48045942)

Even if you do CONFIG_EFI_STUB, there should be a post-update hook to automatically call efibootmgr.

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Re:Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE by nicman23 on Thursday May 07, 2026 @02:22AM (#48046072)

or just copy the latest kernel to something like /vmlinux and /initramfs

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Re:Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE by creshal on Thursday May 07, 2026 @04:23AM (#48046856)

Or use UKI and throw the current kernel to /efi/boot/bootx64.efi; there's plenty of solutions to sane bootloader/kernel management if you're willing to invest 15 minutes into the topic and not act like it's scary and complicated (it really is the opposite).

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Re:Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE by cwillu on Thursday May 07, 2026 @05:11AM (#48047188)

Grub2 is scary and complicated. Remove grub from the equation, and all the scary goes away.

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Re:Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE by nicman23 on Thursday May 07, 2026 @06:51AM (#48047871)

grub is just a operating system. it is quite good when shit hits the fan

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Re:Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE by creshal on Thursday May 07, 2026 @08:54AM (#48048844)

~90% of the failure modes grub can fix don't exist without grub. I can't remember any time when its needless complexity was actually a net benefit compared to literally any of its alternatives (and between gummiboot/syslinux/efilinux/isolinux/systemd-boot/efistub I've used a lot of them).

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Re:Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE by nicman23 on Thursday May 07, 2026 @10:40AM (#48050054)

i like grub, but i also remember pre-0.98 grub

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Re:Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE by awesomeusername on Friday May 08, 2026 @12:41AM (#48058635)

i love HN but also starting to think it's time for us oldies to have our own one: cost of entry, having a distant memory of booting linux from a floppy

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Re:Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE by nicman23 on Friday May 08, 2026 @01:45AM (#48059059)

i have the memory of bios being so shit that i had to boot grub from a floppy to boot from a cd

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Re:Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE by cwillu on Friday May 08, 2026 @03:12PM (#48067411)

My first linux system was a linux-on-a-floppy router that I ran on a spare 386 with two cards to provide NAT for my house, back in the days when internet providers tried to ban people for doing that.

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Re:Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE by creshal on Thursday May 07, 2026 @08:52AM (#48048822)

Grub is really impressive in how it consistently spent the last 30 years focused on improving everything except the UX of the one workflow 99.99% of its involuntary users need it for (boot linux as reliably as possible, and make it easy to debug when it does not).

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Re:Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE by nicman23 on Thursday May 07, 2026 @06:51AM (#48047873)

i never got it to work

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Re:Diskless Linux boot using ZFS, iSCSI and PXE by nubinetwork on Thursday May 07, 2026 @05:52AM (#48047431)

I have 2 entries, /efi/current.efi and /efi/old.efi... when I upgrade, I copy current to old, and copy my new kernel out of /boot as current and reboot.

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