Network install Windows from CentOS 6.X

DRAFT how to use syslinux to boot into windows installer DRAFT

Setup description and other stuff:

00

NOTE: 192.168.1.104 is the tftp/samba server in my case

RouterOS

dhcp config comes here

CentOS

  • disable fw
  • update yum
  • install xinetd and syslinux
  • configure syslinux
  • install samba
  • configure samba
  • extract iso and share it via samba

Windows

Download windows AIK from here.

Mount the ISO and run StartCD.

The following screen should appear. Click on Windows AIK Setup:

01

The Install wizzard will pop up. Click Next:

02

Accept the license agreement and click Next:

03

Leave the default path (it will be important later) and click Next:

04

Confirm by clicking Next once more:

05

Wait for it to finish:

06

Click Close after it’s done:

07

You can safely exit the previous window and unmount the iso:

08

Now that we have the necessary tools installed, let’s create our WinPE iso. A new app named Deployment Tools Command Prompt should be in your start menu, run it as administrator:

09

Deploy a new x64 WinPE by running the following command:

copype amd64 C:\winPE_amd64

We need to change a file to automount the samba share and run the setup from it, so let’s just do that by mounting the default wim file:

imagex /mountrw c:\winPE_amd64\winpe.wim 1 c:\winPE_amd64\mount

Edit the following file in your favorite editor:

c:\winPE_amd64\mount\Windows\System32\Startnet.cmd

Add the following lines to the bottom of it:

net use Z: \\192.168.1.104\install\x64
Z:\setup.exe

That’s it. We can save the changes and unmount it by running:

imagex /unmount c:\winpe_amd64\mount /commit

Finally let’s copy the wim into the sources directory and build the iso:

copy C:\winPE_amd64\winpe.wim C:\winPE_amd64\ISO\Sources\
oscdimg -n -bC:\winPE_amd64\etfsboot.com C:\winPE_amd64\ISO C:\winPE_amd64\winpe.iso

 

proof of concept comes here

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