The way I see it is that PiServer is a sort of workaround tool for dealing with issues and/or specifics of RPi netbooting. I think more than 2 decades ago I also netbooted some PCs, but more fun then really needed actually. If large amounts of clients it would make sense for me.Hello,
I started this thread viewtopic.php?p=2274103 long time ago run out of time so I had to put it on ice.
As suggested, I add the MAC of the client Pi and now, I can see the Raspberry Pi.
My big question is: what should I do after installing the OS on the PiServer? Something supposed to happen on the client?
Screenshot at 2025-08-17 15-36-43.png
The client founds the PiServer 192.168.2.102 but after three tries, it seem to give up doing something.
Thanks,
Guillaume
For RPi, similar story, but more to avoid bad brands and/or old cheap SD-cards. I did not use Raspbian, but 64-bit Opensuse in a KVM as server, I actually now see PiServer, but don't know details.
Then the whole issue is it essentially is only RPi3B+: older have unreliable ROM, so on RPI3B it mostly fails, you can see if you log network packets (wireshark or so). For newer, there is EEPROM, so in theory they ('RPL') can make more standards based network booting implementation, but I guess they won't do as that would then not be the same for all RPis. You can of-course stick a almost dummy SD-card in an RPI with new/patched bootcode.bin or, a U-Boot layer on top of the code/blob in EEPROM/ROM. But it is no solid solution compared to other SBCs where you can put open-source U-Bout in the SPI-flash-chip. It is much easier out of the box, at least that is my experience. You can also use HTTP(S) netboot, of course only for newer PIs with EEPROM. Also that, I am not sure how much it is the same as what is found in open-source UEFI firmware implementations (EDK2).
Statistics: Posted by redvli — Wed Sep 03, 2025 5:34 am