These are statically assigned in OPNsense and will be different in your setup. Throughout the guide, you will see me using the IP address “192.168.35.252” as the server and “192.168.35.101” as my Raspberry Pi IP address. How to do this is beyond the scope of this guide but if there is interest, I will make a guide on how to do this. After making the golden image, I will then copy it to set up Moonlight on a Pi that will be netbooted.įor OPNsense, I will be using VLAN 35 which I have set up specifically for PXE booting Raspberry Pis. I am making a ‘golden image’ of Raspberry Pi OS for my example. Realistically, you can use another Raspberry Pi with an external drive hooked up, or I have also seen instructions on how to set up a Synology NAS to work. I am running it in a VM on my Unraid server. I chose to use Ubuntu Server to run the TFTP/PXE server. Ubuntu Server as my TFTP/PXE boot server.

We also need the MicroSD card to make the ‘golden image’ for each operating system that will be used. We need the MicroSD card to be able to flash the Raspberry Pis EEPROM and enable network booting.

You might be asking, “If we are going to be booting over the network, why do I need a MicroSD card?” That is a good question. On the client side it requires only a PXE-capable network interface controller (NIC), and uses a small set of industry-standard network protocols such as DHCP and TFTP.

In computing, the Preboot eXecution Environment, PXE (most often pronounced as /ˈpɪksiː/ pixie, often called PXE Boot/pixie boot.) specification describes a standardized client–server environment that boots a software assembly, retrieved from a network, on PXE-enabled clients. What is PXE booting you ask? Well Wikipedia sums it up very nicely: Starting with a Raspberry Pi 3 B+, you can boot over the network using PXE. One way to get around this is to boot off of a USB drive or even a USB hard drive. While I have not had any problems (yet), MicroSD cards often fail. I use Raspberry Pis with PiHole to block websites and ads on my entire network, Octoprint to remotely control and monitor my Prusa, DietPi to run a few services such as Gitea, Drone, and MkDocs for my home documentation, and Home Assistant.

Raspberry pi tftp server