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NetBoot OS 9 from a Modern Linux Server
Posted by: saybur on 2025-08-30 20:43:48
Guide updated for Debian trixie and associated package version changes (including Netatalk 4 being much easier to install now its available in official packages, yay!). This also updates the hooks library to address a breaking change made starting in Kea 2.6.3 and includes some more concrete instructions for preparing the images. As before, feedback is welcome!
Posted by: superpete on 2025-09-01 06:05:07
I got kind of excited that the legacy netBOOT stuff @bbraun was looking at was resurrected.


Sorry to see mac68k.info disappeared.
Posted by: saybur on 2025-09-01 06:23:17
That's neat! Never knew there was any netbooting support for the earlier systems at all. Good read.

Another approach these days might be one of the network-attached modern SCSI devices presenting a network file as though it was local storage. Not sure how practical that would be with all the local storage available on the device but might still be a fun hack for someone to add!
Posted by: Mk.558 on 2025-09-01 07:20:11
Does the build of Netatalk 4.0 in your repository enable AppleTalk or is it only using AFP over TCP?
Posted by: saybur on 2025-09-01 07:45:05
The writeup assumes you're using the official Debian packages for all the services, though this should work on any distro or BSD assuming similar service versions. The only custom code is the hooks library for Kea (and if you need it, the C program used one time to help prep the images).

Configuration-wise you can have regular AppleTalk on or off per your needs. I personally run with it on to support my older systems but my iMac boots fine either way.
Posted by: Andrew-R on 2026-05-29 06:08:12
{snip }

From what I've read this is implementing “NetBoot 1.0” (BOOTP with vendor additions) and will only work with the New World ROM systems from before, roughly, the summer of 1999 (from the first iMac through the earliest revisions of the iBook). Later models use DHCP/BDSP aka “NetBoot 2.0,” which requires a different approach.

I wonder if this wiki page of any help for netbooting newer machines from Linux? It talks about some specific server, but from comments it appear to be just specialized Debian/ubuntu?

How to get Macintosh's Netboot working with your FOG server - FOG Project

wiki.fogproject.org wiki.fogproject.org
Posted by: Andrew-R on 2026-05-29 08:06:20

Netboot Shenanigans: Mac network boot using ISC-DHCP as a BSDP server – bennettp123

web.archive.org web.archive.org

includes some links how to netboot EFI based intel Macs from 2012 era, but also link to BSDP.doc from Apple source tree for bootp
Posted by: saybur on 2026-05-29 08:57:11
Skimming the config it would need updates for Kea at minimum, what's there looks to be for the old ISC DHPC server. I personally don't have interest in BDSP since the systems I've got that support it have no trouble booting from USB, but if you wanted to collect/update those instructions I bet someone here would find it useful.
Posted by: Andrew-R on 2026-05-29 09:04:15
aah, there was set of links on @saybur's github page, one including ~2001 vintage instructions on how to set up netatalk/dhcpd (2.05 patched) for netbooting Macs from Linux



but I think your link to BSDP.doc died ? May be it need https now .. but for me some older link from archive.org worked.

Thanks anyway, it surely interesting project (I recently got 11.2 G5, so I plan some experiments there)
Posted by: Andrew-R on 2026-05-29 10:14:21

and another old (2006) netbooting macs from Linux guide from afp548.com site mentioning NFS path limitation in ISC DHCP daemon.
Posted by: Apache Thunder on 2026-06-11 01:21:43
Oh man I wish I saw this a few years ago when I was messing around with netbooting stuff on my iMac G3. Was annoying having to find space to fire up my eMac with Tiger just to run the netboot server. I think I also messed around with hackintosh VMs after I decided to stop using the eMac for that. (it has some failing capacitors on the mobo so while it still works I wanted to avoid using it until I fixed it).

It would be awesome if someone managed to port this into a Raspberry Pi project of some kind. Would be awesome to just toss a DMG image on a SD card and pop it into a simple Pi based device that you can plug into the router/switch the iMac is plugged into.

Better yet you could get a crossover ethernet cable and just plug the Pi directly into the iMac like it was a flash drive or something. That would be pretty rad. Forgo all the router shannagins and plug it in like you would a USB optical drive or something. 😛

For some reason when I had netboot stuff working, it felt faster then internal IDE. Vintage IDE was pretty slow as I recall. I wish Apple kept to using SCSI. 🙁
Posted by: adespoton on 2026-06-11 17:32:56
Going back further... does anyone remember the pre-netboot process that was used to netboot the Mac Plus? I used to frequent a number of labs where you'd stick in the network boot floppy, they'd load the loader, create a RAM disk, and then populate the RAM disk from the server and reboot onto it. I'm pretty sure it was using System 7 and not just doing the pre-7 "load a new System on the fly while recovering from A9F4" trick.

Not quite as nifty as New World netboot in that you still need a boot floppy, but it means you need ONE boot floppy, and can select what OS gets loaded on all the machines, complete with server-side updates while the targets are offline.
Posted by: robin-fo on 2026-06-12 07:07:36
That must have been some third-party process since NetBoot was introduced with the IIsi/Classic?
Posted by: adespoton on 2026-06-12 08:46:54
That must have been some third-party process since NetBoot was introduced with the IIsi/Classic?
Yeah; it definitely wasn't Apple NetBoot, but I've lost what it was to the mists of time.
Posted by: gsteemso on 2026-06-13 16:34:59
As far as I recall there were at least two third-party utilities that let you do that. There's a few threads on the topic already. I can't recall any of the names though.
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