Boot Linux Mint via PXE and NFS

Linux Mint is a linux distribution based on Ubuntu, which in turn is based on Debian.

Linux Mint does not use Unity as desktop manager, but instead uses a extended Gnome3 desktop manager with many additions, so it can be used by most peoples.

Naked Unity and Gnome3 desktops are somewhat confusing for normal and experienced users (At least this is how we did see reactions of users)

When you wish to netboot Linux Mint via PXE and NFS you need the following components:

1. A DHCP server which assigns the correct boot options
2. A TFTP server for loading the pxe environment and loading kernel and initrd
3. A NFS server to deliver the normal Mint squashfs

The setup is identical as for net booting ubuntu, you only have to make sure you specify the correct paths.
A typical pxelinux.cfg entry for mint looks like this:

LABEL Linux Mint 12 64-Bit

    kernel mint12-amd64/vmlinuz

    APPEND boot=casper netboot=nfs nfsroot=192.168.1.200:/srv/nfs/mint/12-amd64 initrd=mint12-amd64/initrd.lz --

In this case we have:
- On the tftp server we make a subdirectory called linux12-amd64
- In that directory we put the vmlinux and initrd.lz from the ISO image /casper/ directory
- On the NFS server we just expand the content of the mint iso file into /srv/nfs/mint/12-amd64

It should then work just fine

Daylight rules in Grandstream 2010 provisioning

Provisioning Grandstream 20xx phones via TFTP is easy, but one thing which causes problems is provisioning daylight saving values.

Normaly you should be able to set the P246 property to the correct value for your country/location.

It appears that inside the GXP, the firmware uses the same routine to decode the config file as is used to decode the data posted via a web browser. In other words, the data MUST BE URL-ENCODED.

For example, the following (current New Zealand 2007-onwards DST rule) will not work:

P246=9,1,7,2,0;4,1,7,3,0;60

But, if you URL-encode it, you will get:

P246=9%2C1%2C7%2C2%2C0%3B4%2C1%2C7%2C3%2C0%3B60

And guess what - the phone will accept it, and you're on your way :-)

If you've got python installed, you can encode things pretty easily. If you're using a different language, ask Google.

import urllib
print urllib.urlencode({'P246': '9,1,7,2,0;4,1,7,3,0;60'})

And here a online encoder
http://www.albionresearch.com/misc/urlencode.php

With that value you can set the correct daylight saving rules
for all grandstream phones in your network.

BTW: Perhaps someone should pass along this information to the fruits company, looks like iFruit is (not for the first time) having time problems ;)