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What is this container for?

This container runs a TFTP server with a prepopulated /tftpboot directory with necessary files and configuration for PXE booting.
Also compatible with U-Boot and Raspberry Pi 4.

Why use this container?

Simply put, this container has been written with simplicity and security in mind.

Many community containers run unnecessarily with root privileges by default and don't provide help for dropping unneeded CAPabilities either. Additionally, overly complex shell scripts and unofficial base images make it harder to verify the source and keep images up-to-date.

To remedy the situation, these images have been written with security, simplicity and overall quality in mind.

Requirement Status Details
Don't run as root ❌ Couldn't get tftpd to work without root (should figure out why). It drops the privileges, though.
Transparent build process ✅ For verifying that the container matches the code. See GitLab CI.
Official base image ✅
Drop extra CAPabilities ✅ See docker-compose.yml
No default passwords ✅ No static default passwords. That would make the container insecure by default.
Support secrets-files ✅ Support providing e.g. passwords via files instead of environment variables.
Handle signals properly ✅
Simple Dockerfile ✅ No overextending the container's responsibilities. And keep everything in the Dockerfile if reasonable.
Versioned tags ✅ Offer versioned tags for stability.

Running this container

See the example docker-compose.yml in the source repository.

Supported tags

See the Tags tab on Docker Hub for specifics. Basically you have:

  • The default latest tag that always has the latest changes.
  • Minor versioned tags (follow Semantic Versioning), e.g. 1.1 which would follow branch 1.1.x on GitHub.

Configuration

The user should populate /tftpboot/boot with bootable images and usually replace the /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg directory with one having the appropriate configuration.
See docker-compose.yml in the source repository for an example.

Here's an overview of the directory structure with an example boot image for LibreELEC and another for RaspBian (Raspberry Pi).

/tftpboot
 ├── pxelinux.cfg           <- Configuration directory (for pxelinux). Mount your own directory over this to customize.
 │   └── default            <- Default configuration.
 ├── boot                   <- Place your boot files here.
 │   ├── libreelec
 │   │   └── KERNEL
 │   └── root                  <- Special directory (optional). Contents are copied to TFTP root (to /tftpboot). Useful with Raspberry Pi since it expects a certain structure. 
 │       ├── bootcode.bin      <- This file is always required to be on the root level with RPi. Rest of the boot files can be placed in subdirs but it's not mandatory.
 │       └── your-rpi4-serial  <- All boot files can also be placed directly under `root` if desired. See: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/bootmodes/net.md
 │           ├── start.elf     
 │           └── ...
 │
 └── syslinux               <- No need to touch this. Contains prepopulated files and configuration necessary for booting with Syslinux.
     ├── pxelinux.0         <- The BIOS bootloader (legacy) that is commonly loaded by the PXE clients. DHCP server should point clients to path "syslinux/pxelinux.0".
     ├── efi64
     │   └── syslinux.efi   <- The UEFI bootloader (64-bit) (Note: UEFI + Syslinux may have more issues like slow transfer speeds). Clients should be pointed to "syslinux/efi64/syslinux.efi".
     ├── boot -> ../boot
     ├── pxelinux.cfg -> ../pxelinux.cfg   
     └── ...

And this could be the contents for custom pxelinux.cfg/default:

DEFAULT menu.c32
PROMPT 0
TIMEOUT 100
ONTIMEOUT local

MENU TITLE Main Menu
LABEL libreelec
    MENU LABEL LibreELEC
    kernel boot/libreelec/KERNEL
    append <INSERT_YOUR_BOOT_PARAMETERS_HERE>

LABEL local
    MENU LABEL Boot from local disk
    LOCALBOOT 0

Using HTTP for file downloads instead of TFTP

In some scenarios, TFTP can be very slow or barely working. In that case, HTTP can be a better alternative for downloading the boot files.
To utilize HTTP instead, kernel and append have to include the HTTP server address. For example:

    kernel http://HTTP_SERVER_IP/boot/ubuntu/vmlinuz
    append initrd=http://HTTP_SERVER_IP/boot/ubuntu/initrd.img <REST_OF_THE_BOOT_PARAMETERS>

docker-compose.yml includes a service (commented out) for using nginx to serve boot files over HTTP.

Contributing

See the repository on https://github.com/kalaksi/docker-tftpd. All kinds of contributions are welcome!

License

Copyright (c) 2018 [email protected]. See LICENSE for license information.

As with all Docker images, the built image likely also contains other software which may be under other licenses (such as software from the base distribution, along with any direct or indirect dependencies of the primary software being contained).

As for any pre-built image usage, it is the image user's responsibility to ensure that any use of this image complies with any relevant licenses for all software contained within.