Diskless Debian 12 Workstation over network. PXE Boot. TFTP.

[JProvi]

Hi, I am still very new to Linux.
I am just messing around with it.

I was wondering if anyone knew how to get Debian to boot and run over a network.
Let me be clear, I am not trying to do a network installation.
The idea is to have any system on my local network be able to boot into Debian 12 over the network and run apps etc. as if it were booting into a local drive.
I feel like I would have to use TFTP and PXE boot server, but I am not sure where to go from there. This will be on a Wireless Local Area Network of course.

I also believe that this has been solved already.
I am just not sure what topic to look for because when I search I get results related to installing over a network or Remote Desktop.

I would be using an old laptop as the TFTP/PXE and file server. It's has 4 GB of RAM 64GB SSD, a dual core Celeron processor, running Debian 12.
The client system will have 16 GB or RAM and a 12th gen i7 processor.

 

[osprey]

JProvi wrote about running a computing environment:

to have any system on my local network be able to boot into Debian 12 over the network and run apps etc. as if it were booting into a local drive.

This sounds like the "thin client" framework in which a central server holds the operating system which is accessed over the network by thin clients, which are basically terminals that usually download a core "thin client" operating system from the server each time they are brought into use by the users. The core they download enables them to work on the server which may be configured to run what is a virtualised environment for the thin client users. The thin client is generally a diskless machine, so that it holds no data permanently in whatever memory it has. When it shuts down, no data is usually left in its internals. It's a highly secure infrastructure.

However, your text mentions "any system on my local network" which may mean, for example, any computer such as a desktop, or a laptop which are "thick clients", or independent machines with their own operating systems. If that's the case, then a commonly employed architecture used to share data for such machines is the Network File System (NFS) where the various users have network access to a server for files (which may include apps) but work from their own machines' operating systems configured to access the NFS.

This latter NFS configured system is consistent with your mention of what you would be using:

using an old laptop as the .... file server.

Thin clients are commonly used in larger computing environments such as organisations, commercial and research establishments.

 

[JProvi]

Your first paragraph seems to describe exactly what I am looking for. When I mention "any system on my local network" I meant any system that I setup to boot over the network through the boot options in the BIOS. I would want the server to authenticate the client machine (maybe through the MAC address) that way a guest can't accidentally access the server but that's not a big deal.