[TriLUG] pxe-bootable linux

[Dewey Hylton via TriLUG]

hi all. i'm looking for a linux distribution/livecd/whatever which can be fully booted via pxe. an absolute requirement for this particular project is a recent version of hdparm with '-Np' option. ntfs-3g, clamav, etc. are each a bonus, but hdparm is a requirement.

in the past i'd boot up any number of the livecd options (dsl, robsrtbt, finnix, whatever). but i've gotten to the point where i most if not all the machines i deal with now are in remote locations and their remote-media capabilities are fairly crummy, mostly owing to java or activex requirements. remote control is more stable, so just doing pxe works great for most things. however, it seems the few linux distributions i've attempted lost connectivity to their network-connected boot image upon kernel initialization.

ideally i'd like something which just works off of plain pxe and does not require an iscsi target or anything like that. but here i am, asking those who most likely have already done something similar, and at least know whether what i'm looking to do is even possible. and if not possible, i'm hoping someone here can provide some sort of a recipe for the pxe-iscsi method or whatever else they have found to work.

in most cases for me, network infrastructure is a mix of openbsd and illumos (smartos for virtualization and omnios for file services). but linux hdparm is the only thing i've found that can do what i need for this particular project ...

thanks for any guidance you may be able to provide.