In order to test FAI in hardy, I'm using qemu.

• Download the installer

wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/386/ubuntu-installer/i386/linux
wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/386/ubuntu-installer/i386/initrd.gz

• create an disk image

qemu-img create -f qcow2 fai-server.img 4G

• Boot the installer

qemu -hda fai-server.img -kernel linux -initrd initrd.gz -append console=ttyS0

• install ubuntu server with openssh-server
• setup networking

brctl addbr br0
tunctl -u siretart -t tap0
tunctl -u siretart -t tap1
chgrp admin /dev/net/tun
ifconfig tap0 up
ifconfig tap1 up
ifconfig br0 up
brctl addif br0 tap0
brctl addif br0 tap1
brctl show br0

• boot into the system, have to nics

qemu -hda fai-server \
   -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:56
        -net user \
    -redir tcp:2222::22 \
    -net nic,vlan=1,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:57 \
        -net tap,vlan=1,ifname=tap0,script=no

• ssh into your system, the following entry in ~/.ssh/config is useful

Host fai-server
     HostKeyAlias       fai-server
     HostName           localhost
     Port               2222
     User               siretart
     ForwardAgent       yes

• install the following packages:
  • ipmasq
  • dnsmasq
  • fai-quickstart
  • ...
• setup fai:

fai-setup -v

• bootup another qemu instance for testing the installation:

qemu -hda install.img \
    -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:58 -net tap,ifname=tap1,script=no \
    -boot n