Linux as a TFTP Server

Published on Jan. 16, 2006

So, you need a TFTP server for something? Cool, you must be doing something fun. I need a TFTP server to copy Cisco IOS images onto the routers; hopefully you are doing something cooler.

1) Enable TFTP in inetd.conf
Open up /etc/inetd.conf and look for the following line:

kelvin@pluto:~$ vi /etc/inetd.conf

#tftp  dgram   udp     wait    root    /usr/sbin/in.tftpd  in.tftpd -s /tftpboot -r blksize

This is on line 72 for me (hint: in vi press ctrl+c, then :set number). Uncomment it. If you don't have this line, bummer. Search for in.tftpd and use that as a substitute.

kelvin@pluto:~$ which in.tftpd
/usr/sbin/in.tftpd
kelvin@pluto:~$

2) Create the TFTP directory

As you can see, we need the directory tftpbood. Create it.

 kelvin@pluto:~$ sudo mkdir /tftpboot 

3) Restart inetd

kelvin@pluto:~$ sudo kill -1 [inetd pid]

You can get the inetd pid by typing:

kelvin@pluto:~$ ps -aux | grep inetd 

Cheers.

Edit: A colleague in New Zealand was searching for something and stumbled upon this page. I gave him the tip that if you need to find the tftp server (or any service), you can do it based on port:

lsof -i :69

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