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Install tFTP on Linux Mint 21

Prereqs

  • a PC (BIOS/UEFI) running Linux Mint 21

Update the APT cache

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sudo apt update

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guru@lab:~$ sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Hit:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease                                                      
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease                                                        
Ign:4 https://linuxmint-packages.mirror.liteserver.nl victoria InRelease                        
Hit:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease                                
Hit:6 https://linuxmint-packages.mirror.liteserver.nl victoria Release                          
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
guru@lab:~$

Install the TFTP server package

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sudo apt install tftpd-hpa

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guru@lab:~$ sudo apt install tftpd-hpa
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
pxelinux
The following NEW packages will be installed:
tftpd-hpa
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 40,7 kB of archives.
After this operation, 122 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 tftpd-hpa amd64 5.2+20150808-1.2build2 [40,7 kB]
Fetched 40,7 kB in 0s (83,4 kB/s)  
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package tftpd-hpa.
(Reading database ... 561282 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../tftpd-hpa_5.2+20150808-1.2build2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking tftpd-hpa (5.2+20150808-1.2build2) ...
Setting up tftpd-hpa (5.2+20150808-1.2build2) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.10.2-1) ...
guru@lab:~$

Configure the service (optional)

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cat /etc/default/tftpd-hpa

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guru@lab:~$ cat /etc/default/tftpd-hpa 
# /etc/default/tftpd-hpa

TFTP_USERNAME="tftp"
TFTP_DIRECTORY="/srv/tftp"
TFTP_ADDRESS=":69"
TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure"
guru@lab:~$

View directory permissions/ownership

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ls -ld /srv/tftp/

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guru@lab:~$ ls -ld /srv/tftp/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root nogroup 4096 Sep  7 13:56 /srv/tftp/
guru@lab:~$

Verify the service

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sudo systemctl status tftpd-hpa

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guru@lab:~$ sudo systemctl status tftpd-hpa
● tftpd-hpa.service - LSB: HPA's tftp server
    Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa; generated)
    Active: active (running) since Thu 2023-09-07 13:56:28 CEST; 9min ago
    Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
    Process: 3293 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 4539)
    Memory: 404.0K
        CPU: 8ms
    CGroup: /system.slice/tftpd-hpa.service
            └─3301 /usr/sbin/in.tftpd --listen --user tftp --address :69 --secure /srv/tftp

Sep 07 13:56:28 lab systemd[1]: Starting LSB: HPA's tftp server...
Sep 07 13:56:28 lab tftpd-hpa[3293]:  * Starting HPA's tftpd in.tftpd
Sep 07 13:56:28 lab tftpd-hpa[3293]:    ...done.
Sep 07 13:56:28 lab systemd[1]: Started LSB: HPA's tftp server.
guru@lab:~$

Enable the service to start on boot (optional)

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sudo systemctl enable tftpd-hpa

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guru@lab:/srv/tftp$ sudo systemctl enable tftpd-hpa
[sudo] password for guru:     
tftpd-hpa.service is not a native service, redirecting to systemd-sysv-install.
Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable tftpd-hpa
guru@lab:/srv/tftp$

Serve a file

In this example, a valid Cisco IOS image is copied to the tFTP directory and permissions are set.

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sudo cp /home/guru/Downloads/c2960-lanbasek9-mz.152-7.E8.bin /srv/tftp/
sudo chmod 644 /srv/tftp/c2960-lanbasek9-mz.152-7.E8.bin

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guru@lab:~$ sudo cp /home/guru/Downloads/c2960-lanbasek9-mz.152-7.E8.bin /srv/tftp/
[sudo] password for guru:     
guru@lab:~$ sudo chmod 644 /srv/tftp/c2960-lanbasek9-mz.152-7.E8.bin 
guru@lab:~$