grub and other fai problems

[Thomas Lange]

>>>>> On Mon, 9 Sep 2002 13:16:51 -0700 (PDT), Mark Hedges <hedges at ucsd.edu> said:

    > I must say, FAI is an impressive package.  I am extremely
    > pleased to have found FAI.  I have a few questions if you'd care
    > to help me.
Thanks for the compliments.

    > Trying to use grub as a boot loader, I get a number of errors.
    > The log says that /fai/scripts/BOOT cannot open
    > /tmp/target/boot/grub/menu.lst, and so grub-install seems to
    > install grub with no boot info.  Also, in /fai/scripts/BOOT,
    > $BOOT_DEVICE is undefined.  The variable $BOOT_DEVICE does not
    > appear to be used in any other script; I cannot find the set
    > point.  Also the manual page says use of `rdev` is deprecated
setup_harddisks will create a file /tmp/disk_var.sh which will be
sourced. This defines the variable $BOOT_DEVICE and some other.

    > Lilo did not work either at first on a fresh hard drive.  I
    > realized this is because FAI did not install any kernel to
    > /tmp/target/boot.  After opening a prompt and doing `dpkg
    > --root=/tmp/target --install
    > /fai/files/packages/kernel-image-2.4.19_MyDist_i386.deb`, it
    > finally booted on its own.  I put the name of this kernel image

    > file in DEFAULT.var.  Do I need to specify the DEFAULT class in
    > my class file explicitly to install a new kernel package to
    > $target?  Do I need a hook to do this?
The class DEFAULT is always defined. You need no hook. Look at the log
files, why the kernel does not get isntalled.


    > I changed S01alias.sh to use my own distfile, /fai/class/mydist.
    > If I make a file /fai/class/mydist.var, will it source that file
    > automatically?
These files are automatically used, if the corresponding class is
defined. Use uppercase letters for class names, in you example use
MYDIST.var as the file name.

    > It would be nice to have a switch to make fai always reformat
    > the hard drive and/or check for bad blocks.  I cannot yet figure
    > out what code actually reformats the drive, or how it works with
    > two hard disks.
So you have to read the manual.

-- 
Gruss Thomas