Using fai softupdate on a VServer guest -- not as straightforward as it sounds

[Torsten Schlabach]

Hi!

After failing to make setting up my VServer guest using the -m fai build 
method work, I turned to softupdate, as suggested here:

http://faiwiki.informatik.uni-koeln.de/index.php/Using_FAI_to_set_up_VServers

I ran into some pitfalls, so I decided to document them:

http://faiwiki.informatik.uni-koeln.de/index.php/Installing_a_VServer_guest_with_debootstrap_and_softupdate

That page pretty much explains what I have done.

Now after that, fai softupdate -N stalls in the updatebase task:

Calling task_mirror
Calling task_debconf
Calling task_updatebase
Updating base
Get:1 http://ftp.debian.org etch Release.gpg [378B]
Hit http://ftp.debian.org etch Release
Ign http://ftp.debian.org etch/main Packages/DiffIndex
Hit http://ftp.debian.org etch/main Packages
Fetched 1B in 0s (1B/s)
Reading package lists...
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Nothing more happening after that.

Any idea how I can find out what it's doing?

I'll also argue that it's not as simple as "build your guest, then use 
softupdate", at least not with an unmodified FAI. There's a couple of 
things I can see which I think should not run on a VServer guest:

softupdate-1:/var/log/fai/current# cat fai.log

Using configuration files from /etc/fai
Calling task_confdir
FAI_FLAGS:
mount: box-h-01.tascel.net://srv/fai/config already mounted or 
/var/lib/fai/config busy
mount: according to mtab, box-h-01.tascel.net://srv/fai/config is 
already mounted on /var/lib/fai/config
Can't connect to monserver on  port 4711. Monitoring disabled.
Calling task_setup
FAI_FLAGS:
Calling task_defclass
/usr/bin/fai-class: Defining classes.
Executing /var/lib/fai/config/class/10-base-classes.
10-base-classes      OK.
Executing /var/lib/fai/config/class/20-hwdetect.source.
./20-hwdetect.source: line 8: /proc/sys/kernel/printk: Operation not 
permitted
find: /lib/modules/2.6.18-5-vserver-amd64/kernel/drivers/ide: No such 
file or directory
loading kernel module rtc
loading kernel module floppy
loading kernel module usbkbd
loading kernel module ide-disk
loading kernel module ide-cd
loading kernel module ehci-hcd
loading kernel module ohci-hcd
loading kernel module uhci-hcd
loading kernel module usbhid
loading kernel module usbmouse
loading kernel module ide-generic
loading kernel module mptspi
loading kernel module ata_piix
mount: mount point /proc/bus/usb does not exist
FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.18-5-vserver-amd64/modules.dep: 
No such file or directory
./20-hwdetect.source: line 44: /proc/sys/kernel/printk: Operation not 
permitted
grep: /proc/partitions: No such file or directory
20-hwdetect.source   OK.
Executing /var/lib/fai/config/class/50-host-classes.
50-host-classes      OK.
List of all classes:  DEFAULT LINUX AMD64 GRUB softupdate-1 LAST
Calling task_defvar
Calling task_action
FAI_ACTION: softupdate
Performing FAI system update. All data may be overwritten!
Calling task_softupdate
cp: cannot stat `/var/lib/fai/disk_var.sh': No such file or directory
Calling task_mirror
Calling task_debconf
Calling task_updatebase
Updating base
Get:1 http://ftp.debian.org etch Release.gpg [378B]
Hit http://ftp.debian.org etch Release
Ign http://ftp.debian.org etch/main Packages/DiffIndex
Hit http://ftp.debian.org etch/main Packages
Fetched 1B in 0s (1B/s)
Reading package lists...
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Regards,
Torsten