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

[Torsten Schlabach]

Answering my own question:

> Nothing more happening after that.
> Any idea how I can find out what it's doing?

It was a problem on my guest, which had "only" 16 MB available on /tmp. After I fixed that (umount /mnt, so it used the harddisk rather than the ramdisk) softupdate worked.

Nevertheless, I still think that a softupdate inside a guest

* should not (try to) load any kernel modules
* should not try to detect hardware
* ...

Regards,
Torsten

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:20:28 +0200
> Von: Torsten Schlabach <tschlabach at gmx.net>
> An: linux-fai at uni-koeln.de
> Betreff: Using fai softupdate on a VServer guest -- not as straightforward	as it sounds

> 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