Dual NIC = hang

[Choate, Jon]

We were able to solve this by downloading the initramfs-tools-92m deb,
chrooting into the nfs root, installing it, running update-initramfs,
exiting and then copying the initrd file created in
/srv/fai/nfsroot/live/filesystem.dir/boot to /srv/tftp/fai/. This
version of the tools uses the much more sensible configure_networking
function rather than directly calling ipconfig.

-----Original Message-----
From: linux-fai-bounces at uni-koeln.de
[mailto:linux-fai-bounces at uni-koeln.de] On Behalf Of Robin Lee Powell
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 10:11 PM
To: linux-fai at uni-koeln.de
Subject: Re: Dual NIC = hang

On Sun, Feb 08, 2009 at 01:21:27PM +0100, Michael Tautschnig wrote:
> > Thank you for that, sincerely.
> > 
> > However, I keep asking whether any of these workarounds are
> > going to make it into FAI mainline, and people keep sending me
> > more workarounds, which is not what I was asking about!
> > 
> 
> As far as I can tell, it's really not a problem of FAI, but an
> issue in initramfs. I thus doubt that "it will make it into FAI
> mainline".

After a stupendous amount of research, I've figured out what you
meant.  :)  Sorry about that.  I'm coming into this not
understanding FAI internal at all.

The problem appears to be with
/usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/live inside of the live-initramfs
package, which calls ipconfig without a -t option.

I tried to make a workaround, but it fails badly:

    Running: ipconfig -t 10 eth0
    IP-Config: eth0 hardware address 00:e0:81:45:ed:8a mtu 1500 DHCP
RARP
    [   25.776115] Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

What it was actually running:

    echo "Running: ipconfig -t 10 ${DEVICE}"
    ipconfig -t 10 ${DEVICE} || echo "ipconfig -t 10 ${DEVICE} failed" |
tee /netboot.config

I don't understand how that caused a kernel panic, and I don't know
enough of the internals to have a reasonable chance of figuring it
out in a reasonable amount of time; suggestions welcome.

-Robin

-- 
They say:  "The first AIs will be built by the military as weapons."
And I'm thinking:  "Does it even occur to you to try for something
other than the default outcome?" -- http://shorl.com/tydruhedufogre
http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/ *** http://www.lojban.org/
The information contained in this email message and its attachments
is intended
only for the private and confidential use of the recipient(s) named
above, unless the sender expressly agrees otherwise. Transmission
of email over the Internet
 is not a secure communications medium. If you are requesting or
have requested
the transmittal of personal data, as defined in applicable privacy
laws by means
 of email or in an attachment to email you must select a more
secure alternate means of transmittal that supports your
obligations to protect such personal data. If the reader of this
message is not the intended recipient and/or you have received this
email in error, you must take no action based on the information in
this email and you are hereby notified that any dissemination,
misuse, copying, or disclosure of this communication is strictly
prohibited. If you have received
this communication in error, please notify us immediately by email
and delete the original message.