Installing Debian Squeeze (i386) - No $HOSTNAME set

[Michael Tautschnig]

Hi all,

I've started to review these changes and added some fixes in
4.0~beta2+experimental22. However, there are still a few open issues from my
point of view.

[...]

> 
> here is a list of problems/annoyances during installation of Debian Squeeze with fai 3.4.2:
> 
> 1. Use uppercase hostname/ip parameters in boot command line.
>    Change to uppercase in "/srv/tftp/fai/pxelinux.cfg/*" or "/etc/fai/grub.cfg"
> > APPEND boot=live FAI_FLAGS="verbose,createvt" FAI_ACTION=install
> IP=192.168.148.100:::::eth0:off HOSTNAME=gnomehost root=/dev/nfs
> nfsroot=192.168.148.11:/srv/fai/nfsroot
> 

I've added the HOSTNAME= changes, but I'm not that sure about the IP= stuff. I
have also mailed Mika to seek further input from debian-live, if possible.

> 2. ftp-logserver does not default to install server.
>    Need to set Logserver explicitly in file /etc/fai/fai.conf.
> > # Name of log-server. If undefined, the install server will be used.
> > LOGSERVER=faiserver
> 

Well, apparently the comments in your fai.conf are still outdated/misleading. I
believe this has since be fixed (LOGSERVER isn't even listed there by default
anymore). The true issue, however, is that LOGSERVER defaults to $SERVER, which
is supposed to be set in get-boot-info; but get-boot-info tries to evaluate the
ip= kernel command line option, which in your case has been changed to IP=...

> 3. ssh-command for fai-chboot (Calling task_chboot) requires user input.
> > The authenticity of host 'faiserver (192.168.148.11)' can't be established.
> > RSA key fingerprint is ...
> > Are you sure you want to continue connection (yes/no)?
> Solution is to append the line "StrictHostKeyChecking no" to /etc/ssh/ssh_config (for nfsroot).
> 

No, fai-setup should be taking care of this, as good as it can. There should be
some output resulting from echo "$sshdir/known_hosts created."; you might want
to check the contents of that file.

> 4. Some packages missing in squeeze
> > fai.log:No candidate version found for iceweasel-gnome-support
> > fai.log:No candidate version found for icedove-gnome-support
> > fai.log:No candidate version found for gnome-apt
> These packages are not available for debian squeeze.
> 

Thanks a lot, fixed in this experimental version.

> 5. Error when running fai-setup
> > df: Warning: cannot read table of mounted file systems: No such file or directory
> >
> No /etc/mtab inside nfsroot.
> Solution is to add a softlink: "ln -sf /proc/mounts /etc/mtab"
> 

I have no idea when df would be called, or which script should be calling it.

> 6. Error when running fai-setup
> > Creating config file /etc/default/grub with new version
> > grub-probe: error: cannot find a device for / (is /dev mounted?).
> > grub-probe: error: cannot find a device for /boot (is /dev mounted?).
> > grub-probe: error: cannot find a device for /boot/grub (is /dev mounted?).
> No idea on this errors. Can't detect any problems caused by this.
> 

It's just installing the grub package in the NFSROOT, but it can (obviously) not
be properly configured; should not pose any problems.

> 7. Error messages on modules.dep missing (but file exists!)
> > fai.log:FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-486/modules.dep: No such file or directory
> > fai.log:FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-486/modules.dep: No such file or directory
> > fai.log:FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-486/modules.dep: No such file or directory
> Reason was 5.
> 
> 8. Final reboot (task_faiend) produces some messages (Messages only visible for a moment).
>    Messages like: "Unmounting ...", "Failed to unmount ...", "Remount read only".
>    But everything works find after it.
> 

No idea about the last two; but for the moment we probably don't need to worry
too much about these as installation seems to succeed, so no need for quick
fixes for squeeze.

Thanks a lot for the detailed report! We still need to fix those kernel command
line issues, and I'd say we badly need a proper fix.

Best,
Michael

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