Installing Debian Squeeze (i386) - No $HOSTNAME set

[Karl Wallner]

Hi,

just updated to 3.4.3~rc1. All further observations refer to this version.

>> 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.
>
I'll check it later.

>> 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 "$sshdir/known_hosts created."; you might want
> to check the contents of that file.
>
"$sshdir/known_hosts" is only created when FAI_LOGPROTO is "ssh". (I used LOGPROTO "ftp".)
fai-setup:95> if [ "$FAI_LOGPROTO" = "ssh" ]; then

>> 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.
It's called by "update-initramfs" (during fai-setup). Reproducible with:
 > root at sque32:~# chroot /srv/fai/nfsroot/live/filesystem.dir
 > root at sque32:/# update-initramfs -u
 > update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-486
 > df: Warning: cannot read table of mounted file systems: No such file or directory
 > warning: can't open /etc/mtab: No such file or directory


>> 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.
>
grub-probe is called by grub-install, which is called by postinst of grub-pc (/var/lib/dpkg/info/grub-pc.postinst).
IMHO it is not useful to call grub-install inside nfs-root during fai-setup. fai-cd (iso+usb) do their own grub install.
Maybe it's better to install grub-pc unconfigured (dpkg --unpack).


Regards,

Karl Wallner