Subject: Wheezy nfsroot / FAI 4.0.3

[Steffen Grunewald]

On Tue, Aug 07, 2012 at 07:04:16PM +0200, Steffen Grunewald wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 07:51:01AM +0200, Bjarne Bertilsson wrote:
> > 
> > live-boot3.0(~a35-1) is broken on wheezy. If you run ipconfig in the
> > initramfs shell the network will properly come up. There is
> > a bug report on this somewhere but weren't able to find it just now
> > with a quick search. I fixed it temporarily by pinning an earlier
> > version of the package from snapshot.debian.org.
> 
> I'm trying the two patches mentioned in bug #683240 now - as long as there's
> no proper documentation for the live-boot -> dracut transition, I prefer to
> stay on known terrain.
> 
> Unfortunately, this involved patching the existing live-boot package (a38), 
> rebuilding the debs, and re-running the nfsroot build - which will not 
> finish in time before I have to leave. But I'm optimistic.

I shouldn't have been too optimistic.

While the network device config patches apparently worked, I'm still having
major issues.

- My PXE files read like this:
label fai-generated
kernel vmlinuz-install.64.wheezy                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
append initrd=initrd-install.64.wheezy ip=dhcp \
 root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=/srv/fai/nfsroots/amd64.wheezy \
 boot=live console=tty0 \
 FAI_FLAGS=verbose,sshd,createvt FAI_ACTION=install
(of course, all the append stuff is in one line)

- The TFTP/DHCP setup hasn't been changed for a long time

- Watching a machine start via IPMI Serial-over-LAN will stop the start
	at some point. Apparently the network port (through which the IPMI
	conenction is tunneled) gets confused at some point.
  I had to remove the console=ttyS1,... entry from the PXE file.

- I am thrown into initramfs after some errors scrolling by. Here's what
	I see (had to copy it to paper by hand, for the above reason):
...
Begin: Loading essential drivers...
Begin: Running /scripts/init-premount
Begin: Mounting root file system...
Waiting for ethernet card(s) up
Looking for a conencted Ethernet interface ... eth0? eth1?
... eth0 becomes ready
Connected eth0 found
IP-Config: ... (correct IP, DNS, etc)
 rootserver: ${my_fai_server} rootpath: (empty!)
 filenam: pxelinux.0
Creating /etc/resolv.conf
Begin: Trying netboot from :/srv/...
Begin: Trying nfsmount -o nolock -o ro :/srv/...
nfsmount: can't parse IP address ''

In the initramfs, I checked:
/run/net-eth0.conf contains the right ROOTSERVER setting, and PROTO='dhcp',
	but an empty ROOTPATH=''
/conf/param.conf says DEVICE=' eth0' (yes, with a leading blank)
/conf/initramfs.conf contains DEVICE='' and NFSROOT=auto


Something seems to stop propagation of the ROOTSERVER setting to the 
9990-netboot.sh script of live-boot... (and ROOTPATH not being used)

I'd like to make local modifications to the startup sequence (adding debug
statements), and rebuild the initrd from inside the nfsroot 
- any tips how to do this, without having to *build* a new live-boot package,
and creating a new nfsroot?
- any suggestions which additional settings to use?

S

-- 
Steffen Grunewald * MPI Grav.Phys.(AEI) * Am Mühlenberg 1, D-14476 Potsdam
Cluster Admin * --------------------------------- * http://www.aei.mpg.de/
* e-mail: steffen.grunewald(*)aei.mpg.de * +49-331-567-{fon:7274,fax:7298}