FAIBASE/10-misc and hostname

[Dirk Geschke]

Hi Thomas,

> > I stumbled over FAIBASE/10-misc and setting of the hostname. This
> > has changed in FAI-4, in earlier versions there was something like:
> > 
> >    fcopy /etc/hostname || echo $HOSTNAME     > $target/etc/hostname
> > 
> > The first part is strange (who would fcopy the hostname file?)
> 
> You could define a class, create an appropriate hostname file for the class 
> and let fcopy figure out the correct file to copy. E.g. you could query a 
> database for the correct hostname or you could provide the class via the 
> kernel command line (ADDCLASSES=xxx,yyy). For a networkless installation 
> from cd it could be sufficient to create files/etc/hostname/FAICD with 
> content 'liveboot'.

hm, sounds complicated to get the right hostname for each system.
However, it is no longer part of the example script.

> [...]
> > Wouldn't it be a good idea to gather all the pitfalls and put it
> > on a Tips&Tricks Webpage?
> 
> [This is just my personal interpretation, nothing official.]
> 
> I guess this and other 'issues' stem from misusing the 'simple' example. 
> It's really just that, it's an example. It's not a reference impementation. 
> But it is used as such. (I don't blame anybody for this 'misusage'. It's 
> just the way it is.) The problem is there's no implied guarantee that the 
> fai 3.x example is compatible to the 4.x config space example. It's just an 
> example.

That's the point. I started to use 4.x instead of 3.x. Since I expected
some changes (improvements?) I started with the example scripts again.
Especially the package files might have changed for wheezy compared to
squeeze. 

Since the old example script worked out-of-the-box, I expected the same
for the new one.

It is not really a big problem, I found the problem quickly. But maybe
someone else will need more time or give just up on this topic?

> Regarding Tips&Tricks - there is something like that already -> 
> http://wiki.fai-project.org/wiki/Howtos Is this what you were thinking of? 
> Maybe it's just not featured enough? If you know what you're looking for, 
> then you find it - if you don't know it is there it's very easily missable.

Yes and no, I thought more of a collection of mostly short tipps and
hints. In this case it would be a hint, what to do if the DHCP server
is not telling the hostname to the client. A complete HOWTO for this
topic maybe overkill and probably most want find it, I guess.

Or think of my last topic: Multi-Arch with amd64 and i386. That would
only result in a few lines but it would be helpful to find some lines.

The NFSv4 problem is also documented but difficult to find.

Or my actual problem: Installing 32-bit iceweasel on a 64-bit system.
You can't simply install iceweasel:i386, it would break a lot of other
packages and you can't actually install things like xul-ext-noscript,
allthough there is only one package for all architectures. (Yes, I
need the 32-bit version for thinks like acrobat plugin or adobe flash.)

Although, the last point would be enough stuff for a howto... ;-)

> http://fai-project.org/
>  -> Documentation
>    -> The FAI wiki
>      -> (User contributed in this wiki) HowTos

Ah, that comes near to what I thought of: Helper scripts.

But that shows another problem: I did not find it (quickly)...

> But apart from that - maybe we should reorganize this somewhat. We have a 
> lowlevel description about the FAI config space concept and what each stage 
> is doing (FAI manual, chapter 8) and we have advanced documentation which 
> provides detailed information on very specific topics (like multiboot), but 
> it seems to me the 'in between' is missing and is filled solely by the 
> configspace example. This is perfectly illustrated by the FAI manual:
>   Chapter 8 - Installation details
>   Chapter 9 - How to build a Beowulf cluster using FAI
> I think there's at least room for a chapter 8.5 - 'Your first fai 
> installation / config space' and maybe even chapter 8.6 - Troubleshooting
> 
> Other thoughts?

Sounds good, there seems to be a big problem with FAI: The first steps 
are very cumbersome and I remember the documentation was not very helpful. 
Afterwards, when I got it up and running, I found nearly all in the 
documentation...

It looks like there is a gap between "beginners" and "advanced users".
But I can't say, where it is nor how to fill it...

Ah, I remember one point more: $ROOTCMD and $target. As all systems
were up and running, the scripts worked very well for maintenace without
these variables. But as I tried to install a new system per PXE boot 
sometime later, all crashed due to AUFS bugs. 

No question, it was my mistake, but it took long to identify the error 
in the scripts, since I got error messages from AUFS...

Most of the problems where small errors but it was difficult to locate
the cause for them. Without a clue one tends to say FAI is buggy, which
is not the case. If it is runnig, FAI does a nice job and is extremly
flexible!

Best regards

Dirk
-- 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dr. Dirk Geschke       / Plankensteinweg 61    / 85435 Erding        |
| Telefon: 08122-559448  / Mobil: 0176-96906350 / Fax: 08122-9818106   |
| dirk at geschke-online.de / dirk at lug-erding.de  / kontakt at lug-erding.de |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+