Hi,
I am particularly interested in the Auto Install capabilities of the Mandrake
distribution so I have been checking out the various Auto Install methods for
8.0final anfd thought I would post my results. I have a few questions too.
I am aware that the Cooker files may have corrections and updates.
I tested Replay and Automated methods for each of the CD-ROM, NFS and FTP
installs. I manually installed each type twice, once to produce the Replay
Diskette and a second time to create the Automated Diskette. Each install
was done with the same entries and options selected.
Results:
CD-ROM: both diskettes were not bootable.
NFS: both diskettes were bootable, but other issues were encountered.
FTP: both diskettes were bootable, but other issues were encountered.
For FTP install, I actually located an ftp site in Belguim which was not
overloaded.
Observations:
CD-ROM Install:
Bootable Issue:
I was finally able to create a boot disk for the automated and replay
installs by having the install program create it twice in a row without
removing the disk or restarting.
What I saw was that after pressing the final OK button was, the iinstaller
ejected the CD2 and asked for CD1, then I saw 2-4 seconds of floppy activity
and then it asked to reboot to complete the installation. Looking at the
contents of the diskette I found that the syslinux.cfg file had a size of
zero and the files cdrom.rdz, ldlinux.sys and vmlinuz were missing. Hence
not bootable.
I repeated the manual install and watched tty3 to see what was occuring when
it was trying to create the disk. It began with getFile images/cdrom.rdz,
prompted me to insert CD 1, then displays a whole bunch of error messages
about trying to get advertizing files, then mount ..., 2-4 seconds disk
activity, umount ...
When I requested it to generate the diskette a second time, I saw just the
getFile ..., mount ..., now there is 50-60 seconds of diskette activity,
umount ... Looking at the diskette now shows that all files are present. And
it is bootable.
I actually created a second set of CD's from ISOs just in case there was
something wrong with the first set. But comparing the old and new sets
showed that they were in perfect working condition.
Once I had both the Replay and Automated Disks I had a look at the contents
of auto_inst.cfg and syslinux.cfg files nd found that:
Automated disk:
- in syslinux.cfg, the timeout paraeter is missing.
-needs the 'mkbootdisk' => 0, added other wise the install disk gets
reformated as a boot disk
-'size' values specified in 'partitions' do not re-create partitions which
match the size of those created in the manual install.
Replay disk:
- in syslinux.cfg, the timeout paraeter is present.
-needs the 'mkbootdisk' => 0, added other wise the install disk gets
reformated as a boot disk
-'size' values specified in 'partitions' do not re-create partitions which
match the size of those created in the manual install.
- in 'partitioning' the 'clearall' and 'auto_allocate' should be set to 1,
the same as the Automated disk.
- the last line the auto_inst.cfg file "push @graphical ..." needs to be
removed otherwise the install fails with the following on tty3:
error step 'doPartitionDisks finished
starting step format Partitions
warning: Can't call method set on an undefined value at
/usr/bin/perl-install/install_step_interactive.pm line 428
The problem with the size value in partitions is related to the fact that the
first partition is created with a start sector of 63. This results in the
size value being 63 too small and I end up with a partion which is 1 cylinder
smaller than is created in a manual install. So I have to add 63 to all size
values to get partition sizes the same. This is particularly bad if using
reiserfs on the first partition and you pick a minimum size. The fdisk
function rounds the number of sectors DOWN to the next lower cylinder size
which in my case turns out to be less than the minimum required by the
reiserfs.
The final issue I encountered was that the auto install did not install any
files which are located on the second CD. The installer actually ejects the
CD1 but then moves on to finish the installation. tty3 shows "change to
medium 2 for method cdrom (refused by default)". tty1 shows "Entering step
'Install system', perl: rpmio_internal.h:239 c2f: Assertion 'fd && fd->magic
== 0x04463138". I don't know about the anyone else, but the fact that the
CD-ROM install does not install packages from the CD2 makes it almost
useless. More over, mdk 7.1/7.2 used both CDs.
NFS Install:
For this test, I copied the CD1 and CD2 to a server and exported the
directory. I did not download the i586/8.0 file set from a mirror.
- in syslinux.cfg, the timeout paraeter is missing on the automated disk, but
present on the replay disk.
Automated Disk:
in auto_inst.cfg
-needs the 'mkbootdisk' => 0, added other wise the install disk gets
reformated as a boot disk
-'size' values specified in 'partitions' do not re-create partitions which
match the size of those created in the manual install.
Replay Disk:
-needs the 'mkbootdisk' => 0, added other wise the install disk gets
reformated as a boot disk
-'size' values specified in 'partitions' do not re-create partitions which
match the size of those created in the manual install.
- in 'partitioning' the 'clearall' and 'auto_allocate' should be set to 1,
the same as the Automated disk.
- the last line the auto_inst.cfg file "push @graphical ..." needs to be
removed otherwise the install fails.
Both installs failed to include any packages from the second disk (RPMS2).
FTP Install:
For this test, I found an ftp site in Belgium which was available. The
manual install worked OK, although there was a lot of problems just
retrieving files and some times those retrieved had errors or cause the the
installer to lockup or terminate. Perhaps my results may have been different
if I had a local ftp site.
For both automatic installs, the attempts failed with:
Boot message:
"attempt to access beyond end of device 01:00: rw-o, want 6 (=0x6), linit=3
EXT2-fs error (device ramdisk((1,0): ext2 read_inode: unable to read inode
block-inode=2, block=5/0x5
EXT2-fs: corrupt inode, run e2fsck
Kernel panic: VFS: unable to mount root fs on 01:00"
- in syslinux.cfg, the timeout paraeter is missing on the automated disk, but
present on the replay disk.
Reviewing disk contents showed that they were basically the same as the NFS
one.
Questions:
Why can't the installer install anything from the second CD.? It looks like
it could but that aspect has been disabled. This was the way 7.1/7.2 do work.
With NFS, why can't it install from the second disk? The only difference
between the files set transfer to a NFS exported directory and the files set
available on various mirror sites is in ../Mandrake/base where the CDs have
hdlist1.cz, hdlist2.cz and the mirror sites have hdlist.cz. Seems the
installer could easily detemine which files set it is dealing with and adjust
itself accordingly.
Perhaps this is just a bug, if so please ignore my questions..
Please forgive the length of this post, but there were a lot of things to
report.
best regards
Dave
