Re: Problem with Quantal and a KVM
On Thu, Jan 03, 2013 at 04:14:44PM -0800, Mark - Syminet wrote: On Jan 3, 2013, at 3:35 PM, Dale Amon a...@vnl.com wrote: […] I had tried the GFX line earlier but had not joy... but I have fiddled many things since then, so perhaps I will try it again. Most people probably want to add this line as well: GRUB_RECORDFAIL_TIMEOUT=5 …in order to workaround bug #872244: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/872244 Thanks I will add it. I am hoping I can get this working in the next 12 hours so I can leave simpler instructions for the tech I have asked to be my remote button monkey. Otherwise your machine might randomly hang on reboots (which as we all know, will probably happen 30 seconds after your plane takes off on a 14 hour flight). Been there... -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
Re: Problem with Quantal and a KVM
On Fri, Jan 04, 2013 at 08:51:32AM +, Dale Amon wrote: Most people probably want to add this line as well: GRUB_RECORDFAIL_TIMEOUT=5 I did so. I finally got it to work with 'nomodeset' in conjunction with some of the others. Now if I can get my libvirt networking functioning on the new server in the next 12 hours before I go to the airport, I am golden. -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
Re: Problem with Quantal and a KVM
On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 3:49 PM, Sander Smeenk ssme...@freshdot.net wrote: Quoting Jordon Bedwell (jor...@envygeeks.com): And framebuffered consoles. I can see *some* value of having larger terminals than the default 80x24. And this is more constructive than my comments? Jump in and help fix them bugs. Complaining is not any more constructive than what I did, I should indeed put effort in getting framebuffers working out-of-the-box on all my systems. You are totally correct in that aspect. But this is not my main pet peeve. As said, i can make framebuffers work by specifying a specific vga=xxx parameter that does work. My question boils down to why server installs need all this doohickey. In my opinion it shouldn't be this hard to get back to what is actually going on during boot of a server install. I'm totally pro these gadgets in desktop installs, really, but this makes Ubuntu feel 'Windows™®©-y', if i may use that word. Stuff happens behind 'the screen' and it makes debugging bootproblems unnecessarily hard for sysadmins running Ubuntu on serverhardware in colocating environments. I've just done a manual install of 12.10 to see what a plain, default install leads to. There's no splash or quiet on either the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT or GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX lines and plymouth is set to its text theme. You might need some tweaks for some of your boxes either to kill the framebuffer or set it to the correct resolution or to make the boot more verbose but these settings both look like sane defaults. root@localhost:~# cat /etc/default/grub # If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update # /boot/grub/grub.cfg. # For full documentation of the options in this file, see: # info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration' GRUB_DEFAULT=0 #GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true GRUB_TIMEOUT=2 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2 /dev/null || echo Debian` GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX= # Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs # This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains # the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...) #GRUB_BADRAM=0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef # Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only) #GRUB_TERMINAL=console # The resolution used on graphical terminal # note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE # you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo' #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480 # Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass root=UUID=xxx parameter to Linux #GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true # Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY=true # Uncomment to get a beep at grub start #GRUB_INIT_TUNE=480 440 1 root@localhost:~# root@localhost:~# root@localhost:~# ls -l /etc/alternatives/*plymouth* lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 53 Jan 4 20:29 /etc/alternatives/text.plymouth - /lib/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-text/ubuntu-text.plymouth root@localhost:~# Furthermore: You had said in an earlier post that you used vga=792 noplymouth nosplash verbose init_verbose=yes INIT=/sbin/init -v You might want to set GRUB_GFXMODE and GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX rather than vga= because when you use vga= grub displays a message that it's deprecated (IIRC) and since kernel documentation (in kernel-parameters.txt) says that it's a boot-loader parameter, the grub developers might disable it at *some* point. Having both noplymouth and nosplash is overkill since they have the same effect. verbose doesn't do anything. You must mean --verbose, which is the same as -v, init=/sbin/init --verbose, and init=/sbin/init -v. It's not init_verbose=yes but INIT_VERBOSE=yes because of console output; env INIT_VERBOSE in /etc/init/rc.conf and /etc/init/rc-sysinit.conf. -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
Re: Problem with Quantal and a KVM
On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 6:35 PM, Dale Amon a...@vnl.com wrote: On Thu, Jan 03, 2013 at 06:18:21PM -0500, Tom H wrote: On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 6:39 AM, Dale Amon a...@vnl.com wrote: # DMA20121218. This is new, suggested to me by Tom H on the ubuntudev list #GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text If you don't set it text, the value of GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX is that of GRUB_GFXMODE, which is auto by default. # Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only) #GRUB_TERMINAL=console Why don't you uncomment this line? The value of GRUB_TERMINAL is gfxterm by default. Note that I have it set to serial console up above in the file. I noticed serial console and then forgot about it when I saw two GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT lines... -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
Re: Problem with Quantal and a KVM
Quoting Jordon Bedwell (jor...@envygeeks.com): I agree, just did not want to say it. I get the feeling there are a lot of people working on Linux these days who have never set foot into a data centre. Your statement is full of fail and horseshit. Not to start a war at this beautiful start of 2013, but your reply isn't really constructive either, Jordon. Do you see any added value to a 'splash screen' hiding *everything* that is happening on *SERVER* installs? And framebuffered consoles. I can see *some* value of having larger terminals than the default 80x24. But the way it is now, it does not work on every system. Launchpad is full of bugs against the kernel because the display is blank on a device until X kicks in... On my laptop running Precise, this too is the case. It's nice for my mom. She also runs Ubuntu *DESKTOP* and is now no longer scared by all the text scrolling over the screen when she boots her computer. For experienced Linux admins it is a right PAIN in the ASS to not be able to see what's going on. Ubuntu 'server' has never had a real focus on the 'server' part. All the 'server' part does is leave out a certain set of packages, maybe include a few others. Other than that it's just the same codebase/packages as the Destkop flavour, and over the years the focus on the 'desktop' behaviour has become very very big with all the splashscreens and vital information hiding. Just my 25 cents. -Sndr. -- | If peanut butter cookies are made from peanut butter, | then what are Girl Scout cookies made out of? | 4096R/20CC6CD2 - 6D40 1A20 B9AA 87D4 84C7 FBD6 F3A9 9442 20CC 6CD2 -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
Re: Problem with Quantal and a KVM
On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 5:05 AM, Sander Smeenk ssme...@freshdot.net wrote: Quoting Jordon Bedwell (jor...@envygeeks.com): I agree, just did not want to say it. I get the feeling there are a lot of people working on Linux these days who have never set foot into a data centre. Your statement is full of fail and horseshit. Not to start a war at this beautiful start of 2013, but your reply isn't really constructive either, Jordon. And bringing that up makes you a better person. Do you see any added value to a 'splash screen' hiding *everything* that is happening on *SERVER* installs? Disable it? It takes but one obvious edit inside of /etc/default/grub. Pro tip: - quiet splash + nosplash Pro tip: update-grub And framebuffered consoles. I can see *some* value of having larger terminals than the default 80x24. But the way it is now, it does not work on every system. Launchpad is full of bugs against the kernel because the display is blank on a device until X kicks in... And this is more constructive than my comments? Jump in and help fix them bugs. Complaining is not any more constructive than what I did, helping is constructive. Unfortunately I don't have any of these problems on my KVM's or my servers that run Ubuntu or Debian, so I cannot help in this area but YOU CAN. On my laptop running Precise, this too is the case. Are we on about servers or laptops? Pick one. It's nice for my mom. She also runs Ubuntu *DESKTOP* and is now no longer scared by all the text scrolling over the screen when she boots her computer. For experienced Linux admins it is a right PAIN in the ASS to not be able to see what's going on. You would think for a sysadmin who manages Linux and even the specific distro Ubuntu you would know that you can tap esc anytime and see the text while plymouth is up you would also think you would know about the pro tip above. -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
Re: Problem with Quantal and a KVM
Quoting Jordon Bedwell (jor...@envygeeks.com): Do you see any added value to a 'splash screen' hiding *everything* that is happening on *SERVER* installs? Disable it? It takes but one obvious edit inside of /etc/default/grub. Pro tip: - quiet splash + nosplash Pro tip: update-grub Thanks. I am aware of your 'pro-tips'. If you had actually read the thread before hitting reply you would have seen my hints to Dale about the various nosplash, noplymouth, vga=xx and verboseness parameters. (Which, adressing your follow-up mail, work for installers and installed systems alike. For me, this is about installed Ubuntu systems. Not installers.) The 'nosplash' param indeed disables the splashscreen, just like hitting ESC would. Still, compared to booting Ubuntu pre-plymouth, there's not really much usefull information shown on the console about what is actually going on. There have been situations when there were no messages being logged to the screen and the system would not continue booting either. This is why i normally use 'init=/sbin/init -v' and INIT_VERBOSE=yes, but it still is rather messy due to the parallel starting of services. And framebuffered consoles. I can see *some* value of having larger terminals than the default 80x24. And this is more constructive than my comments? Jump in and help fix them bugs. Complaining is not any more constructive than what I did, I should indeed put effort in getting framebuffers working out-of-the-box on all my systems. You are totally correct in that aspect. But this is not my main pet peeve. As said, i can make framebuffers work by specifying a specific vga=xxx parameter that does work. My question boils down to why server installs need all this doohickey. In my opinion it shouldn't be this hard to get back to what is actually going on during boot of a server install. I'm totally pro these gadgets in desktop installs, really, but this makes Ubuntu feel 'Windows™®©-y', if i may use that word. Stuff happens behind 'the screen' and it makes debugging bootproblems unnecessarily hard for sysadmins running Ubuntu on serverhardware in colocating environments. -Sndr. -- | 1 1 was a racehorse, 2 2 was 1 2, 1 1 1 1 race 1 day, 2 2 1 1 2 | 4096R/20CC6CD2 - 6D40 1A20 B9AA 87D4 84C7 FBD6 F3A9 9442 20CC 6CD2 -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
Re: Problem with Quantal and a KVM
On Thu, Jan 03, 2013 at 06:18:21PM -0500, Tom H wrote: On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 6:39 AM, Dale Amon a...@vnl.com wrote: # DMA20121218. This is new, suggested to me by Tom H on the ubuntudev list #GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text If you don't set it text, the value of GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX is that of GRUB_GFXMODE, which is auto by default. # Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only) #GRUB_TERMINAL=console Why don't you uncomment this line? The value of GRUB_TERMINAL is gfxterm by default. Note that I have it set to serial console up above in the file. I had tried the GFX line earlier but had not joy... but I have fiddled many things since then, so perhaps I will try it again. -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
Re: Problem with Quantal and a KVM
Quoting Dale Amon (a...@vnl.com): Anyone know of a work around? A change in initrd? A change in /etc/default/grub? Warning: kinda ranty: This sounds like one of my major annoyances with Ubuntu (server): the framebuffered consoles splashscreens that are TERRIBLY incompatible with virtual monitors other than a physical connected VESA-VGA capable video display. Be it DRAC, ILOM, iRMC, KVM-switches alike, they all struggle with the framebuffered videomodes. Up until precise(?) it was possible to blacklist the framebuffered videomodule (fbcon, vga16) but these are now compiled in the kernel en therefore no longer blacklistable. :( What seemed to help for me was to force a specific videmode you *know* your monitor/application supports with the 'vga=xxx' kernelparameter (or gfxpayload GRUB option). However, things have been changing wildly the last couple of releases, none of my hacks to keep it working Try editing /etc/default/grub: * Comment out every line starting with 'GRUB_HIDDEN' This enables you to actually SEE the grub bootloader, without having to guess what key-combo is today's way to break in to the menu of GRUB. (It used to be ESC, then became one of the alt, ctrl or shift keys, today you might have to hold Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift while double clicking your middle mouse button... who knows!) * Increase GRUB_TIMEOUT to 30 seconds This gives your monitor time to tune in and show you the GRUB menu AND allows you more time to change options / break the default process. * Change/Replace GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT with: vga=792 noplymouth nosplash verbose init_verbose=yes INIT=/sbin/init -v This line i composed in a fit of rage when i had a system not booting and not showing me ANYTHING usefull. It changes videomode, disables plymouth (as far as possible) switches off splashscreens, etc... * *UN*comment GRUB_TERMINAL=console Even GRUB has been switched to framebuffered video by default. :( HTH. -Sander. -- | The problem with dancing naked: not everything stalls when the music stops. | 4096R/20CC6CD2 - 6D40 1A20 B9AA 87D4 84C7 FBD6 F3A9 9442 20CC 6CD2 -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
Re: Problem with Quantal and a KVM
On Wed, Jan 02, 2013 at 09:11:06AM +0100, Sander Smeenk wrote: This sounds like one of my major annoyances with Ubuntu (server): the framebuffered consoles splashscreens that are TERRIBLY incompatible with virtual monitors other than a physical connected VESA-VGA capable video display. Be it DRAC, ILOM, iRMC, KVM-switches alike, they all struggle with the framebuffered videomodes. I agree, just did not want to say it. I get the feeling there are a lot of people working on Linux these days who have never set foot into a data centre. -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
Re: Problem with Quantal and a KVM
For those who do not understand what I mean... if you have a release named 'server' and it is to work in a typical industrial rack, then you must assume: * your console is via a KVM that is probably 5-10 years old. * the rack has anywhere up to 10 other servers in it, some of which might be brand new, others may be 10 years old (If it ain't broke, you don't fix it). * The servers will be running various versions of Ubuntu, Windows, Debian, RedHat, Novell, and god knows what else. * There will rarely be a human being at the machine (going through all the security to get into the facility can be a pain); when there is it means there is either a scheduled maintenance or an emergency. * If it is an emergency, the sysadmin must get into the machine at command line as quickly as possible, find everything where 30 years of Unix experience says it should be, and have things fixed before someone higher up in the company demands your head. You have to develop to work in that environment. If you do not, you are just playing. -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
Re: Problem with Quantal and a KVM
On Wed, Jan 02, 2013 at 03:31:47AM -0600, Jordon Bedwell wrote: Your statement is full of fail and horseshit. So you have worked in data centres on racks belonging to Fortune 500 companies and their contract service providers? Good to hear there are experienced people on board. Which also means there is no excuse. -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
Re: Problem with Quantal and a KVM
Just fyi, this is the grub default set up I am using right now. I did try a number of different settings but they did not seem to make any difference. Perhaps this is because of the stuff being compiled that you noted. This is the grub default settings I typically use: GRUB_DEFAULT=0 #GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 GRUB_TIMEOUT=15 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=false GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2 /dev/null || echo Debian` GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= max_loop=64 panic=200 GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX= # DMA20121217 Use these instead if I set up a serial console GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 max_loop=64 panic=200 GRUB_TERMINAL=serial console GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND=serial --speed=115200 --unit=0 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1 # Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs # This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains # the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...) #GRUB_BADRAM=0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef # Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only) #GRUB_TERMINAL=console # DMA20121218. This is new, suggested to me by Tom H on the ubuntudev list #GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text # The resolution used on graphical terminal # note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE # you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo' #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480 # Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass root=UUID=xxx parameter to Linux #GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true # Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries #GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY=true # Uncomment to get a beep at grub start #GRUB_INIT_TUNE=480 440 1 -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
Problem with Quantal and a KVM
I just installed a new server and put quantal on it to check it out. With the old CRT it came up with the login prompt, but it blinked on and off with a duty cycle of about 4 seconds, and eventually blanked and never came back. All was working though because I could ssh in and do any work I needed. I found this annoying so I took the drastic step of upgrading my reliable 15 year old CRT with a brand new Samsung screen. Now, it goes through the BIOS screens, shows the grub screen... and then total black out forever after. For the hell of it I tried pulling it off the KVM switch because sometimes badly broken systems cannot work through KVM's. Guess what? It works now, shows a stable virtual terminal prompt. So what is the issue? The Ubuntu boot disk has no problems with it. Other machines attached to the KVM have no issues either. Anyone know of a work around? A change in initrd? A change in /etc/default/grub? -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
