Re: Install MacOSX with FAI
Hey, Am 03.03.2013 12:26 schrieb "Ingo Wichmann" : > did anybody try to install MacOSX with FAI? Long time ago, I did some research and planning work on how that might be done. AFAIR it wasn't trivial due to barely any existing support for basic install automation tools as well as package management in MacOS - even Windows appeared advanced in comparison. As it was for a customer project which didn't happen in the end, I didn't implement anything, but I can try to lookup my notes about it in case I didn't already put them sonewhere into the FAI wiki - did you look there? Henning
Re: Allowed characters in classnames?
Am 07.02.2012 17:23 schrieb "Thomas Neumann" : > > The fai-class manpage simply states: > > "All class names should be written in uppercase letters (execpt the class > of the hostname). Do not use a dash, use an underscore." > > Which says nothing about umlauts, diacrites and other 'strange' stuff. Technically everything is allowed, even this is just a best practice. And if you can you should enforce it. You dont want classnames with Umlauts, I'm pretty sure ;) Henning
Re: Sourceslist on Multi Distro
There is a Fai internal method that copies the sources.list fron nfsroot to the install system. In my example code for ubuntu / multi installs you find which step you have to disable with a hook in order to prevent that. Or check fai sources to find it (I dont know it anymore and cannot look it up myself now im on the road)... Am 17.01.2012 13:20 schrieb "Mark Eisenblaetter" < mark.eisenblaet...@gmail.com>: > Hi list. > > i have the Problem that Fai is using the Debian Squeeze Sources wen > installing ubuntu. > > My setup is a Ubuntu LTS Server with a Debian Squeeze NFSRoot. Wen i > install the default Debian it works fine, but wen i try to install ubunut > fai is using the wrong sources. > I can see that fai is using the right base.tgz for ubuntu but installing > packedges from Debian. > > Which sources list do i need to alter, that he is using the right apt > repository? > > > Mark >
Re: "clone" an example client?
On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 5:15 PM, Frank Lienhard wrote: > I have an i386 client, which I installed manually and I'm now wondering how > to setup future clients "identical" to that with FAI > > at least to have the package selection transfered to the FAI config would > save a lot of work, I think you could use the output of dpkg -l but you should probably remove stuff staring with lib and you could install a basic system and remove everything that's in there already from the list. Also, there are logs from apt/aptitude that could show you which packages you installed manually. You could do something similar by diffing the /etc of the manuall system with the system after installing all packages to identify manually changed configs. If you know that you will install the system with fai after (e.g. in an early development stage) fiddling with it manully, you could use git ot etckeeper to see which changes you really made to /etc - or just saving all files you edit with %-orig before changing them. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de
Re: Is DHCP server absolutely required - new FAI user
Hi, On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 2:07 PM, Karthik Kambatla wrote: > The guide says we need a DHCP server. The machines are assigned static IPs, > and we can't host a DHCP server in addition to the existing one You don't need an _additional_ DHCP Server. You can just configure your existing one to provide the clients to be installed with the information they need to PXE Boot from your FAI Server. > in the > department. Is there a way to get network access for the static IPs using > say the CD/USB booting. You can make a boot cd that points the systems to the right install server. It should be described in the FAI guide. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de
Re: Problem deploying Ubuntu from FAI debian server
Ahmed, this is still not much information, important questions: 2011/6/4 Ahmed Altaher : > 4- I create prepareapt.UBUNTU1010. > > but after reboot the screen is blank at my demohost client But before the reboot and expecting a running system, you did also an installation, right? So here it's not clear if you error happens AFTER install or when trying to start the actual install. Which type of install do you do? Which messages do you see? Any errrors? What's in the logs? Does the install finish with sucess or error? Do you see the network card PXE messages Did you ever use this same setup to install a normal debian sucessfully? Did you do any FAI installs before and have experience debuggin FAI? Henning
Re: Package alternatives?
Hi,
if you build the B packages yourself, let them provide the name of A. I
didnt do packaging a while but it is possible that package a provides b.
Not sure how to achieve the right priority, though.
Maybe let the new repository have higher priority in apt pinning?
Henning
Am 25.05.2011 09:03 schrieb "Steffen Grunewald" <
steffen.grunew...@aei.mpg.de>:
> We're in the process of replacing some packages ("A") by specially built
> ones ("B"), which will be named slightly differently, to avoid confusion.
> For FAI this means that we want to
> "install package B if it already exists, otherwise use A".
> How can this be achieved?
>
> Cheers,
> Steffen
>
> --
> Steffen Grunewald * MPI Grav.Phys.(AEI) * Am Mühlenberg 1, D-14476 Potsdam
> Cluster Admin * http://pandora.aei.mpg.de/merlin/ * http://www.aei.mpg.de/
> * e-mail: steffen.grunewald(*)aei.mpg.de * +49-331-567-{fon:7274,fax:7298}
Re: FAI meeting
Hi Thomas, Das ging wohl an die falsche Adresse. Immerhin krieg ich es so zufällig mit ;) Vielleicht schaff ichs ja diesmal. Henning Am 18.03.2011 11:09 schrieb "Thomas Lange" : Hi Michael, hast du auch schon deine Reise nach Koeln gebucht? Ich freue mich schon auf das Treffen im April. -- Gruss Thomas
Re: Other installation tools
I'm not happy that a lot of information that has been collected on this
page is removed without talking to the original author, mainly me.
Some people think about FAI for Windows installations and therefore also
OpenSource Windows installers are competition/related/similar to FAI.
These 5-10 additional lines do not do any significant harm to the wiki
or whatever.
On 2011-02-12 13:07, FAIWiki - Recent changes [en] wrote:
> only one link per tools, remove windows things, remove intro
>
> ←Older revision
> Revision as of 13:12, 11 February 2011
>
> Line 1:
> Line 1:
>
> -
>
> Apart from [[Main Page | FAI]], which is for sure the best automatic
> installation solution, I regularly run into announcements and articles about
> other installation/deployment tools for various distributions and
> combinations of them. I'll list them here, and add info and reviews as they
> come:
>
>
>
> -
>
>
>
> -
>
> It might be interesting, to create some comparison table and set some
> criteria by which we can compare these all to FAI.
>
>
>
> -
>
>
>
> = Installation tools =
>
> = Installation tools =
>
> Line 8:
> Line 4:
>
> * kadeploy: http://kadeploy.imag.fr/index.html
>
> * kadeploy: http://kadeploy.imag.fr/index.html
>
> * cobbler/koan: http://cobbler.et.redhat.com/
>
> * cobbler/koan: http://cobbler.et.redhat.com/
>
> -
>
> * google slack:
>
> +
>
> * google slack: http://www.sundell.net/~alan/projects/slack/
>
> -
>
> ** http://www.stillhq.com/presentations/australia_sydney_slug2006jan_slack.pdf
>
> +
>
> * hp has something, too: http://linuxcoe.sourceforge.net/
>
> -
>
> ** http://www.sundell.net/~alan/projects/slack/
>
> +
>
> -
>
> ** http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1814790366;fp;16;fpid;0
>
> +
>
> -
>
> ** http://groups.google.com/group/slack-users
>
> +
>
> -
>
>
>
> +
>
> -
>
> * hp has something, too("one installer for many distributions":
>
> +
>
> -
>
> **
> http://www.heise.de/newsticker/result.xhtml?url=/newsticker/meldung/91476&words=HP&T=hp%20
>
> +
>
> -
>
> ** http://linuxcoe.sourceforge.net/
>
> +
>
> -
>
> * on the windows side Unattended: http://unattended.sourceforge.net/
>
> +
>
> -
>
> ** it is defintely possible to create unattended install files based on
> classes with FAI!
>
> +
>
> -
>
> * a alternate windows tool: http://www.uib.de/www/home/opsi/index.html
>
> +
>
> = Configurations management tools =
>
> = Configurations management tools =
>
> Line 26:
> Line 12:
>
> * Automateit: http://automateit.org/
>
> * Automateit: http://automateit.org/
>
> * bcfg2: http://trac.mcs.anl.gov/projects/bcfg2
>
> * bcfg2: http://trac.mcs.anl.gov/projects/bcfg2
>
> -
>
> * Windows pakcge managgement (maybe we can use wpkg to enable softupdates on
> windows): http://wpkg.org/
>
> URL:
> http://wiki.fai-project.org/index.php?title=Other_installation_tools&diff=3273&oldid=prev
Re: Introducing grepclass
On Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 8:42 PM, Michael Goetze wrote: > Hi guys, > > have you ever wondered, which files in your config space are all affected by > a specific class? Mainly also, "belong to". > For instance if you want to duplicate that class as the > starting point for a new class, or rename it, etc.? Well, I wrote a little > script to do this job for me. Here's an example of how it's used: > > % grepclass DEBIAN ... Cool stuff! One feature that would be nice for things like packaing everything that belongs to a single class, e.g. to share it with other people, woulkd be to get the output in a more machine readable way, and without the contitional stuff(which I'd recommend not to do as far as anyhow possible, to ease the sharing thing). hmm, o.k.,one can do it with cat -d: and grep -v conditional - so it already is machine readable :) What would be better in general for all these things would still be to have the configspace redesigned, so everything belonging to a class is in a single directory. I've a detailed design document for this in the wiki, but did never find time to start an implementation... Henning
Re: Unattended install without boot control
Hi On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 11:54 PM, Olivier Parisy wrote: > So my question is: can I manually install a very simple Debian system, and > then mount an FAI arborescence (using NFS through SSH as an example) and let > FAI perform the actual server configuration / installation? What you want to do is softupdates. You don't need an nfs share, you can use a config space somewhere on the filesystem of the machine to be installed, or one some subversion server accessible from the system. All you need to do then is configure the config space location in fai.conf and fai softupdate Check out the documentation parts about softupdates. Henning
Re: DHCP environment prepared?
Hi Toomas, On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 5:54 PM, Toomas Tamm wrote: > I have so far always configured my DHCP server manually. Does this > message imply that there is an easier way? DHCP is not set uo automatically, but when you look at /usr/share/fai-doc/examples, you'll find a dhcp config file sample that can be used - but yo till have to add you MAC adresses and hosts yourself. Some people will find that helpful, some will not need it as they run and DHCP server already... Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de
Re: FAI installation instructions
Hi Jurgen, Thanks for your request. On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 1:55 PM, wrote: > In order to do something about that, I want to create a nearly perfect > step-by-step example instruction, for a real live situation like the one > I am now. It's hard to match everyone's situation with a single example. But that bing said, the Quickstart section of the FAI guide should do this. You might consider telling us what you think is missing there, and contribute changes to make this better instead of starting completely from scratch. But not problem, if you have a completely different idea of how a guide to FAI should look, you're free to use the wiki for whatever documentation you want to provide abput FAI. > I would like to ask people to please help create this instruction set, so > junior linux admins like me can advocate FAI further. For advocating, you probably rather want to tell people about the good things they get if they start using FAI(and what's bad not doing so), rather than an instruction on how to use it, because that's the second step ;) > Please read my blog post at > http://akoestica.be/blog/home/sysadmin/15-provisioning/49-installing-fai Interesting... Still, what I do not exactly get what you are abpout to do is: * do you want to understand yourself how to accomplish the task described in this article? * do want top bring more people to use FAI? * do you just want to help documentation better because you are missing something in the existing docs (FAI Guide, Wiki) > and help me create a very good install example. Can we do this using this > mailinglist ? Sure you can use this list for all things FAI and you should do so ;) Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de
Re: setup-storage : Error: Error initialising SCSI device /dev/sda - Invalid argument
On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 7:32 PM, Michael Tautschnig wrote: > [...] > > Could one get any information how the disk label on the SAN was created? In case that is not known anymore - is there a command with which that can be checked, so we can send you the output? Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de
Re: setup-storage : Error: Error initialising SCSI device /dev/sda - Invalid argument
On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 7:32 PM, Michael Tautschnig wrote: > [...] > > Could one get any information how the disk label on the SAN was created? I'll try to get tha info as well as the parted version. It might a somewhat older version, as a mirror was used with Lenny, but not updated to the newest state, but frozen some time back. (but the latest FAI version anyway!) So, you're sure it's the SAN that makes the trouble? Then, shouldn't setup-storage ignore errors and problems on disks that should not be changed, aren't even mentioned in the setup storage config file? Is that possible, or does parted always try to analyze(or whatever) all disks attached to the system, and in this case, crash due some problem? Henning
Re: mkdebmirror issue
For simple mirrors with the same architecture as the mirror-host, you can use the tool apt-mirror it takes simple sources.list entries as input. 2010/3/3, Antonia Mey : > I could really use some help. I am a little lost when creating a debian > mirror. > running ./mkdebmirror -v (the script provided in the fai examples, with > the hosts etc edited accordingly) I get errors concerning RSA keys. > > To be more precise something like this: > > "./mkdebmirror -v > -- create mirror for debian -- > Unknown option: pdiff > Usage: /usr/bin/debmirror [--progress] [--verbose] [--debug] [--dry-run] > [--help] > [--host=remotehost] [--root=directory] > [--method=ftp|hftp|http|rsync] [--passive] > [--user=remoteusername] [--passwd=remoteuserpassword] > [--proxy=http://user:p...@url:port/] > [--dist=foo[,bar,..] ...] [--omit-suite-symlinks] > [--section=foo[,bar,..] ...] [--arch=foo[,bar,..] ...] > [--adddir=directory] [--rsync-extra=foo[,bar,..] ...] > [--di-dist=foo[,bar,..] ...] [--di-arch=foo[,bar,..] ...] > [--source|--nosource] [--i18n] [--getcontents] [--md5sums] > [--ignore-missing-release] [--ignore-release-gpg] > [--ignore=regex] [--exclude=regex] [--include=regex] > [--exclude-deb-section=regex] [--limit-priority=regex] > [--timeout=seconds] [--max-batch=number] > [--rsync-batch=number] [--rsync-options=options] > [--postcleanup|--cleanup|--nocleanup] [--skippackages] > [--diff=use|mirror|none] [--gzip-options=options] > [--state-cache-days=number] > [--ignore-small-errors] [--allow-dist-rename] > > > For details, see man page. > -- create mirror for debian-security -- > Mirroring to /files/scratch/debmirror/debian-security from > ftp://anonym...@security.debian.org/debian-security/ > Arches: i386 > Dists: lenny/updates > Sections: main,contrib,non-free > Pdiff mode: use > Passive mode on. > Will clean up AFTER mirroring. > Attempting to get lock, this might take 2 minutes before it fails. > State cache file does not exist; doing full mirroring. > Get Release files. > [0%] Getting: dists/lenny/updates/Release > [0%] Getting: dists/lenny/updates/Release.gpg > gpgv: keyblock resource `/root/.gnupg/trustedkeys.gpg': file open error > gpgv: Signature made Wed 03 Mar 2010 06:39:00 GMT using RSA key ID 55BE302B > [GNUPG:] ERRSIG 9AA38DCD55BE302B 1 2 00 1267598340 9 > [GNUPG:] NO_PUBKEY 9AA38DCD55BE302B > gpgv: Can't check signature: public key not found > gpgv: keyblock resource `/root/.gnupg/trustedkeys.gpg': file open error > gpgv: Signature made Wed 03 Mar 2010 06:39:00 GMT using RSA key ID 55BE302B > gpgv: Can't check signature: public key not found > Release signature does not verify. > Get Packages and Sources files and other miscellany. > Parse Packages and Sources files and add to the file list everything > therein. > Download all files that we need to get (2772 MiB). > Get package files. > [ 0%] Getting: pool/updates/main/e/expat/libexpat1_2.0.1-4+lenny3_i386.deb > [ 0%] Getting: > pool/updates/main/f/fckeditor/fckeditor_2.6.2-1lenny1_all.deb > [ 0%] Getting: > pool/updates/main/f/fetchmail/fetchmail_6.3.9~rc2-4+lenny1_i386.deb > [ 0%] Getting: > pool/updates/main/f/fetchmail/fetchmailconf_6.3.9~rc2-4+lenny1_all.deb > [ 0%] Getting: > pool/updates/main/f/ffmpeg-debian/ffmpeg-dbg_0.svn20080206-18+lenny1_i386.deb > [ 0%] Getting: > pool/updates/main/f/ffmpeg-debian/ffmpeg-doc_0.svn20080206-18+lenny1_all.deb > [ 1%] Getting: > pool/updates/main/f/ffmpeg-debian/ffmpeg_0.svn20080206-18+lenny1_i386.deb > [ 1%] Getting: > pool/updates/main/f/ffmpeg-debian/libavcodec-dev_0.svn20080206-18+lenny1_i386.deb^C > " > > so obviously it does not recognise pdif (what is this anyway?) > and then when it comes to the debian -security mirror there are are some > checksums that are failling, so how do I update my key? > I don't really know where to look for answers. > > Thanks a lot > Antnoia Mey > > -- > Antonia Mey > > School of Physics & Astronomy > University Park > Nottingham > NG7 3RD > > ppxas...@nottingham.ac.uk > +441159515130 > > > This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment > may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system: > you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the > University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation. > -- Von meinen Mobilgerät aus gesendet Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de
Re: Setting ROOTPW not properly documented in fai-guide?
On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 2:59 PM, Thomas Lange wrote: >>>>>> On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:46:59 +0100, Henning Sprang >>>>>> said: > > > The question is why using mkpasswd is not documented in the fai-guide, > > and if/how the things documented in the fai-guide (it says only "use > > crypt/md5") can be made to work. > mkpasswd IS documented in the fai guide in chapter In the section 7.6 is a paragraph extra for "ROOTPW" and there nothing like that is mentioned. There is only mentioned crypt and md5 but no clear solution how the ROOTPW variable (in the simple examples) can be changed to something different that works. I found it out, but it took a long time. Henning
Re: Setting ROOTPW not properly documented in fai-guide?
On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 1:33 PM, Michael Goetze wrote: >> any experiences with this, or other ways how to do that? > > I don't know how you are expecting it to work. I expect that I can find somewhere a documentation how to create another password than the default "fai". Henning
Re: setup-storage : Error: Error initialising SCSI device /dev/sda - Invalid argument
On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 3:45 PM, Rudy Gevaert wrote: > Can you try that (if you are using xen) No for both: It wasn't Xen, but some "normal" HP Server. The special thing with the system was a SAN that was attached - but actually we din't want to touch the disks on the SAN, only install the system on the local disk. And I can't try things (myself) - it was a customer system to which I have no access anymore and won't too soon as it was only a one-time Job. I only have the full FAI logs of the host. But probably they will find time to try things that would help debugging the proble if Michael needs some more info or has an idea what to try. Henning
Re: setup-storage : Error: Error initialising SCSI device /dev/sda - Invalid argument
Hi, On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 2:20 PM, Rudy Gevaert wrote: > Should I move this to the parted list? Sorry for not being able to say anything about this, I've been very busy and did not do anything with FAI the last months. Now that I do some things with it again, it took me only 2 days until I stumble into the same thing on a customer system ( partitioning breaking with "Table header not seen yet" As far as I understood, this is a bug in parted - is it solved in the meantime, or is the only solution still to install the system with the old partition tool? Debug log from setup storage is: Calling task_partition Partitioning local harddisks using setup-storage Starting setup-storage 1.2 disklist was: cciss/c0d0 cciss/c1d0 Using config file: /var/lib/fai/config/disk_config/WEBSERVER Input was: # example of new config file for setup-storage # # disk_config disk1 disklabel:msdos primary / 1 ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro primary swap 1000 swap rw # logical - 0- - - # disk_config lvm # vg pv /dev/cciss/c1d0p5 # # pv-home/home 1000ext3 rw # pv-var /var 1000ext3 rw (CMD) parted -s /dev/cciss/c0d0 unit TiB print 1> /tmp/CsXMU2c9Tx 2> /tmp/8nVbHhhdPv Executing: parted -s /dev/cciss/c0d0 unit TiB print INTERNAL ERROR in setup-storage: Table header not seen yet Please report this error to the Debian Bug Tracking System. (STDOUT) Warning: /dev/cciss/c0d0 contains GPT signatures, indicating that it has a GPT table. However, it does not have a valid fake msdos partition table, as it should. Perhaps it was corrupted -- possibly by a program that doesn't understand GPT partition tables. Or perhaps you deleted the GPT table, and are now using an msdos partition table. Is this a GPT partition table? (STDOUT) Model: Compaq Smart Array (cpqarray) (STDOUT) Disk /dev/cciss/c0d0: 10.0TiB (STDOUT) Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B (STDOUT) Partition Table: gpt (STDOUT) (STDOUT) Number StartEnd Size File system Name Flags (STDOUT) 1 0.00TiB 10.0TiB 10.0TiB msa70lvm (STDOUT) Error in task partition. Traceback: task_error task_partition task task_install task task_action task main Save log files via ssh to f...@faiserver:faiclient//install-20100226_125734
Re: Setting ROOTPW not properly documented in fai-guide?
On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 3:12 PM, Toomas Tamm wrote: > Maybe you have modified that script, or it is not run at all in your > setup? No - you misunderstood me a little bit :) The question was not if/how it works with mkpasswd - I got this working as you write it - just with less security as it's less critical and without all those options for mkpasswd. The question is why using mkpasswd is not documented in the fai-guide, and if/how the things documented in the fai-guide (it says only "use crypt/md5") can be made to work. Henning
Setting ROOTPW not properly documented in fai-guide?
Hi, When trying to figure out hot to change the default rootpassword of installed clients by just changing the variable "ROOTPW" in a class .var file, I believe that the information in the fai-guide and comments in the configs is not helpful to get a new password. The only things I found that worked is * copying a password value from a real /etc/shadow file * using mkpasswd as written in http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-fai@uni-koeln.de/msg00210.html Both of these ways are not documented in the FAI-guide, and the hint on crypt or md5 in the guide/comments would lead me to use the crypt command (in the mcrypt package) or the md5sum command - both did not work for me. any experiences with this, or other ways how to do that? Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de
Re: NFSROOT/root/.ssh/ is empty after install from USB stick (aka no known_hosts file)
On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 12:10 PM, Peter Bittner wrote: > I have installed a FAI server from a USB stick and installation of > clients kind of works fine, but I have an issue at the end of a client > installation with task_chboot and the ssh authentication against the FAI > server. You don't need tas_chboot when installing from USB stick. it's only for PXE installs. Henning
Re: fai3.3 + karmic
On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 6:43 PM, Bent Meyer wrote: > I have upgrade from fai-3.2.20 to fai-3.3 and from Ubuntu Jaunty to > Karmic. It does work well, Interesting. So, you're installing plain FAI from teh Uni Käln apt repository or from where? > My guess is, that fai doesn't work well with upstart's way to start tty > tasks? Might be, most developers don't use Ubuntu but only Debian on servers and therefore any difference between Debian(Lenny, that is) and UBuntu is very likely to not be supported/FAI not being aware of it. Henning
grml-live on EC2 with hudson
Interesting article how and with which tools somebody is using the FAI-based GRML-live: http://zeha.at/blog/2009/11/configuring-hudson-for-grml-autobuilds-on-ec2.html Have fun, Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de
Re: FAI 3.3 released
On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 1:28 PM, Joel Merrick wrote: > Well, the templating within Chef capability for a start. O.K., i probably have to check it out. For FAI, somebody documeted an approach for configfile-templating in the Wiki - basically, templating in FAI is possible with everything from sed to special Text templating systems. > I'm not entirely sure that you'd be able to achieve the flexibility of chef > with FAI's softupdates, although my knowledge of softupdates is fairly > limited I'm afraid. If you have any additional reading, feel free to send it > my way :) Softupdate is basically running fai package installation and scripts on a running/installed system - the install without the partitioning and base deploy. So, it's also extremely flexible - which might be good or bad depending on what you want to do or like. In other terms:FAI scripts don't have much straucture or knowledge of each other, as puppet knows about all resources in a central place. Henning
Re: FAI 3.3 released
Hi Joel, On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 10:26 AM, Joel Merrick wrote: > Exactly the same here... only with Chef[1], rather than Puppet > > [1] http://www.opscode.com/chef Do you have some information on the differences(pros and cons) of managing configurations with FAI softupdate versus Chef? I have some experience with Puppet, and find it different, but not entirely better than softupdates with FAI - but I see these tools as important "competitors" of FAI. Henning
Re: *ahem* execustion?
Hi Thomas, Thomas Neumann wrote: > lib/fai/subroutines: > echo "WARNING: Skipping $hfile execustion because it's not executable." > echo "WARNING: Skipping $hfile.source execustion because it's not > executable." > lib64/fai/subroutines: > echo "WARNING: Skipping $hfile execustion because it's not executable." > echo "WARNING: Skipping $hfile.source execustion because it's not > executable." > > found in 3.2.16 or 3.2.20 O.K., but what do you want tp point us to? The typo? yeah, it's wrong, but it's not such a big problem. Even, sometimes, typos can be good - as Harald Welte when it comes to detect GPL code pieces in proprietary products :) > I guess noone besides me has non-executable scripts. ;) And those people who forget to make their files in scripts executable. They need to be notified, that's what the warnings ar for (in case that's your question). Henning
Re: using apt-proxy gives bad header line error
Hi, Zak Tony wrote: > The process is very very slow and here is an excerpt of it's output > | > Err http://192.168.178.1 jaunty Release.gpg > Bad header line Probably your mirror or apt-proxy is broken. Check if it works with a real mirror - and if so, you need to fix it, but that's not a FAI issue - a correct mirror is a requirement for FAI. Henning
Re: partial/gradual softupdate?
Andreas Schuldei wrote: > how can i do this best, with the config space in svn and as > little special cases for servers as possible? I can think of many possible ways: * In the evening (so, before the nightly run) only change system configs that should run in the nightly run. Other changes are being made(and committed to you config repository) only short before doing the manual run * use tags and branches in your version control system for the config space. Let the automatic nightly script only checkout "stable" or "nigthly" tagged version, while when running by hand, you can check out the "manual" tag. * Some simple variable you set with the manual call. And your nameserver reconfiguration script just exists if it is not set - like #$ DOCRITICALSTUFF=true fai -N softupdate * have a central database (and a GUI, e.g. web for it) that let's you define classes with advanced rules (and things like "exceptions", for example, "all hosts named web-* get the stable web app, but web-sometestmachine gets the testing stuff" * I don't know how complex your setup is, but the example of installing "unstable" application packages only on some test machines could even be made simply by just adding a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sometestingrepository.list file only for some specific hosts Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: Mixed Etch and Lenny? How to...
Leen Smit wrote: > Michael, > > > Thats the confusing part, since I dont have a basefiles dir anywhere.. Well possible that this directory is not contained in the example configurations. Just create it in the configspace, just next to the "class", "package_config", "hooks", ... directories. Henning
Re: Fai on Ubuntu 9.10 status?
Robert Markula wrote: > Well, I'm not an evangelist of any specific software or platform. Any > software is just a tool to get work done, and I like good tools, that's > why I like FAI - because it is one of those proven, reliable tools that > tremendously speeds up my work and simplifies many things. Sure, that's O.k. - sorry if I sounded like offending you for this! That was totally not my intention. Pure config management solutions like cfengine and puppet are very attractive. They are available on many distributions and other OS'es, powerful and proven in large infrastructures. They even have nice logos and websites. > As I see it this discussion is happening at two fronts: first the > political front if it was right to remove FAI from the Ubuntu > repositories (I'm affected by this as well) and how to deal with the > situation in the future. Yes, obviously, I got myself in some kind of fight about this. It's just that I have the feeling, that the number of people using FAI for softupdates - and in part only for softupdates - is ignored. With the removal decision FAI gives away the potential for larger adoption - despite it is perfectly useable for config management on many distributions - even when installation functionality does not work (and even therefore there was a good workaround documented by you!). Especially in times of virtualization you often don't need installation at all. Many root-servers come with a pre-deployed base system. They don't need installation. But they do need config management. And a growing number of them is running Ubuntu. > The other front is to help Per and others to get their systems running > in a way that they can maintain his clients _now_ The simplest solution would have been, not remove FAI from Ubuntu because softupdates where working well :) But yes, you're proposals are helpful, too! I just feel a bit sad when we have to send people away... Henning
Re: Fai on Ubuntu 9.10 status?
Robert Markula wrote: > I'm going offtopic here, but if nothing else works and you *need* > softupdate functionality, you could always revert to some config > management tool. But the whole point of the discussion is, that some people rather like _FAI_ as their config management tool - that's what the softupdate feature is all about. It's not very helpful to the cause of spreading FAI usage to send them another way if FAI can do the same - in many aspects better, and by far mnore flexible, because it can incorporate all the other tools and programming language you like. It's also about the problem that obviously there is quite a bunch of people even using softupdates only, and despite this, fai has been taken out of Ubuntu because other things don't work. And that some other people don't believe these people even exist. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: Fai on Ubuntu 9.10 status?
adrian15 adrian15 wrote: > Let's not flame! ;) That wasn't my intention at all, I just wondered if I missed something, maybe a decision to implement the CUT concept(http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/debian/cut/) on a 6 month base... Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: Fai on Ubuntu 9.10 status?
Slightly OT, but: adrian15 wrote: > that might be solved with Debian new six-month relesase cycle. Debian's what? Last thing I heard was two years - did I miss something? Henning
Re: Fai on Ubuntu 9.10 status?
Per Foreby wrote: > Since Ubuntu is basically a sid snapshot, one might think that it would > be trivial to support fai on Ubuntu. It should (and most probably really is) for the softupdate and dirintalls part - it is not for the network/cd-install part due to dependecies against special layered filesystem implementations. (and, if I remember correctly, there's always quite a bit of trouble with the boot process in general). I'm advocating, that it would have been good at least update and dirinstall would be available in Ubuntu. Another, more long term question would be, if there could be chosen a way to run FAI that is less dependent on these special filesystem stuff, so these problems vanish. Is it probably so, that FAI uses some things that change very often and are very differently implemented in each version og a distribution? I mean, what are the guys doing who develop think client/terminal server solutions that rely on PXE booting things? These solutions are ported to many distributions. Do they also go through these hassles, or do they have a solution that is more reliable and lesse prone to differences between distributions? In the end, having something more robust is the base to further drive FAI usage across other dirstributions (in case one is interested in doing so). Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: Fai on Ubuntu 9.10 status?
Per Foreby wrote: > Our setup depends heavily on softupdate, and we're in the process of > switching from Debian to Ubuntu on desktop, so this sounds like bad news. Good to have some more people tell this! When this decision was made, I heavily disagreed, but no one believed me that people are using FAI like this (even though other reports in launcpad confirm this type of usage) > But (as far as I know) fai only consists of shell, perl and cfengine > scripts, so I suppose we can use the lenny version from the fai repository? That might probably work - when I tried, it was even very easy to use fai-client on rpm-based systems! Still, it would be simpler if fai-client could be installed without special apt settings. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: Fai on Ubuntu 9.10 status?
Hi Adrian, adrian15 wrote: > I was just wondering if Thomas had seen if this bug was solved or not. > Are we going to have FAI working ok on Ubuntu 9.10? Last thing I heard was that the fai package will be removed completely from Ubuntu, even though my opinion is, that softupdate and dirinstall work perfectly well, only the server part should have been removed... But I only saw that discussion, not whether the removal actually has happened. Henning
Re: How to skip repository upgrade in 'fai-setup -v'
Peter Bittner wrote: > Henning, > > can you explain your answer? Is it necessary for a FAISERVER system to > be on the Internet to complete the setup successfully? The base.tgz is a packaged NFSROOT (plus some additional packages, minus some tweaks only needed for the NFSROOT), and it's usually built from scratch with each fai-setup run - or, better, it is created from scratch with each make-fai-nfsroot, which is called by fai-setup. The NFSROOT is created by calling deboostrap, which needs a debian mirror usually. It is entirely possible that the "finished successfully" statement is wrong - you could check your nfsroot and base.tgz if they really contain anything useful. Henning
Re: How to skip repository upgrade in 'fai-setup -v'
Peter Bittner wrote:
> When I execute 'fai-setup -v' the script first finishes installing the
> base system ("I: Base system installed successfully. Creating
> base.tgz"). Then the script tries to upgrade the new repository
> ("Upgrading /srv/fai/nfsroot/live/filesystem.dir").
>
> As the server is not in the Internet
If that's the case, how can the base.tgz be correctly created?
Henning
Re: fai "stumbles" over bogus error messages?
Toni Mueller wrote: > my installs are still not completing successfully, although all my > scripts run with an OK status, and although I was able to work around > all maintainer scripts problems that I found. I'm still getting some > warnings, though. Some warnings will ever by there in every install. Then, FAI uses quite simple, but not always very accurate heuristics to declare the system installed without errors. If the warnings you still get do not affect the usability of your system - if your system is already in the sate you want it to have even with these warnings , you can add these warnings to the ignore lists. Follow the hint from Michael to fix it then. > I also discovered that my NFSROOT is sort of garbled, > again, in that I've now have FAI 3.2.20 on the server, but 3.2.17 in > the NFSROOT (this is not what I want - I want 3.2.20 on both of them). This usually happens if on your FAI server, you have configured the uni köln repository, but not for your nfsroot. (etc/apt/... vs. /etc/fai/apt) Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: INTERNAL ERROR in setup-storage: convert_unit
Mathieu Alorent wrote: > I've found that the use of Ubuntu Hardy NfsRoot You're usinf fai (latest version) on an UBuntu server? >works whereas Debian > Lenny Not. > > Here is a difference I've seen from both systems: > > DEBIAN: KO > VG Size 34.16 GB > PE Size 4.00 MB > UBUNTU: OK > VG Size 34,16 GB > PE Size 4,00 MB > > is this a bug in liblinux-lvm-perl that don't understand numbers with > dots...? I don't understand a lot about the new partitioning tool yet - but yes, it's possible that dots vs. comma makes the difference. I could imagine, that two different programs(e.g. setup storage code and lvm tools) run with different locales, which might lead to different decimal separators being output/expected, and therefore not match between tools . Henning
Re: Problems with web/wiki?
Per Foreby wrote: > Hi, > > I haven't been able to reach the fai web pages or the wiki this week. i > have tried from two different locations, but no web servers in the > informatik.uni-koeln.de domain seem to be reachable. There where network problems at the place where it's hosted at the university. They should have been fixed by yesterday evening, as far as I know, but it seems things are still not in normal operational mode. Thomas might have some more info on when it will be fixed. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: issues with pbuilder
Rajesh pant wrote: > is there any alternate way for creating base image. I never needed pbuilder for this, I always used debootstrap. But you might need to download the latest version for the distribution you are building. I thinkl I explained all of this in the multi-distribution wiki page - and therer are helper scripts for this in the subversion tree "fai-distributions" that should help you even run a debootstrap from other versions without installing it (which might even run on non-dpkg-distributions, by the way. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: FAI-CD aborts after "mounting root filesystem"
Sebastian Schmidt wrote: > Googling around for this error bring me to this bugreport: > https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/181258 , which looks like an > ubuntu initramfs problem? > > Or is this related to FAI? Both - FAI needs some things properly working, and Ubuntu initramfs seems to have some problems with it. As Robert explained, the way he explains it in the Wiki page should circumvent these problems. Just, you need somehow to prevent fai-mirror from pulling the packages from the fai base.tgz into the fai-mirror. They should not be needed anyway, as these packages _are_ already in the base.tgz - even lesse are they needed when you use your own image. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: Update Debian offline repository on FAI CD (or USB stick)
Peter Bittner wrote: > So, what I do have available is all the packages on the CD-ROM (or the > USB stick). What I don't have available is an Internet connection or any > other network resources while setting up a FAI server. Sorry, but I still don't really get excatly enough what you are trying to do there, so I have a hard time to give you a solution. It seems you have made a working fai-cd _once_ and now, you want to update it, but on a machine without any network access, so, if possible, you want to download only a small number of packages and only update these ad recreate the iso? Could you start again, from the beginning, and try to explain what you want to do, what your situation is? > Unfortunately, > all my development machines that have Internet access (for setting up a > repository simply to create a FAI CD from there) are RedHat Enterprise > -- what make my job a little bit more difficult to set up a Debian repo. If you have enugh disk space, you can make a full mirror with rsync. Another solution could be setup a virtualized Debian system on a redhat machine. > That's why I try this uncomfortable, probably lazy way to add packages > to the CD directly. I'm sure there is a not too complicated solution, but for now I think the biggest problem for me is really get the picture right. And then, it's likely that all the fiddling is really too complicated and error prone - as opposed to just fire up a debian system on a redhat machine with virtualbox/xen/vserver, or in a chroot - and run fai-mirror/apt-proxy/fai-cd from there. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: Update Debian offline repository on FAI CD (or USB stick)
Peter Bittner wrote: > I need to add a few Debian packages to the FAI CD (or USB stick first, > really) to have it available on the FAI server installing, which > typically has no Internet connection. I have read about mkdebmirror and > debmirror in the FAI documentation, but I have started to add the .deb > files by hand since I don't want to invest in rebuilding the whole > repository for 5 additional packages on the CD. I don't exactly understand the connection between the first and last sentence. Ho are having the need for 5 more packages and having a full mirror connected - there might be missing just a single explaining sentence? Anyway, having a full mirror (20-30 GB are really cheap to have these days) will really help you making new fai-mirror runs much much faster, anyway. apt-mirror is another alternative, and apt-proxy even another one. Starting with manual fiddling with the data created by fai-mirrors sounds really error-prone to me. It sould be really much faster to have a full mirror in place and always re-run fai-mirror on a new directory. The next best way to solve this, would be to try enhancing fai-mirror to allow updates of the fai-mirror directory - adding new packages and versions as they are available, and removing all those not needed anymore (e.g. not in packages files) at the end. But in the end, you can be nearly as fast with apt-proxy and and all you need is already there. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: FAI-CD aborts after "mounting root filesystem"
Sebastian Schmidt wrote: > Hi, > > On Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:40:07 +0200 > Henning Sprang wrote: > >> So, what are you really doing? >> Are you building a fai-cd on an Ubuntu system, to install an Ubuntu System? >> Or is the system on which you create the fai-cd a Debian system? >> Which version of FAI do you use? > > I'm trying to build a FAI-cd for Ubuntu jaunty on a Ubuntu jaunty system. > Therefor I'm using the FAI package in the ubuntu repos which has version > 3.2.4. > >>> Then I created a mirror with fai-mirror. What is suspicious there is, >>> that fai-mirror first takes all my wanted packages definied in my >>> configspace from the ubuntu-mirror but than says "taking packages from >>> base.tgz" and leeches them from the debian mirror? >> Strange. >> Check if all mirrors in /etc/fai/* are really Ubuntu and no Debian mirrors. > > All mirrors in the apt files under /etc/fai are correct. The only place > a debian reference exists, is in the /etc/fai/make-fai-nfsroot.conf file: > FAI_DEBOOTSTRAP="lenny http://ftp.debian.org/debian"; Ah, that explains that the base.tgz and nfsroot will be Debian/Lenny. > In the wiki-howto is written that has to be lenny there also if you want to > build ubuntu. Is the wiki-articel incorrect in this part? It could be that this is a solution to the problems with the aufs/unionfs/livehelper (sorry, I don't remember exactly what the problems were) problems that often made using Ubuntu as a FAI server problematic. An interesting idea to solve these problems ( that might also be applicable to even run a FAI server on totally different, non-dpkg distributions by only having a debootstrap alienated). But then, these Wiki article is only about network install, and I doubt it was tested with fai-cd. You could try also changing the make-fai-nfsroot entry to be Ubuntu, too, and see if that helps - I'm not sure. > [...] > also with removing the ip part in the kernel line I'm getting the behavior > that fai-cd sends me to the busybox. Sorry, I don't know at the moment and cannot look into it. Maybe somebody else has an idea. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: FAI-CD aborts after "mounting root filesystem"
Sebastian Schmidt wrote: > Hi, > I'm trying to create a FAI-CD for Ubuntu Jaunty which shouldn't need > any network connection but take everything from CD. > > For most config I followed in most parts this howto: > http://faiwiki.informatik.uni-koeln.de/index.php/UbuntuJauntyInstallationHowTo > . Now that I'm reading this page in order to unsderstand what you are doing and to be able to help you, I see it is quite confusing in some points. At the top, it says, it assumes you are preparing an installation of Ubuntu from an Ubuntu server. But the part with the base.tgz should not be relevant for installing Ubuntu from an Ubuntu Server. And for building a base.tgz you do _not_ need run the same distribution you want to install. Yu can prepare a base image for Ubuntu on a Debian System. So, what are you really doing? Are you building a fai-cd on an Ubuntu system, to install an Ubuntu System? Or is the system on which you create the fai-cd a Debian system? Which version of FAI do you use? I'd guess, multi-distribution installs from a fai-cd built on a Debian System will have some itches. The rest of my answers below might be wrong depending on the questions above, I still write some ideas and hints on what could be wrong: > Then I created a mirror with fai-mirror. What is suspicious there is, > that fai-mirror first takes all my wanted packages definied in my > configspace from the ubuntu-mirror but than says "taking packages from > base.tgz" and leeches them from the debian mirror? Strange. Check if all mirrors in /etc/fai/* are really Ubuntu and no Debian mirrors. > No idea why he is > doing it because I created a OS_UBUNTU_904_X32.tar.gz basefile like > described in above tutorial but I also don't know if this behavior is > right or wrong. fai-mirror doesn't know what distribution you will be deploying and whyt classes will be selected. (on the other hand, it's really a bit odd that it sees a need for pulling packages from base.tgz - these packages will be already installed when the system will be deployed...) > If I now create an image with fai-cd, boot it, choose my line in the > menu, it aborts directly at the beginning after modprobing the needed > modules in the "Mounting root file system..." step and sends me to the > busybox. That could be another totally different problem than the packages. Not sure, what it could be. Wrong entry for the root file system in your menu.list entry? > I don't know where the error is. Do I have to specify something special > in the menu.lst if I don't want to use a network connection? I don't think so, fai-cd default operation should be a network-less install. Henning
Re: How to create a basic FAI CD
Amine SALHI wrote: > Do you see any things that look problematic when running fai-mirror? > > running fai-mirror tells : > /usr/bin/fai-mirror finished > > There is no warnings, no errors Strange. > During the install process via CD, does FAI need to access the local > mirror, or it has all the needed packages on the CD ? No, it does not need access to the mirror, because that's what fai-mirror is about. It retrieves all packages needed by all the package_config files in your configspace, and stores them in the fai-mirror directory - this is then put onto the fai-cd. > I'm just trying to do it with a default config. Try that. Other things you could try: * try to check, if the packages that are reported to be missing do really end up in the directory on which you point fai-mirror. * try to run fai-mirror with verbose options and see if it's telling a bit more * also, mount the fai-cd and look if you find the packages there (sorry, I don't remeber the exact path now) * look deeper in the logfiles of the FAI installation - maybe you find error messages earlier before the software install errors that point on things that go wrong. By the way, which FAI version are you using? Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: How to create a basic FAI CD
Amine SALHI wrote: > Hi > I'm trying to create a FAI cd based on Debian Etch. oops, why you're trying to install something (and learn how to use FAI with something) that is so old? There's a new stable debian release since nearly a year. > here is an error from the /tmp/fai/software.log after the installation > was finished > > couldn't find any package whose name or description matched > "linux-image-486" > > the same error from many other packages : grub, memtest86, rsync, > sysutils, Looks like either your mirror is broken, fai-mirror has some problems or the mirror from fai-mirror is not brought to the cd properly. Do you see any things that look problematic when running fai-mirror? Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: FAI 3.2.20 on Ubuntu 8.04 (hardy)
Garb Dowle wrote: > Thanks for your help! > > I'm using Debian Lenny as Fai-Server now. The standard FAI - > Installation installs version 3.2.17, which supports LVM. > I managed to install Ubuntu Hardy from Debian Lenny with FAI. There are > some problems with GRUB, but there is a workaround in the FAI-Wiki, > which works for me. It is also necessary to write a custom "prepareapt" > - Hook in order to copy the right "sources.list" to the Install-Client > and to prevent the default prepareapt - Task from executing. Yes, I believe I included this either in the descriptions for UBuntu installs or in the sample configspace for Ubuntu that should be downloadable from the wiki. Great to hear it works! Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: FAI 3.2.20 on Ubuntu 8.04 (hardy)
Darshaka Pathirana wrote: > But there is a bug filed about that problem (and it seems to be more > complicated than it might seem at first): Yeah, that's what I have in mind, too - and probably what is preventing me from just "fixing it quickly by the way" - it seems it is more than just a little afternoon hack to get it done. > [2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fai/+bug/338157 > > So the easiest solution might really be to switch to Debian/Lenny as > a FAI-Server! Or, depending on what's your focus what you want to do with FAI, you could do the minimal base installation and partitioning with debian-installer, and then use FAI to manage the configuration of the system, only. Henning
Re: FAI 3.2.20 on Ubuntu 8.04 (hardy)
Hi Garb, I have no real solution, but try to give you some hints at least: I don't know about the exact state of FAI packages for Ubuntu Servers, as I'm still using Ubuntu on Desktop machines only. Garb Dowle wrote: > currently I have FAI 3.2.4+svn4837-0ubuntu2 installed on Ubuntu 8.04 > Server. I managed to set it up so that I can successfully install Ubuntu > 8.04 clients with PXE. > Now I need support for LVM, and I think this version of FAI doesn't > support LVM. Right, this version doesn't. But it sounds a bit odd that > I would like to install FAI 3.2.20 on my Ubuntu 8.04 Server, so that I > can use "setup-storage" rather than "setup_harddisks", but I don't know > how to do it. > I tried to download and install the deb-packages for this version, but I > got a list of dependency errors, that I can't resolve (can't install > package "syslinux-common"). Sure, the dependencies are made for packages on Debian - Ubuntu has quite a bit of differences in package availability and naming. > So how can I use setup-storage with LVM support in Ubuntu 8.04? Installing Ubuntu from a Debian server runs quite smooth - so that could be one option. Apart from that, you could search the mail archive and see what others report about using Ubuntu as a FAI server. Maybe you can just try to use the FAI packages from a newer Ubuntu version. Or you can try to use the setup-storage programs by calling them in a hook. Or, probably the path with the most work, you could take the newest FAI sources from SVN and try to fix the differences in the dependencies. All of them can be quite a bit of work. I'm not really happy that FAI doesn't properly to be run on Ubuntu as a server - but I have not enough time to take on the necessary work top change this. Henning
Re: ERROR: NFSROOT directory ... is mounted using nosuid or nodev
Thomas Lange wrote: > > ERROR: NFSROOT directory /srv/fai/nfsroot/live/filesystem.dir is > > mounted using nosuid or nodev. Aborting > > > Any hints what the problem may be and how I can fix this issue? > Read the error message. It says, that you have mounted the directory (maybe > /srv) with options nosuid or nodev. This does not work. Change the > mount options in /etc/fstab, remove nosuid and/or nodev and try again. oops :) I didn't read carefully enough and thought it was happening at install time - so forget the hint about /etc/exports :( Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: ERROR: NFSROOT directory ... is mounted using nosuid or nodev
Peter Bittner wrote: > ERROR: NFSROOT directory /srv/fai/nfsroot/live/filesystem.dir is > mounted using nosuid or nodev. Aborting What's the content of etc/exports on your faiserver? Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: FAI Djangofied
Stephan Hermann wrote: > Dear FAI Fanatics, > > I actually found the time to release my latest project: > > FAI-Django ;) Sounds interesting - finally somebody really doing it :) Did you have a look at the things we wrote up (years ago - http://faiwiki.debian.net/index.php/GUIConcept ) about the requirements and software design for a FAI GUI or did you start from scratch? I hope I'll come to look at the code and test it in more dtails these days - is https://code.launchpad.net/~shermann/+junk/django-faimgr the right place to find the newest stuff? (the "+junk" is a bit irritating :) ) Henning
Re: fai for boss
Rajesh pant wrote: > hello all, > i need to install BOSS, indian version of linux, a debian distribution, > using fai. > could you please guide me how to proceed. Check the multi-distribution howtos in the wiki. Basically, you need to do similar things as if you install Ubuntu or Redhat (just dpkg-based distributions are a bit simpler, even). > what changes i have to make in an already configured fai server. You need a special base image for your distribution - you can make one with the debootstrap of that distribution. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
systems management presentation
Nice talk about systems management - and, yeah, FAi is mentioned there! :) http://www.kitchensoap.com/2009/06/23/slides-for-velocity-talk-2009/ -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: Setup FAI to other distribution
Hi Riza, Riza Nuari wrote: > FAI_DEBOOTSTRAP="jaunty http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu"; Which is wrong - that's not how it's described in the howto. Do as written there - or in the other Multi-Distribution howto, and you'll succeed! > E: No such script: /usr/share/debootstrap/scripts/jaunty > chroot: cannot run command `apt-get': No such file or directory > Creating base.tgz It'sd really ugly that FIA continues from here because that'stotally useless. But it is because debootstrap on hardy cannot bootstrap jaunty. You could try installing the jaunty debootstrap, but it's better to use the native dist in the nfsroot, and use base images, as described in the howto's! > And my other question. You could really make a mail for each question :) > > Can i setup fai server to install centos on the client. Because i want > my server (ubuntu 8.04) will be the installation server to install > ubuntu 9.04 and centos 5.3 Descriobed in the wiki. > The simple output that i want is : When i turn on my client computer, it > will be menu to choose what i want to install. And fai-server will > perform installation with the distribution that i choice > > Is that possible to install on client computer like that? It's possible. You can add a hook with an interactive dialog message at the very start and set the according variables and classes. Henning
Re: Create FAI NFSroot for i386 arch on amd64 host?
Steffen Grunewald wrote: > Is it possible (without setting up a i386 chroot) to create a i386 nfsroot > for FAI, on a amd64 machine? I did not try that, but as far as I lknow, debootstrap has an option to explictly chose the architecture, and make-fai-nfsroot.conf has a setting DEBOOTSTRAP_OPTIONS or so, where you can add that. Hope that helps, Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: FAI Issues
Hi Augustine, Augustine Ike wrote: > I think I have a disconnect > on where PXE should be and the internal workings of the FAI system. I really don't understand what you mean with this. Could you please elaborate and tell us more exactly what you try, and what exactly happens when things start to be different than what you expect? And, which version of FAI are you using? > I setup PXE in my DHCP server and it works fine. The documentation in > http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/ makes a few assumptions on PXE > and not all details for creating the mirrors are there. What exactlky are you missing - what kind of information do you need how far do you come? Also, you can make your first steps without a mirror - but it's recommended to have one when you start developing classes and are trying multiple installs again and again in that process. Mirrors and PXE are basically totally independent of each other. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty FAI howto
Hi Robert, Robert Markula wrote: > Hi list, > I've just finished my first HowTo in the wiki [1]. Great, thanks! > Since it is my first FAI howto, I hope I did not violate any rules. I'd > be happy for any comments and suggestions! It really looks quite good, but yes, I have some hints about possible improvements that come to my mind when skimming over it: What you should mention is, that this is also a Howto for getting FAI up and running on an Ubuntu Server! I didn't try that myself for a long while, but from thinghs I read in the list and IRC I was thinking FAI server support is broken in UBuntu. I don't exactly understand the part " Activate routing" - it might be very specific to the way you build your testing network, maybe you should describe the whole network setup you assume to be used. And, very last, some parts (especially the explanations and listings of party of the configspace) look like these are things that are already described in the configspace - maybe it could be made shorter by just linking to other docs. I might oversee that you show only things specific to your Ubuntu setup - in that case, forget that remark :) > Also, as mentioned in the WIKI, due to the lack of physical machines, I > was only able to test this in a VirtualBox environment. It should work > in a 'real' environment nevertheless, but here I depend on your feedback. I'll not come to really test every step out, but usually, things whould work very similar if you connect the cables the same way as the virtualy machines are attched top each other... Thanks for your efforts! Henning
Re: getting list of classes?
John G. Heim wrote: > Is there a way for me to get a list of which classes are set for a FAI > installation while the install is happening? cat /tmp/fai/FAI_CLASSES should show you the list of classes defined for that host. Apart from that, if you have logging set up, you'll also get this info in the logs, even for a failed install. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: Posting a HowTo on the wiki
Hi Robert, Robert Markula wrote: > Where should I post the HowTo? In the Wiki :) > Can I open a new page on the fai wiki? Yes, once you have an account. (I'm making you one, it's still ugly to do because of the spam problems. Nowadays there should be better means, but I have no time to make it better and volunteers are lacking). > How should I name it? So that the name tells what it is about. UbuntuJauntyInstallationTips maybe? You could for example attach it to the existing pages about multiple distributions and/or Ubuntu that are already in the wiki. Please use the wiki's search function to find places already describing or related to what you want to document. Maybe even, it is not necessary to create an own page, just extend / fix the existing ones. For example, the multi distribuition page has a section for some distribution-specific hints. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: FAI ignores base.tgz in /basefiles
Hi Jens, Jens Classen wrote: > It takes notice of the archie though, as > renaming the archive to UBUNTU.tar.gz brings up an error message, that > only tgz-files are supported. Strange. Until recently, it was the exact contrary - only tar.gz was supported. ( @Thomas: Changing it that way is not a good idea in my opinion, because it breaks compatibility with existing setups, and it would be simply nice and convenient for users to accept .tar.gz _and_ .tgz. ) > Do you have ideas where the error can be? Thanks for your input in advance. I assume you made sure your install client is assigned to the class UBUNTU and there's no typo? I didn't have time to check recent versions, the change I noticed above must be quite new - and probably an error was introduced with the change. FAI doesn't have any automated regression testing in place (yet). Which version of FAI are you using? Does the problem happen with the default version on lenny, too? (here, I'm pretty sure, the package name must be .tar.gz - but you wont get a wrning when doing it wrong!) Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: F1 F1 F1
Shankar, Shankar Dutt wrote: > Begin: Mounting root file system ... ... > eth0: link up > > BusyBOX v1.10.2(debian 1:1.10.2-1) Built in shell (ash) > Enter help for list of built in command . > /Bin/sh: can't access tty: job control turnd off > (initramfs) For some reason, the nfsroot cannot be found. The fact that the install works well with another system _seems_ to show that the server is basically set up correctly. can you try to give us the output of the command cat /proc/cmdline from the running initramfs? Did you double-check the dhcp entry for the second, non-working host? Do you see in the syslogf of the server what dhcp reply the system gets? Is the IP Adress of the second client also enabled to mount the NFSRoot in /etc/exports on the server? > even i read FAI guide but there is no solution of my problem Now we are in a place where we start the real debugging - that's what the list is mainly for ;) Still, another hint now: please do not use HTML Mail when posting here, and please give your mails a proper subject line - "F1 F1 F1" is not very helpful. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: FAI & Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope
Richard Grant wrote: > And, in fact, it seemed the script did something > strange to the nfsroot > as then I could no longer install even when I > removed the new tar.gz I have no idea how that could happen, and what it should have broken. The script just generates a plain tar.gz file and doesn't write anything but some tmp directories and the final tar.gz. But without a more detailed error message, it's hard to judge anything. > and just tried installing with base.tgz as > before. I had to recreate the nfsroot, and then things worked again as > before. That's strange. Putting an UBUNTU_JAUNTY.tar.gz into basefiles, and removing it sometime later, is really very very unlikely to break general installation from base.tgz. But I cannot explore the error without getting a more detailed problem report (exact error messages, logs, etc.). Is it possible that your nfsroot was broken due some other error? > I didn't spend too long investigating, though - You could really help making things better by sending a detailed error report if you run into such problems the next time! I'd really appreciate that kind of feedback and help. > creating a jaunty > base.tgz from scratch seemed the simpler method (and we only ever want > to install ubuntu jaunty with this setup of fai). IMHO the solution you propose is, although working for you, a hack. (and should probably not be advertised too much). Actually, I did it that way before basefiles where introduced, and I was very happy for the much nicer and flexible solution with basefiles. The nfsroot is nothing to manually fiddle with - one call to "make-fai-nfsroot" and all changes are gone... Henning
Re: FAI & Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope
Hi Richard, Richard Grant wrote: > This was actually the only problem we found, but if it was doing > something like this then we weren't convinced it wouldn't be doing other > things that we would only discover later on. Using a jaunty base.tgz > resolved this issue (and hopefully any others that we hadn't discovered...) I realized a mistake in my questioning: What situation do you mean with "otherwise it didn't work"? Did you really try to put something(specifically, a debootstrapped-minimal jaunty image) like MY-UBUNUT-JAUNTY-CLASS.tar.gz into basefiles and let FAI extract this image, as described in the mentioned wiki page? Or did you just try to "upgrade" a lenny base image to Jaunty by changing the apt sources.list to be an Ubuntu one? The first should work the same as changing the base.tgz in the nfsroot, but is a bit cleaner, and reservese the possibiliyt of installing plain debian and others nicely, and I can not imagine how the problem described could happen that way. While the latter most defintely can only fail. Henning
Re: FAI & Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope
Hi Richard, Richard Grant wrote: > Create a jaunty base.tgz using pbuilder and replace the lenny one in the > nfsroot with this one. (otherwise it appears to install correctly but > various bits don't quite work) Could you explain what these pieces are? I did not yet do that with jaunty, but with multiple earlier Ubuntu versions, I just did and always do most of the things as described here, and it works, even for RHEL and others, without modifying the nfsroot contents: http://faiwiki.informatik.uni-koeln.de/index.php/FAI_multi-distribution > Change the /etc/apt/sources.list in the nfsroot to point to the jaunty > sources. Yeah, there is some misplaced code in FAI that copies this file again from the nfsroot into the target, and it's not placed in the configspace but hardcoded in a task code. But you can circumvent this by copying it over again in a hook - see example code mentioned in the wiki. > OPTIONAL: the lenny kernel would not boot our new hardware, so I had to > compile a jaunty kernel. Install this into the nfsroot, and copy the > kernel parts to /srv/tftp/fai O.K., yeah, you will need a kernel matching your hardware. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: fai installation
As you didn't change the questions from your colleague just some hours ago, you can also recycle the answers. The only way to do FAI installations without internet connection(and without any network at all), is the fai-cd, but then you need internet connection on the fai server when creating the cd. No internet(or, better: no apt-repository, you can use the packages from the original cd, but it's more complicated) - no packages. Henning Rajesh pant wrote: > > Hello all, > at last, i, able to connect to client using FAI. > i used fai_action= sysinfo and it worked. > however, when i tried to do it with fai_action=install. The process > started but it couldn't fetch packages from debian repository due to no > connection with Internet. > i have no internet access to client or server. i have used a small cable > to connect the two. > the installation took 556 sec. to install and all i can see is a black > screen with the following message and then a prompt > > GNU GRUB version 0.97 (639k lower / 1039168k upper memory) > > [ minimal BASH-like line editing is supportedetc > > grub> > > Is it necessary to have an Internet connection to install a client? > > Thank you for your time and suggestions. > -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: fai configuratioon space
Rajesh, Rajesh pant wrote: > does my fai set-up missing a file or two? > i appreciate ur help thank YOU. For one, there are much more files in a FAI setup that are of importance , especially the contents of /srv/fai/config, /srv/fai/nfsroot and /etc/fai But please don't post all their contents now - they are too much for us to check them all. Then, not only the files _existence_ but also their contents are important. We really cannot check them all. We can only give you hints on what could be wrong if you come up with a description of what you are trying to achieve, what you did to get there, and what happened instead. We assume that you read the documentation and the manpages of the tools you use, before asking. Generally speaking, if you didn't delete any files that are installed by default, and copied the configspace examples in /srv/fai/config as described in the docs, and ran fai-setup / make-fai-nfsroot successfully, you should have everything you need. Usually, the required files don't just "disappear". If you still have problems, please come to this list with conrete problem descriptions(as explained above), so we can help. A more detailed, nice introduction for people relatively new to asking volunteers on the internet for help can be found here: http://catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: AW: Network settings / DHCP
Hi Jerome, Please continue threads on the list! Jerome Eichler wrote: > I have reviewed my configuration and read the FAI-wiki. > I found some things about classes, but I cannot find any setting, where I > can define my hosts to the DHCPC class. > > Can you (or someone else) tell me, where I can do this? I see this when I look into the simple examples: henning@:/usr/share/doc/fai-doc/examples/simple/class$ grep DHCPC * 50-host-classes:echo "FAIBASE DHCPC DEMO" ;; 50-host-classes:echo "FAIBASE DHCPC DEMO XORG GNOME";; 50-host-classes:echo "FAIBASE DHCPC DEMO" ;; 50-host-classes:echo "FAIBASE DHCPC" ;; You must have something like that defined for your host, somewhere. By the way, did you look into FAI_CLASSES to check in the logs, if the class DHCPC is really defined? I'm not sure if I remember the context of your question right, but that should probably the first to do - check which classes are defined. Maybe there's another /etc/network/interfaces files for another class - depending on if you work with a new, clean configspace or if your new in a complany using FAI since long time. Henning
Re: Starting a FAI installation using kexec - technical thread
Torsten Schlabach wrote: > In contrast to what has been said here before, there seems to be a > difference between the stock Debian initrd from the kernel package and > the FAI initrd. (I am just talking about the initrd, not about the > kernel as such.) In case you mean my post on this: I did not say there's no difference. You can boot an nfsroot with a plain debian initrd, TOO, as you can with an livehelper-enhanced initrd, and as you could with the special FAI Kernels that did exist before etch. The special FAI Kernel is njot available anymore, so let's talk about the current way FAI works - plain debian Kernel plus special initrd, and compare it with the plain Debian initrd: Both initrd's have different scripts inside, expect a different structure of the nfsroot (plain debian doesn't require the live.dir stuff and such), and might expect or ignore different kernel commandline parameters. > So I might want to make some experiments with modifying the scripts > inside the initrd. If you're going that far, anway, you might start with the plain deian initrd.The main reason why FAI uses the livehelper stuff is the fai-cd (and the fact that it's easier to support one system that works on usb, cd, and PXE). With your sepcial case, I'd start with the total unchanged system. Or, even, before starting to fiddle with initrd, why not build your own install kernel with the ip-auto and nfs root flags enabled? Then you have no initrd again. Your situation is so special anyway, that you will not benefgit from enhancements anyway (even worse, with every change and update you will have to adjust you patches to the initrd stuff). > > The question may be OT on this list Most things necessary to get a system installed with FAI is OT here, I think :) Henning
Re: Starting a FAI installation using kexec - technical thread
Torsten Schlabach wrote: > There is no FAI install kernel anymore; FAI is using a stock Debian > kernel now, right? Right. > Is there mabye a FAI initrd or is the initrd also the "stock" one that > comes from the corresponding Debian package. In recent FAI versions, make-fai-nfsroot creates an initrd from the nfsroot and puts it into the tftp space. But in very early versions(and even before, when I installed xen paravirtual VM's via nfsroot, and the Xen DomU kernels did not contain nfsroot support) I've been successfull copying the normal debian initrd from /boot into the tftp space. > Or is my initrd which is > used in a PXE boot generated with any special settings possibly when I > execute make-fai-nfsroot? As above, both should work in principle. The thing that FAI puts into tftp dirctory might be a bit better. > What I think my problem might come from is that in each "NFS root file > system" howto it says "the NFS support must be statically compiled into > the kernel". But that's definitely not the case for the stock Debian > kernel. So I wonder if that remark in most howtos is just void today. Yes, this is not necessary with initrd anymore. nowadays, the initrd has scripts and necessary modules to mount the root filesystem. With initrd, the root is mounted twice anyway - first, the initrd contents make a preliminary root filesystem that exists only in ram. Then, the initrd scripts decide what to do depending from boot parameters - for nfs, they load the nfs modules and mount them. > Also quite honestly I could use some pointer to understanding that /live > dir in the initrd which is used by FAI today ... What's in there which > is no longer in the NFS root for example? Does the whole install run out > of the /live dir now? Yes, this is due to the decision to use the livehelper tools - they are especially necessary to get the fai-cd things working, and only have the effect on the normal network boot that the nfsroot is in that odd location now. HTH, Henning
Re: Starting a FAI installation using kexec
Torsten Schlabach wrote: > But the basic-installed systems wasn't installed using FAI. That's not necessary for softupdates. > It needs an > entirely new partitioning of the hard disk, so you want to wipe the whole system anyway. O.K. > it might have an entirely > different kernel than what we want to install, You can install another one > it might not even be > Debian yet. No problem, softupdate can manage other systems as well :) But anyway, I now understand, you want to do something different than I propose, but also kexec seems not to be what you need - kexec just changes the kernel, but keeps all processes and stuff runnning, it doesn't boot from scratch, doesn't it? (at least that is what I understand what it's made for). So, you say the main problem/change for you now is that FAI doesn't have a special kernel anymore. But you can do exactly the same with the normal debian kernel. It can boot from nfsroot just as the special FAI kernel did, and it should be possible to give the required kernel parameters on the grub command line - just as you did before with the special FAI kernel. Only that the normal debian kernel also needs an initrd. But when booting it via grub that is even easier than with PXE. Did you try this already before trying kexec? Another idea might be to run the provider's rescue system and try to run setup-storage directly from there. But you seem to have a very heterogeneous environment, and cannot rely on anything. Apart from this being an interesting problem, to solve, I wonder if it would simpler to force customers to rent th Server from a set of known-working providers that fullfill some requirements - developing something that works with every random system can become very expensive - either for you or for the customers. Henning
Re: Starting a FAI installation using kexec
Torsten Schlabach wrote: > We get servers which have some random Linux image on them. We don't have > physical access to those servers and we cannot modify and DHCP settings. > So no PXE based install, no USB stick install, etc. I might not fully understand your case, but on an already basic-installed system, I'd simply run fai softupdate. Wasn't kexec some system for changing the running kernel without reboot? Henning
Re: client installation through fai
Rajesh pant wrote: > thank you henning, > i appreciate your suggestions. You're welcome! > i hope, i will able to install a single client at least. It seems you go through quite some learnings. I'm not sure, but it might have to do that you have trouble to understand everything on the FAI guide, or you're maybe quite new to Linux - anway, we're happy to help you get through. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: client installation through fai
Rajesh pant wrote: > hello all, > i have fai server already installed. though i am not able to boot a > client machine using fai. Then it's not really installed yet... > it looks as if there is some problem in my > dhcpd.conf file and i am not sure wheather i have to start a tftpd-hpa > server too? If you want to do PXE Boot and install from there, you need tftpd. It can either be configured as standalone daemon in /etc/defaults/tftpd-hpa or via inetd. > it is written in fai guide that if the installation process proceeds it > will overwrite all the data which is there in client machine. That's what installation is about :) > is there any command or script which can halt or cancel the installation > in between. > actually i just want to test wheather client and server are connecting > or not. If you test with the same client that you want to install anyway(that is your final goal, isn't it?), it shouldn't matter :) And you can use the function sysinfo - see the fai guide for explanations on it, or if you use fai-chboot read it's manpage and set FAI_ACTION to sysinfo only. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: disk name change hda/sda between install and runtime kernel
Thomas Neumann wrote: > vg data disk1.3 Do you guess or do you use that? I think I'm really bad at reading the config syntax description in the manpage. I should have been going to university... Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: disk name change hda/sda between install and runtime kernel
Christian Meissner wrote: > /lib/udev/vol_id /dev/hda5 > > and so u can rewrite your fstab. Hmm, good idea, I didn't think of UUID's. Reading the manpage, it seems setup-storage even supports this, even though I had to think a bit on how and where to configure it. Think I found it now (fstabkey:uuid in the "disk_config" line for the whole disk). I wonder, if I don't have to use device name anywhere, (disk_config disk1, fstabkey:uuid), if and how I then can circumvent of having to do something like "vg data hda5" then... Anyway, first I gonna try the uuid stuff these days and report if it succeeded. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
disk name change hda/sda between install and runtime kernel
Hi, If I remember correctly, due to the change that IDE disks will also be access by sd* device names in some recent kernel version, I have the problem that when installing a host that is using a 2.6.28 Kernel (Ubuntu, but it probably would be the same with a custom kernel), after rebooting the installed system does not find the disks to mount from fstab because there we have "hda" but there is only sda. That all happens with a partitioning with setup storage from FAI 3.2.16 on a Lenny install server. I'm now tempted to just quickly write a hook(/hack) that replaces hda with sda at the very end of the install - but there might be some better solution?! Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: Network settings / DHCP
Jerome Eichler wrote: > How can I switch this so that the interface is configured static? Just don't assign the class DHCPC to the system :) Then, some script (not sure which one, it might be one in scripts/DEFAULT or so - grep for "interfaces" in the scripts dir) creates an /etc/network/interfaces file with static adresses. Henning
Re: untrusted packages in softupdate
ejone...@yahoo.com wrote: > Does FAI_ALLOW_UNSIGNED=1 work in softupdates? Not sure - did you try? :) > And if not, is there an equivalent flag that does work? There's an apt config option for this. You could make sure in a hook that is is set before the apt update takes place: # cat /etc/apt/apt.conf APT::Get::AllowUnauthenticated "true"; Henning
Re: Thank you and good bye.
Per Foreby wrote: > Sounds wise as long as the initial installation can be done from a > Debian fai server. Or in any other way - manual basic install, image deployment on a web/virtual root server, ... In these situations, you can still manage configuration details with FAI. You could also use Puppet for these things, sure, and have some more advanced distribution abstractions there, as far as I learned about it in the meantime. (plus some other nice things - see my comparison in the latest slides on the FAI website). Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: Thank you and good bye.
Per Foreby wrote: > Can I use this method on a lenny server with the stock fai package, or > do I need a newer version from the fai repository? Lenny version should do fine. > What about softupdate after such an installation? Is it still broken in > Ubuntu? Where softupdates broken in Ubuntu? I did not notice. I only use hardy and the last time I checked, it worked fine. (that said, that answers my question about throwing fai out of ubuntu: as long as softupdates work, it should stay there, and that is independent from initrd-stuff). Henning
Re: Thank you and good bye.
Russ Allbery wrote: > Hm, that's interesting -- I didn't think about trying that route. How > do I specify a different base.tgz to unpack in the newly created file > system? It looks like the path to base.tgz is hard-coded into > subroutines-linux, at least in the version I'm currently looking at > (which isn't the latest). The task extrbase looks in the directory "basefiles" inside the fai configspace for a file CLASS.tar.gz - for any of the clases defined for the host currentlyx being installed. > I suppose I could generate a separate lenny NFS root for doing Ubuntu > installations that has a base.tgz for jaunty in it. That's just a > tarball of the results of debootstrap? you don't need the base.tgz, but the CLASS.tar.gz (not the tar.gz NOT tgz! - a bit confusing), but apart from that, yes, it's nothing but a tarred deboostrap result (or whatever you might wish to add or remove from the debootstrap)! Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: Thank you and good bye.
Russ Allbery wrote: > Debian-based FAI cannot build Ubuntu intrepid or jaunty systems; the > boot from the NFS root fails. That's due to the initramfs-tools and > live-initramfs problems. But that happens only when you try to install from an Ubuntu NFSRoot - which you don't need to. You can extract about any base image you want, from a Debian NFSroot, even Redhat and SuSE, and then call their package managers, etc. from the NFSroot into /target. That way, the initrd from Ubuntu is not used at install time. Or do I get the problem wrong? Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: Thank you and good bye.
Hi Adrian, Thanks for your interesting thoughts. It's not good that you seem to have a bad impression about FAI maintenance in Ubuntu. Being a (very passive, admittedly) member of the FAI UBuntu team myself, I can explain the reasons for me: I'm just not using Ubuntu as a server OS myself, because on servers I'm totally content with the stability and features Debian gives me there. I have a lot of things to do, and just started a freelancing business, that needs to get a start first before I can do things that only maybe, very indirectly, sometimes might help me pay my rent. So there simply isn't much time left. Your mail with a call for test your packages was in my Inbox some weeks, until some days ago I realized I will not get to it and archived it. Maybe FAI packages in Ubuntu should be removed totally as long as we don't have a team of people really commited and with enough time to take care FAI is really working in Ubuntu. Some comments about other things you say: Adrian Gibanel Lopez wrote: > I want to thank you for all the answers you have given to my questions. > In my opinnion you should use the wiki more and not ask the people to > search messages in the mailing list but it is just my opinnion. As you see above - the small amount of people working on FAI is busy enough developing when they find the time and giving support on Mailing lists. It's the task of the people who get valaueable answers to go get an account in the wiki and document solutions they find. > I was able to finish my thesis on time and I passed it. Congratulations! > Although FAI is good thing I am no longer interested on it. But I think I don't get exactly your reasons for this from this mail. Is it only the lacking support for using Ubuntu as a FAI Server? Because we don't find the time, in addition to give people all answers they need when they ask, to document everything thoroughly? (I'm really interested, please don't take these questions as an offense!) > Whenever I > need to use it again I will get a Debian distribution and begin to enjoy > it with my thesis steps. I don't understand the menaing of this one. > I am very upset about Ubuntu development. I know that not everybody at > Ubuntu team can update the FAI version as needed but what the hell, I have > tried to change that. I can only talkk for myself, bu I think I remember that is the case for multiple FAI UBuntu Team members. > I still ask myself if FAI does work in Ubuntu 9.04 (serving Ubuntu 9.04 to > the installation clients). I bet that no. It's not very unlikely. > You know the other day I dreamt about FAI having an script run after the m > mkinitfs run that modified the generated initrd. That might be possible. > Or that FAI had a fork, a > parallel build of initramfs-tools and live-initramfs with another name. > just an initramfs-tools fork that relied on most initramfs-tools and > live-initamfs files but had its own files. I guess, that would be too much work to maintain. But I cannot really judge about this specific problem, and what's the best solution for it. > But this is too much complex. Ockham would be upset. Who is Ockham and why would he be upset? The initrd maintainer in Ubuntu? > It is probably better > to fix the current initramfs-tools and live-initramfs. Fixing the package you depend on if it's clearly a bug that prevents your's from working correctly is usually the best solution - in case it's maintainer is cooperative. A fork is usually the last choice if nothing else works. One last question: did you think about running FAI from a Debian server? Installaing Ubuntu (and Debian, Redhat-based, and others) from there should be no problem and the support for FAI in Debian is usually quite good. I'm not happy to hear you leaving the list because such complications. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: install different kernel
Uwe Kastens wrote: > Hello, > > I am a little confused ATM. What is the correct way to install a > different kernel (than installed on the fai-server) on a client. Make an entry for the different kernel package in your software package lists - but see below. > We have a setup with dhcp, tftpd and pxe. If I set another kernel in the > pxelinux.cfg/XXX file, everything works fine. In the very last steps > of the client setup there comes an error, that the kernel modules for > the different are missing. Wait. Here, you're not talking about the kernel and modules being _installed_ but the kernel and modules _running at install time_. That's a difference. You did correctly set the installation kernel(and maybe initrd) in the pxe config, but the modules for this kernel need to be in the nfsroot or put altogether in the initial ramdisk. Just create the right nfsroot, or copy the data into the nfsroot (I'm not sure how to get such a modification persistent right now). > So howto add another kernel? Install is as an debian package? Yes, to gat a different kernel _installed_ , a package is the best and recommended way. Otherwise, you can also use fcopy and ftar to unpack files and directories with kernel and modules data. Henning
Re: heLLo all
Rajesh pant wrote: > hi there, > i need to get a detailed format of fai.conf and make-fai-nfsroot file > "with easy to understand comments and how to configure" help Me!! > thanX.!!! I thinkl these files are quite extensively documented in the file themselves as well as in the fai guide. Please read the fai guide, as a whole, then try some things yourself, and come back with detailed questions what exactly you are trying to achieve, what you tried to get there, and what happenend. And which parts of a file you don't understand. You can also ask me or others for quotes for professional support and training if you want to save the time of reading the docs - that's no problem :) Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 (0) 176 82188257
Re: chroot: cannot run command
Julien Vermet wrote: > Hello > > I have an error from yesterday, and I can't find any answer a this > problem. After the "fai-setup", I have a lot of "chroot: cannot run > command" errors. I think I configured all configuration files as > described in the documentation. Here is the log : > > "fai-setup > Creating FAI nfsroot in /usr/fai/nfsroot/live/filesystem.dir. > By default it needs more than 390 MBytes disk space. > This may take a long time. > Creating base system using debootstrap version 1.0.10lenny1 > Calling debootstrap lenny /usr/fai/nfsroot/live/filesystem.dir > http://miroir.dsi.damgm.i2/debian > chroot: cannot run command `apt-get': No such file or directory I think this is a sign tthat deboostrap failed! (which by the way is a, IMHO heavy bug in FAI that it tries to continue when debootrap failed! I stumbled on this some times, but always forget to file a bug for it! Will do now) Can you run the deboostrap command above manually? Henning
Re: debian bug 453294 this fix breaks upgrade etch -> lenny
Rudy Gevaert wrote: > In the past I did :) this how I got our setup working (in the past). :) Yes, when I think about it, I did not yet test nfs-based installs of Lenny, on FAI Lenny. It's a while ago that I did that anyway - I mainly use xen-tools and a hook that does a fai dirinstall. Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de +49 176 82188257
Re: debian bug 453294 this fix breaks upgrade etch -> lenny
Hi Rudy, Rudy Gevaert wrote: > With the newer initramfs-tools package in Lenny we couldn't install our > Xen virtual machines anymore. How exactly are you installing them, and what types of VM? Are you doing paravirtual VM's via xen's nfsroot booting method? Did you read the wiki about xen installation? The things there should help. It may be important to know for you that the order of boot options given to the kernel is important. If it's not right, the boot will fail and the errors are not really pointing you to the solution. (I was there for a while, until I found the solution by accident). You could also install xen VM's on Lenny with xen-tools, integrating FAI as a hook there - this is also documented in the wiki. Henning
Re: busybox in lenny without NFS support for FAI
Michal Svamberg wrote: > The support for FAI in lenny is not perfect; Unfortunately, it's not the FAI team that has control of how the dependencies are built. > are there any other > solutions that do not require you to recompile or change standard packages? With the standard toolset recommend by FAI(initrd-tools as they are, nfs-kernel-server, nfsroot creation with make-fai-nfsroot), things should work fine at least there wheren't major complaints until now. I do not totally understand what's happening and why you're not just going with the default settings and tools. Why don't you like the nfsmount tool that comes with initrd-tools? What exactly does not work for you with the standard busybox? If things are missing there that are crucial to you, you should notify th maintainers of these tools, so they can change their packages accordingly. Henning
Re: Solved (was fai net boot does not works out of the box in lenny installed with fai-cd/usb-stick)
Andreas Schockenhoff wrote: > 127.0.0.1 localhost I can imagine quite a bunch of things go wrong without this... > That have had very interesting effects in my environment in one > Network it works in the other Networks not! The nfs-kernel-server > seams to need a connection to localhost. NFS does some things I did not yet really understand (but also didn't really investigate). Maybe the portmapper or something like that? Henning
Re: package_config AND/OR/NOT Operations
Hi Brian, Seppanen, Brian E wrote: > will that work?I’ve seen some threads about Boolean operations, and > I’m not clear from what I’ve seen whether that is something that will be > supported in a later version and where that’s going. as long as the bug http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=479537 isn't closed as wontfix there is a chance that it will be integrated in some later version. Maybe the fix will/could be included in the experimental packages and tested there - then it is more likely to be included in the main FAI tree. Henning
Re: NFSROOT - Pakete fehlen
Felix Holte Michael Paetow wrote: > In den logs bin ich dann schließlich in der log-Datei make-fai-nfsroot.log > auf > etwas gestoßen. Dort fehlen mir sämtliche Pakete die ich in meiner eigenen > Klasse definiert habe. Jedoch ausführbar und ansonsten rechte und Owner > technisch so wie alle anderen. Das ist nur die Logdatei für das Erstellen des NFSROOT - was es tut, hat Axel ja schon gesagt. > Weis jemand warum meine fehlen? Schau in die install-logs. Die liegen in /var/log/fai//last/ Wenn das loggin richtig konfiguriert ist, findest Du das auf dem Install-Server, ansonsten musst Du auf dem client schauen. Wie Axel schon sagte, das erste was Du tun solltest, ist die Datei FAI_CLASSES zu prüfen. Was steht bei Dir da drin? Der Hostname, unter dem Dein System installiert wird, ist darin das einzige klein geschriebene Wort, wenn Du Dich an die Namen-Konvention gehalten hast. Das müsste dem entsprechen, Asonsten packe doch mal die Datei fai.log aus dem besagten Verzeichnis nach paste.debian.net und wir schauen mal drüber. > es tut mir leid das ich hier eure mailingliste so zuspamme, jedoch kenne ich > niemanden persönlich der schon einmal mit FAI gearbeitet hat und für mich ist > es das "erste" Mal mit FAI und diese Presentation ist nunmal sehr wichtig für > mein Abi. Kein Problem. Wenn man die Doku gelesen hat, und einiges selbst versucht hat, und das nicht reicht, darf man immer fragen :) Wenn die Doku unklar ist, sind wir aber dankbar, wenn Du uns sagst, welche Teile Du nicht verstanden hast - nur so können wir es verbessern. Grüße, Henning -- Henning Sprang http://www.sprang.de
Re: Classen konfigurieren
Hi Felix, Felix Holte Michael Paetow wrote: > Bis jetzt bin ich so vorgegangen, da ich es anders nicht gefunden bzw nicht > nachvollziehen konnte, das ich meine, frei erfundene NEUE_KLASSE ohne > irgendwelche Skripte in die 50-host-classes eingetragen habe, Das ist ein Shell-Script - schau mal in die erste Zeile :) > in Verbindung > mit den Namen meines Installclients. Also genau so wie andere Einträge in der > Datei. > > Mein Rechner "Tester" sollte dann die Klasse FAIBASE und meine Klasse > TESTLAUF > installiert bekommen. Ein Rechner dessen Name mit einem Großbuchstaben beginnt? DNS kennt keine Groß- und Kleinschreibung, meine ich mal. Grüße, Henning
Re: Classen konfigurieren
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Hallo Felix, Felix Holte Michael Paetow wrote: > Der Server steht, die Clienten lassen sich ansprechen und installieren, doch > ich bekomme sie nicht dazu meine selbst (per Hand) definierten Klassen zu > installieren. Ich weis nicht einmal ob das so funktionieren kann. Was genau versuchst Du denn? Und was ist das Ergebnis? Was steht in den verschiedenen Logfiles? Eine Sache ist, eine eigene Klasse zu schreiben, in dem man eine oder mehrere entsprechend benannte Dateien erstellt - als einfachstes Beispiel wohl eine Paketliste. Das andere ist, im Verzeichnis "class" dafür zu sorgen, dass bei der Installation des clients der Name der Klasse, die ihm zugeordnet sein soll, von einem der Scripte ausgegeben wird. Am einfachsten ist das demonstriert in dem script *host-classes - wo ein case Statement anhand des hostnamens eine Liste von Klasses per echo ausgibt. > Die offizielle FAI-Dokumentation hilft mir leider nicht weiter, ebenso geht > kaum eine Quelle im Internet auf Klassen ein, und wenn dann nicht ausführlich > genug. Die offizielle Dokumentation sagt doch einiges über Klassen. Ich finde das Wort class drei mal hier: http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/fai-guide/index.html#contents Welchen Teil davon verstehst Du nicht? Verwirrend und ein bisschen irreführend finde ich nur den Begriff "defining classes" - es meint im FAI-guide die Zuweisung einer Klasse zu einem Host, zur Installations-Zeit. Eigentlich sollte es "assigning classes" heißen. > Ich hoffe Ihr könnt mir vielleicht mit eine detailierten Dokumentation oder > einer Kopie des Verzeichnis /srv/fai/config helfen. Im Paket fai-doc ist ein Beispiel mitgeliefert. Es zeigt, wie Klassen aufgebaut sind, und wie sie im Verzeichnis class anhand des Hostnemans zugewiesen werden. Das müsstest Du doch eigentlich haben, wenn Du oben sagts, die Systeme installieren schon. Ich hoffe, das hilft Dir ein wenig weiter. Henning -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFJu7l8OzXGJHJLmQIRApSOAJwOhDtoWarTf3/4DuqY7wHAlmoIMQCgmiak sSmt9gMYvnA75dRuuj1lUtQ= =WVMv -END PGP SIGNATURE-
