Hi Nish, Yes, you are correct, the install does blow up in the Ubuntu installer, but it's because the installer is looking for a preseed file... This is driven by the kernel append options that Cobbler is providing. I did a Wireshark packet capture of the PXE netboot process, and the interesting bit is the boot menu that Cobbler send to the client:
===== ..tsize.2026.blksize.1380......... DEFAULT menu PROMPT 0 MENU TITLE Cobbler | http://www.cobblerd.org/ TIMEOUT 200 TOTALTIMEOUT 6000 ONTIMEOUT local LABEL local MENU LABEL (local) MENU DEFAULT LOCALBOOT -1 [...redacted...] LABEL ubuntu1404svr-am-asi-x86_64 kernel /images/ubuntu1404svr-x86_64/linux MENU LABEL ubuntu1404svr-am-asi-x86_64 append initrd=/images/ubuntu1404svr-x86_64/initrd.gz ksdevice=bootif lang= ks=http://192.168.1.150/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/ubuntu1404svr-am-asi-x86_64 text auto-install/enable=true priority=critical url=http://192.168.1.150/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/ubuntu1404svr-am-asi-x86_64 hostname=ubuntu1404svr-am-asi-x8664 domain=local.lan suite=trusty ipappend 2 LABEL ubuntu1404svr-x86_64 kernel /images/ubuntu1404svr-x86_64/linux MENU LABEL ubuntu1404svr-x86_64 append initrd=/images/ubuntu1404svr-x86_64/initrd.gz ksdevice=bootif lang= text auto-install/enable=true priority=critical url=http://192.168.1.150/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/ubuntu1404svr-x86_64 hostname=ubuntu1404svr-x8664 domain=local.lan suite=trusty ipappend 2 MENU end .... ===== The "ubuntu1404svr-am-asi-x86_64" option is the one I'm using. For comparison, the " ubuntu1404svr-x86_64" one is the "plain vanilla" one that Cobbler made when I imported the ISO. On the "ubuntu1404svr-am-asi-x86_64" one I added the following to the "Kernel Options" field in cobbler-web: ks=http://192.168.1.150/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/ubuntu1404svr-am-asi-x86_64 As you can see, it has inserted this in the append line, but kept the rest of the line beginning with " text auto-install/enable=true [...]", which is what makes the installer look for a preseed file, and which is handing it the kickstart file in the " url=http://192.168.1.150/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/ubuntu1404svr-x86_64"; bit of the append line. Since that is not a valid Debian preseed format file, the installer rightly chokes on it, and blows up with the "installer failed to process the preconfiguration file" message. So as a test, I PXE-booted the client machine again, selected the "ubuntu1404svr-am-asi-x86_64" menu option from the Cobbler menu, hit [Tab] to edit the line, and removed the following from the append line: text auto-install/enable=true priority=critical url=http://192.168.1.150/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/ubuntu1404svr-am-asi-x86_64 hostname=ubuntu1404svr-am-asi-x8664 domain=local.lan suite=trusty Then hit Enter, and the installer took off and processed the kickstart file correctly (as it does when I use my USB key with the kickstart on it.) Interestingly enough, it names the node's hostname "kickseed" :) It did format and partition the disk correctly as per the kickstart directives, etc. So, again, I believe the profile breed type of "ubuntu" is driving the way that Cobbler forms the append line. (Can Jörgen or someone else who knows the code confirm?) What I'd like to see is an option to tell Cobbler to use kickstart instead of preseed for Ubuntu nodes, and form the append line correctly for that option... (If only I could code to the level of Cobbler, I'd jump in and make a patch!) Best, Will -----Original Message----- From: Nishanth Aravamudan [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 5:29 PM To: Will Dennis Cc: cobbler mailing list Subject: Re: [cobbler] Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather than a preseed? On 25.09.2014 [21:11:49 +0000], Will Dennis wrote: > Hi Nish, > > No, specifying a KS file instead of a preseed file in the "Kickstart" > drop (using cobbler-web here...) makes the install blow up as I > described in my earlier post. I suspect that a distribution of breed > "ubuntu" makes Cobbler want to use a preseed ("d-i") format file > instead of a kickstart, since that is the "native" answer file format > for that distro type... Hrm, but the preseed or kickstart file were served correctly. And I assume that means the template & template-completion worked too. Ubuntu's installer barfed, which doesn't necessarily have to do with Cobbler. You can do all of this manually using a file and serving it over the network to see if it works, right? -Nish > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Nishanth Aravamudan [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 3:53 PM > To: Will Dennis > Cc: cobbler mailing list > Subject: Re: [cobbler] Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather than a > preseed? > > On 25.09.2014 [19:40:12 +0000], Will Dennis wrote: > > Thanks, Alastair. Guess I'll be learning Debian Installer syntax > > then > > ;) > > Yeah, I'd recommend d-i as the default, but it's painful and preseed is not > well-documented (especially the hidden options/values to make for a NQA (no > questions asked) install). > > > > Would be cool in the future if Cobbler could support either d-i or > > kickstart for breed "ubuntu", since there is support now, and I'd > > wager most Cobbler users are more familiar with kickstart... > > I don't think it's worth doing until it's fully supported by Ubuntu. > > But, I don't see why you can't just have your profile use a kickstart and it > wouldn't just work? I don't believe that Cobbler really knows about the > syntax of the file used to netboot, it just treats it as a template, etc. I > might be wrong, though. > > That is, for your system, just point it's kickstart entry to a kickstart file > instead of a preseed. Does that work? > > -Nish > _______________________________________________ cobbler mailing list [email protected] https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
