Eymen Alyaz wrote:
R. F. Grant wrote:
Hi all,
We recently got some new PCs with more recent hardware. The existing FAI
setup we had no longer worked with the new hardware - presumably because the
fai kernels we were using (Fai 3.1.8) did not contain the necessary drivers.
I began setting up a new FAI server from scratch on a new PC (so as not to
break the existing FAI server which still works for all our older PCs).
The fai versions I am using are:
fai-client 3.2.4
fai-doc 3.2.4
fai-quickstart 3.2.4
fai-server 3.2.4
The PC I am installing the server on is running Ubuntu Feisty:
Linux 2.6.20-16-generic #2 SMP Tue Feb 12 05:41:34 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
I am trying to install Ubuntu Gutsy onto the client PCs (since the Gutsy
kernel
contains the necessary hardware drivers).
Doing a manual install of Gutsy on a new PC works just fine.
The trick, then, seems to be getting a correctly functioning kernel for FAI
to use. As far as I can tell, the requirements are:
1) Must be able to run the hardware (so at least 2.6.22)
2) Must be patchable so that unionfs will work
After trying many kernels, I also find an extra annoyance. The new PCs
contain
Intel Q35 motherboards which contain a known bug: they will not boot from a
regular kernel unless you add pci=nommconf or acpi=off. There is a patch
that
is supposed to fix this for 2.6.24 kernels, although I have not had much
luck
with this.
Anyway, I finally managed to build a kernel that would boot the new
hardware.
I built it by:
- installing a new PC with Ubuntu Gutsy by hand
- downloading the 2.6.24.2 kernel source
- downloading the correct unionfs patch for this kernel
(unionfs-2.2.4_for_2.6.24.2.diff.gz) and applying it (no error messages)
- copying the existing kernel config file from Gutsy's 2.6.22 kernel (and
running make menuconfig to add unionfs to the kernel) and using
it to build a new 2.6.24 kernel
Installing this kernel on the new PC, it booted up fine as long as I
included
the comment pci=nommconf in the boot parameters.
(I tried the kernel patch to fix the mmconf problem, but that kernel refused
to boot.)
Anyway, I then installed the newly created 2.6.24.2 kernel in the nfsroot on
the fai server, and then copied the linux-image and initrd files to
/srv/tftp/fai. I tweaked the config file in pxelinux.cfg to refer to
this new
kernel. Then I set fai going. (We run a dhcp server to kickstart FAI with
a network book. This all seems to work just fine.)
Fai starts up, finds the correct kernel, and begins loading drivers. (If
I do
not include the pci=nommconf bit in the pxelinux.cfg file then it just hangs
almost immediately, but it seems to start working in the usual way if I do
include it). However, it then crashes out with a kernel panic:
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
This occurs just after loading drivers for USB, Sata drives and the CD
drive.
I have also tried building a kernel from the Ubuntu gutsy archive
(2.6.22-14.52)and managed to apply the unionfs patch (albeit with some
error messages). This
will also boot the new hardware (with the pci=nommconf option) but
crashes in
the same way when booting with FAI. Interestingly, this kernel will
*occasionally* boot an older pc into FAI, but more often than not it
hangs just
before loading the unionfs stuff. (I have been unable to reproduce building
this kernel as well - it always crashes out during the build of the unionfs
stuff, so I'm not sure what magic I used the first time round.)
So, the questions:
- If a kernel will boot the PC in normal circumstances,
is it unreasonable to assume that it should also just work as the fai
kernel?
(assuming unionfs is correctly working, of course...)
- Is adding a boot tag pci=nommconf in the fai pxelinux.cfg file likely
to causeproblems?
- Are there any known problem in trying to use FAI to install ubuntu gutsy
(from a feisty server)
- Does anyone have any idea how to resolve this problem?
I can, of course, provide any other information required. Fai does not get
far enough to start producing logs, though...
Sorry for the long post - just trying to explain what has been a long and
frustrating process thus far...
Hello
I'm also setting up FAI to install new Ubuntu distributions.
Currently I'm working on Hardy Heron.
The ubuntu kernels (gutsy, hardy) have problems mounting unionfs over
FAI nfsroot.
Therefore I use plain Debian Etch kernel on my TFTP server to boot my
install clients.
I also build my nfsroot from Debian Etch bootstrap.
On the install clients I do install ubuntu kernels which work as expected.
Yes, i've encountered the same problem as well. You need to use either a
debian or ubuntu dapper kernel/initrd for both your bootstrap and nfsroot.
I've made a few bug requests on launchpad but nothing's happened with it
for over 6 months now.
Regards,
Eymen Alyaz
