Package: initramfs-tools
Version: 0.109.1
Severity: normal
When I try to use Debian initramfs to mount root over NFS on a machine with
multiple NICs, it never succeeds, because the initramfs configures all NICs
with the same IP address.
In more detail, the following happens:
o I have configured pxelinux to boot Linux kernel and set ipappend 3,
so that pxelinux appends ip= and BOOTIF= to kernel options. The
former contains the IP address and netmask (but no information on the
interface, which is logical, because it has no idea how will the kernel
name the interface). The latter contains the MAC address of the boot
interface.
o configure_networking() in scripts/functions inside the initramfs
correctly detects that BOOTIF was passed and sets the DEVICE variable
to the name of the right network device.
o Later, configure_networking() detects that the ip parameter contains
something complex (different from trivial things like any, off,
dhcp, ...) and runs ipconfig on all interfaces.
o Therefore, the DEVICE variable calculated from BOOTIF is not used at all.
A simple work-around exists: let pxelinux pass only the BOOTIF parameter
(ipappend 2) and add ip=dhcp manually, in which case configure_networking()
behaves correctly and runs ipconfig only on the matching interface. However,
(1) this is unnecessarily slow (DHCP is run twice, once in PXE and then in
the initramfs), (2) one should not need such tricks to get a working nfsroot.
I propose the following fix: In the complex ip parameter case (around line
393 in my version of the scripts/functions file), the DEVICE variable should
be checked and if it already set, ipconfig should be run only on the selected
device.
Also, the NEW_DEVICE logic below that call to ipconfig is likely wrong for the
same reason. I think it should be moved to the same place where the BOOTIF
check resides.
If you wish, I can provide a patch.
-- Package-specific info:
-- initramfs sizes
-- /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.9.2-kam
root=UUID=9a1f02a6-70f0-4958-821a-b603696c6d2d ro
-- /proc/filesystems
ext3
ext2
ext4
vfat
msdos
iso9660
romfs
udf
-- lsmod
Module Size Used by
usblp 9474 0
tun15607 2
deflate 1775 0
zlib_deflate 17451 1 deflate
ctr 3415 0
twofish_generic 6017 0
twofish_x86_64_3way18587 0
twofish_x86_64 5221 1 twofish_x86_64_3way
twofish_common 12753 3
twofish_generic,twofish_x86_64_3way,twofish_x86_64
camellia_generic 18041 0
camellia_x86_6443873 0
serpent_sse2_x86_6444621 0
serpent_generic18028 1 serpent_sse2_x86_64
xts 2687 3
camellia_x86_64,serpent_sse2_x86_64,twofish_x86_64_3way
lrw 3069 3
camellia_x86_64,serpent_sse2_x86_64,twofish_x86_64_3way
gf128mul5138 2 lrw,xts
glue_helper 3105 3
camellia_x86_64,serpent_sse2_x86_64,twofish_x86_64_3way
blowfish_generic3032 0
blowfish_x86_6413244 0
blowfish_common 6159 2 blowfish_generic,blowfish_x86_64
cast5_generic 10293 0
cast_common 4849 1 cast5_generic
ablk_helper 1556 1 serpent_sse2_x86_64
cryptd 6479 1 ablk_helper
xcbc2269 0
rmd160 7160 0
sha512_generic 4553 0
sha256_generic 9509 0
sha1_generic1822 0
crypto_null 2468 0
af_key 22195 0
xfrm_algo 4208 1 af_key
ip6t_REJECT 2428 3
xt_nat 1777 6
ipt_REJECT 2009 2
xt_LOG 9702 5
xt_limit1678 7
xt_state1151 3
xt_multiport1566 2
xt_DSCP 2003 2
xt_owner1107 3
xt_mark 1133 8
xt_connmark 1653 2
ip6table_filter 1284 1
ip6_tables 13824 1 ip6table_filter
iptable_mangle 1424 1
iptable_nat 2382 1
nf_conntrack_ipv4 6526 6
nf_defrag_ipv4 1259 1 nf_conntrack_ipv4
nf_nat_ipv4 2992 1 iptable_nat
nf_nat 11007 3 nf_nat_ipv4,xt_nat,iptable_nat
nf_conntrack 50975 6
nf_nat,xt_state,nf_nat_ipv4,xt_connmark,iptable_nat,nf_conntrack_ipv4
iptable_filter 1312 1
ip_tables 13378 3 iptable_filter,iptable_mangle,iptable_nat
x_tables 13511 16
ip6table_filter,xt_DSCP,xt_mark,ip_tables,xt_limit,xt_owner,xt_state,xt_LOG,xt_nat,xt_multiport,iptable_filter,xt_connmark,ipt_REJECT,iptable_mangle,ip6_tables,ip6t_REJECT
acpi_cpufreq6294 1
mperf 1107 1 acpi_cpufreq
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 24489 1
kvm_amd43896 0
snd_hda_codec_realtek26712 1
kvm
