Public bug reported: Binary package hint: partman-iscsi
Now that the server daily karmic builds support installing to iSCSI targets with no local disks present, this makes diskless ubuntu systems possible. While the installation itself was very easy, setting up the network boot correctly afterwards is not. Both conflicting and outdated information on the web leads to confusion, and no official documentation exists to get this thing working. Basically, to install Ubuntu to iSCSI the general order of setup is: - Setup DHCP, TFTP, iSCSI-target on the server OS (in my case this is FreeNAS) - Boot from Ubuntu server cd, during the partitioner select "Login to iSCSI target" or something similar - Installation will finish and it would want to reboot - After rebooting, there is no local disk to boot from. So the boot will fail. - After setting up DHCP and TFTP, the network boot works and Ubuntu kernel gets loaded - The Ubuntu kernel needs access to the network interface and iSCSI-enabled initial ramdisk (initrd), to allow access to the iSCSI root device which Ubuntu has been installed to. This is where i am currently stuck. - After mounting root, Ubuntu can continue to boot. I haven't reached this step yet. So, the issue is with having a proper initrd file that supports iSCSI, and having the correct contents of the pxelinux.cfg file together with DHCP root-path data. Perhaps this whole procedure would be alot more easy if: 1) ubuntu has an initrd-iscsi file somewhere that's compatible with my current kernel/distribution 2) there are clear instructions/documentations on how to properly setup initrd yourself 3) the installer configures the initrd properly so you don't need to do it; it should also prompt to upload this file or some other way to get it on your TFTP server. For example, after installation to iSCSI target is successful, it can help the user alot by automating things needed to make the booting work. Right now all it does is install to the iSCSI device but it won't ever get the chance to access this information again -- unless the TFTP/DHCP services are correctly setup. Perhaps a sample compressed archive containing a basic working TFTP setup could be presented to the user. This file could be sent to the TFTP server, extracted, and the network boot thing should work out of the box. This is much more user friendly than the current installation. At least - i won't get this thing working without help. If that's the case there are likely more people like me. That said iSCSI on root is rather new for Ubuntu, i really hope we can make this feature work with less problems/effort. More info, previous bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/partman-iscsi/+bug/435290 Forum topic containing contents of DHCP/TFTP setup: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8074893#post8074893 ** Affects: partman-iscsi (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New -- iSCSI installation on root too complicated https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/447377 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
