autoinstall suddenly fails
Hi all, I just ran into a bizzare problem: I'm currently creating/testing our auto-install, hence, I'm re-running it many, many times on two PCs. So far, I always used a floppy with "info" and "autoinst.xml" and a copy of CD 1 to boot. I would then select "Install", the installer would find "info" on the floppy and the rest would happen magically from there. In fact, I have reinstalled the second of the two PCs that way just yesterday. Today, however, I'm trying to reinstall the first PC - and am getting nowhere. It starts the install, I can see the message "searching for info file" (or suchlike) on the screen and the floppy drive spins up. Then it proceeds into the graphical installer (my auto-install uses text-only) and prepares for auto-installation (so it *must* have found the info file as such) - but hangs, asking for a profile for the machine. If I give "floppy:///autoinst.xml" as answer to that, it will happily continue, though it tries to install from CD-ROM (instead of via network, as defined in the info file). If I choose "Network Install" manually right at the start, I can get the autoinstall working. It looks as if it *does* find 'info' on the floppy (hence starts in auto-install mode), but for some odd reasons refuses to read the actual contents. I'm completely puzzled as to why this would happen, as I have installed that very machine several times that way. Hence, if there is anyone out there with a brainwave as to where to look to fix (or even just investigate) this, I'd be most grateful... Cheerio, Thomas
On Tuesday 03 January 2006 14:54, T. Ribbrock wrote:
Today, however, I'm trying to reinstall the first PC - and am getting nowhere. It starts the install, I can see the message "searching for info file" (or suchlike) on the screen and the floppy drive spins up. Then it proceeds into the graphical installer (my auto-install uses text-only) and prepares for auto-installation (so it *must* have found the info file as such) - but hangs, asking for a profile for the machine.
at that stage, switch to the console via CTRL+ALT+F2 and take a look at /etc/install.inf That file should reflect some info file parameter including the autoyast=... line and the "InstMode","Serverdir" and "ServerIP" for remote installations. If that looks good, take a look at "/var/log/YaST2/y2log" too. Near to the end you should see what autoyast has tried to get the profile. Maybe you can see some errors logged there. -- ciao, Uwe Gansert Uwe Gansert, Server Technologies Team SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5, D-90409 Nuernberg, Germany e-mail: uwe.gansert@suse.de, Tel: +49-(0)911-74053-0, Fax: +49-(0)911-74053-476, Web: http://www.suse.de
On Tue, Jan 03, 2006 at 03:39:09PM +0100, Uwe Gansert wrote:
at that stage, switch to the console via CTRL+ALT+F2 and take a look at /etc/install.inf That file should reflect some info file parameter including the autoyast=... line and the "InstMode","Serverdir" and "ServerIP" for remote installations.
Nope - none of the information matches what's actually in "info". InstMode is 'cd' (should be network) and no network info is present. What strikes me as odd is that "Floppydisk" says "/dev/sdb" - strange...
If that looks good, take a look at "/var/log/YaST2/y2log" too. Near to the end you should see what autoyast has tried to get the profile. Maybe you can see some errors logged there.
The only thing I can see in there is that 'info' was indeed found on the floppy - but no hint as to whether it was read or why it wasn't. :-( Thanks for the suggestions! Cheerio, Thomas
On Tue, Jan 03, 2006 at 05:34:53PM +0100, T. Ribbrock wrote:
On Tue, Jan 03, 2006 at 03:39:09PM +0100, Uwe Gansert wrote: [...]
/etc/install.inf That file should reflect some info file parameter [...] What strikes me as odd is that "Floppydisk" says "/dev/sdb" - strange...
And THAT was the give-away... <drum-roll> There was a USB stick in one of the USB ports! Once I removed it, the auto-install went as usual. This makes me feeling stupid for not checking before - and curious: Does the autoinstaller always check USB sticks first before reading the information from the floppy? It's kind of weird - the autoinstaller finds the 'info' file on the floppy but then proceeds to read the rest from the USB stick - which fails, as there is no 'info' nor 'autoinst.xml' on that stick. Is this desired behaviour or some oddity related to the actual PC in question? Cheerio, Thomas
On Wednesday 04 January 2006 08:50, T. Ribbrock wrote:
What strikes me as odd is that "Floppydisk" says "/dev/sdb" - strange...
And THAT was the give-away... <drum-roll> There was a USB stick in one of the USB ports! Once I removed it, the auto-install went as usual.
Ah. So we can close that X-File ;)
This makes me feeling stupid for not checking before - and curious: Does the autoinstaller always check USB sticks first before reading the information from the floppy? It's kind of weird - the autoinstaller finds the 'info' file on the floppy but then proceeds to read the rest from the USB stick - which fails, as there is no 'info' nor 'autoinst.xml' on that stick. Is this desired behaviour or some oddity related to the actual PC in question?
those are two completely different componets. First linuxrc looks for the info file and can find it on the "real" floppy. Then later, autoyast tries to access the floppy too to read the profile and it looks like that yast has a different opinion on what is the floppy disc than linuxrc had. I can't say if this is a general problem or if this is hardware dependant but at least it's explainable ;) -- ciao, Uwe Gansert Uwe Gansert, Server Technologies Team SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5, D-90409 Nuernberg, Germany e-mail: uwe.gansert@suse.de, Tel: +49-(0)911-74053-0, Fax: +49-(0)911-74053-476, Web: http://www.suse.de
On Wed, Jan 04, 2006 at 11:29:37AM +0100, Uwe Gansert wrote:
those are two completely different componets. First linuxrc looks for the info file and can find it on the "real" floppy. Then later, autoyast tries to access the floppy too to read the profile and it looks like that yast has a different opinion on what is the floppy disc than linuxrc had. I can't say if this is a general problem or if this is hardware dependant but at least it's explainable ;)
<g> Still have a question, though: Which of the two is creating /etc/install.inf ? 'cause in that file the floppy was already listed as /dev/sdb, i.e. the USB stick. Cheerio, Thomas (who will add a huge warning to the auto-install he's going to write for the company... ;-) )
On Wednesday 04 January 2006 11:44, T. Ribbrock wrote:
<g> Still have a question, though: Which of the two is creating /etc/install.inf ? 'cause in that file the floppy was already listed as /dev/sdb, i.e. the USB stick.
somehow I saw that question coming. ;) Unfortunately I can't answer it. I have to dig for that by myself. I thought it's only linuxrc but maybe that's wrong. Or linuxrc has a bug in the "Floppydisk" parameter detection. I'm sorry. I don't know ATM. -- ciao, Uwe Gansert Uwe Gansert, Server Technologies Team SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5, D-90409 Nuernberg, Germany e-mail: uwe.gansert@suse.de, Tel: +49-(0)911-74053-0, Fax: +49-(0)911-74053-476, Web: http://www.suse.de
On Wed, Jan 04, 2006 at 12:01:39PM +0100, Uwe Gansert wrote:
somehow I saw that question coming. ;)
Whoops, am I that predictable? ;-)
Unfortunately I can't answer it. I have to dig for that by myself. I thought it's only linuxrc but maybe that's wrong. Or linuxrc has a bug in the "Floppydisk" parameter detection. I'm sorry. I don't know ATM.
No prob - happy digging! Is it of any use for you if I create a bug report for this? Cheerio, Thomas
On Wednesday 04 January 2006 16:32, T. Ribbrock wrote:
Unfortunately I can't answer it. I have to dig for that by myself. I thought it's only linuxrc but maybe that's wrong. Or linuxrc has a bug in the "Floppydisk" parameter detection. I'm sorry. I don't know ATM.
No prob - happy digging! Is it of any use for you if I create a bug report for this?
hm, can't hurt. Yes, do so please. Then I can assign it to the right people because it's not a bug in autoyast. -- ciao, Uwe Gansert Uwe Gansert, Server Technologies Team SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5, D-90409 Nuernberg, Germany e-mail: uwe.gansert@suse.de, Tel: +49-(0)911-74053-0, Fax: +49-(0)911-74053-476, Web: http://www.suse.de
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