FAI 3.2 Usage Changes
From FAIWiki
When trying to use FAI 3.2.X, there are some things you have to do:
Contents |
Installing FAI
There are quite some ways to look at the newest FAI versions:
The current state as available in Debian
- On Debian testing and unstable, just install the FAI packages as usual - this gets you the latest uploaded version
- On Debian Etch, use "deb http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/download etch koeln" in your sources list
The very brand new stuff available
- On any distribution (currently only tested with Etch, but others might also work), just use "deb http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/download unstable koeln"
- On Etch, take care! FAI 3.2.X uses the new software live-initramfs, which is not available in Etch. But we have it in the FAI repositories. The package is needed in the NFSROOT, so you also need to add the above entry to /etc/fai/apt/sources.list, then it can be installed into the nfsroot.
Kernel/Initrd changes
For network installs(everything that uses the nfsroot), the system now boots a normal Debian Kernel.
A pxelinux config for this style of booting looks like:
kernel vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-486 append root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=/srv/fai/nfsroot,v2,tcp,rsize=32768,wsize=32768 boot=live ip=dhcp initrd=initrd.img-2.6.18-5-486 FAI_FLAGS=verbose,sshd,createvt FAI_CONFIG_SRC=nfs://service-install/srv/fai/config/ FAI_ACTION=install
But normally, fai-chboot should set up these correctly for you! (you might need to do that manually, if you want to use a standard debian kernel with 3.1.x versions of FAI)
the kernel and initrd must be put into the tftp dir,srv/tftp/fai, by default.
Changing your boot setup
At least when testing this with Xen and Network installs, I needed to add some things to the nfsroot config for my guest domains. It's documented at the bottom of Using FAI to set up XEN domains.
For real hardware, I am not sure, but as far as I understood, the location of the nfsroot and fai configspace is not given anymore from dhcp, but must be given via PXE config. Someone who tested ot with real hardware might add missing info here...
fai-netinstall-boot-cd - formerly made with make-fai-bootfloppy
make-fai-bootfloppy isn'tr working anymore with these ne FAI releases.
But, there is a solution for people without PXE - fai-cd can create such a boot cd that mounts the root from NFS.
Quoting MrFai from IRC:
14:26 < Mrfai> this fai-cd still includes the nfsroot and the config space which isn't needed because you will use NFS.
14:26 < lazyb0y> (besides that: great news to me! :) )
14:26 < Mrfai> You only have to edit the kernel append parameters and add ip=dhcp and root=/dev/nfs and check if the order
is correct
14:27 < Mrfai> so, in the next version the menu.lst for the fai-cd will include an entry for network boot.
14:28 < lazyb0y> Mrfai: then, fai-cd should also contain some option to only create a cd with such a menu.lst - will build
faster than when it includes a lot of package that are not needed :)
14:28 < lazyb0y> (in this new/next version)
14:28 < Mrfai> lazyb0y: sure, this is my plan.
fai-cd changes
The fai-cd that is broken in the Etch release is working again - go and use it :)
And, it can be used for nfsroot-based booting when pxe doesn#t work for you - see section about fai-netinstall-boot-cd
