setup doesn't copy /boot partition into image

[map7]

I'm using Xubuntu 14.04 64bit and I'm setting this up as a LTSP-PNP machine. I've setup the hard drive with /boot on a separate partition as I'm using LVM for the other partitions to allow for snapshots and easy resizing.

I followed the instructions from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/ltsp-pnp to build the system, using the following commands to build my image in this order

Update PXE config for kernels (LTSP-PNP specific) (must be done before building the image)
: /usr/share/ltsp/update-kernels

Build image
: ltsp-update-image --cleanup /

Update kernels
: ltsp-update-kernels

Generate LTS config
: ltsp-config lts.conf

When I try booting a thin client I get the error 'Could not find kernel image: vmlinuz'. After a lot of debugging and talking to people on IRC I found that the command 'ltsp-update-image -c /' was not copying my '/boot' contents as it was on a separate partition.

I could prove that nothing was in the image files /boot area by mounting the image in a loop back like so
: mount -o loop /opt/ltsp/images/amd64.img /mnt
: ls /mnt/boot
I found that there was only three files in there: gpxelinux.0 pxelinux.0 pxelinux.cfg

To get it working I had to do a hack
: mount /dev/mapper/xubuntu--vg-root /mnt
: cp /boot/* /mnt/boot
: umount /mnt
: ltsp-update-image -c /

After rebuilding the image this way I could boot the thin client without any problems. My /boot is an ext4 filesystem and is the first primary partition on the drive.

[Vagrant Cascadian (vagrantc)]

On 2014-08-03, map7 wrote:
> I'm using Xubuntu 14.04 64bit and I'm setting this up as a LTSP-PNP
> machine. I've setup the hard drive with /boot on a separate partition as
> I'm using LVM for the other partitions to allow for snapshots and easy
> resizing.
...
> Build image
> : ltsp-update-image --cleanup /
>
> Update kernels
> : ltsp-update-kernels
>
> Generate LTS config
> : ltsp-config lts.conf
>
> When I try booting a thin client I get the error 'Could not find kernel
> image: vmlinuz'. After a lot of debugging and talking to people on IRC I
> found that the command 'ltsp-update-image -c /' was not copying my
> '/boot' contents as it was on a separate partition.

I had to fix this in Debian, which uses aufs, by adding code in
ltsp-update-image to mount each mountpoint individually before making
the image. This used to not be required with overlayfs, which is what I
believe Ubuntu is using, but perhaps the overlayfs defaults have
changed?

live well,
  vagrant

[g (wgordonw1)]

I've encountered this using Ubuntu 14.04 as well

[g (wgordonw1)]

For other users encountering this issue on Ubuntu 14.04.2 the workaround is pretty much identical to the Xubuntu commands posted in the initial description. I've pasted them below for reference:

sudo -i
mount /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root /mnt
cp /boot/* /mnt/boot
umount /mnt
ltsp-update-image -c /
exit

[Alkis Georgopoulos (alkisg)]

Yes it appears that overlayfs no longer sees submounts, so a workaround is needed.
Unfortunately bind-mounting the submounts over the work dir makes it possible for the cleanup phase to *write* to them, as they would be "above" the COW, not below it.

This affects aufs as well.

Maybe a compromise could be to bind-mount them read-only on top of workdir...

[Alkis Georgopoulos (alkisg)]

Fix committed in http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ltsp-upstream/ltsp/ltsp-trunk/revision/2648

Can someone that uses a different /boot partition, download the new version of ltsp-update-image and test if it works?
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ltsp-upstream/ltsp/ltsp-trunk/view/head:/server/ltsp-update-image

Please also mention your kernel version, uname -a.

[David Groos (djgroos)]

Ran into this problem and caused a big slowdown in solving it, thanks to #ltsp for help. Please also support overlayfs for Ubuntu 14.04.

[David Groos (djgroos)]

Needing to re-solve this problem. Tried the fix provided by @alkisg in #5 (replacing ltsp-update-image with revision 2659). After replacing file and re-running sudo ltsp-update-image --cleanup / I got this message:
 "/usr/sbin/ltsp-update-image: 2: /usr/sbin/ltsp-update-image: Syntax error: newline unexpected"

Not sure what that means...

Machine info: Linux myserver 3.19.0-26-generic #28~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Aug 12 14:12:35 UTC 2015 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux

[Alkis Georgopoulos (alkisg)]

There were two issues involved here, because both were part of the same function in the LTSP code:
1) Copy the /boot partition into image. This was working with aufs (=Debian), but not with overlay (=newer Ubuntu) and overlayfs (older Ubuntu).
2) Support for the new upstream overlay file system (=newer Ubuntu and Debian) which replaced the older overlayfs one (=older Ubuntu).

In revision 2648 I fixed (2), but I only managed to push a lame workaround for (1).
In revision 2651, vagrantc properly fixed (1) for aufs and overlay, but he didn't notice the other fixes I did and he reverted them, so the lame workaround for overlayfs was removed, and support for (2) was also reverted.

Now, in revision 2661, I think I've properly solved both issues.

David, you should request an SRU for this fix, i.e. the ltsp-update-image script should be backported as is to at least Ubuntu 14.04, if not to all supported Ubuntu versions.
Links for how to request this:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification
When it's done, you'll receive the fixed version normally as a software update.

[Alkis Georgopoulos (alkisg)]

Fix released in LTSP 5.5.5.