init script disregards NFSROOT=auto option in some cases

[Gustavo Carneiro]

In my case, I'm using etherboot (old nbi format) with bootp. The etherboot ROM automatically adds a nfsroot=/var/lib/lessdisks option. Then, the init script sees the nfsroot kernel parameter and does:
{{{
        nfsroot=*)
                NFSROOT=${x#nfsroot=}
                ;;
}}}
That is, NFSROOT is now "/var/lib/lessdisks". However, the NFSROOT should have the form server:path, not just path, so the nfsmount step later in the boot fails due to missing nfs server. To solve the problem I had to change this to:
{{{
        nfsroot=*)
                if [ "$NFSROOT" != "auto" ]; then
                        NFSROOT=${x#nfsroot=}
                fi
                ;;
}}}
This makes the init script respect the "auto" setting, thus use the values returned from ipconfig to create a correct NFSROOT.

[Gustavo Carneiro (gjc)]

PS: bug is in file /usr/share/initramfs-tools/init

[RJ Clay (rjclay)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Can you try with latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[Peter Cordes (peter-cordes)]

This bug is a feature request for backward-compatible cmdline parsing.

NFSROOT is not a documented parameter in initramfs-tools(8), only nfsroot.

IMHO, people who have old ROMs that append stuff that's no longer compatible with current initramfs should do a two stage boot: have their ROM load pxelinux or something that can boot linux with the right parameters. AFAIK, this is possible. If it wasn't, I'd be more inclined to agree with the backward compat request.