Create pxe netboot images for KVM s390x

[Frank Heimes]

With 17.10 it's now possible (with some extra steps) to use PXE netboot with KVM on s390x.
To make the most out of it we should have official s390x KVM (PXE) netboot images, at least starting with bionic, but better already for artful (to get things stabilized for bionic).

As folder and location I suggest to follow the same approach like we ave for other architectures:
http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/dists/artful/main/installer-s390x/current/images/generic/
http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/dists/artful/main/installer-s390x/current/images/netboot/

Having a netboot image would be a step towards further usage (like MAAS ...).

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

thanks for summarizing our POC work so far - ack for qemu.

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Thanks xnox for your post to the https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=685134 discussion in regard to this bug here. I like it, interested to see a reply there.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package qemu - 1:2.11+dfsg-1ubuntu1

---------------
qemu (1:2.11+dfsg-1ubuntu1) bionic; urgency=medium

  * Merge with Debian testing, among other fixes this includes
    - fix fatal error on negative maxcpus (LP: #1722495)
    - fix segfault on dump-guest-memory on guests without memory (LP: #1723381)
    - linux user threading issues (LP: #1350435)
    - TOD-Clock Epoch Extension Support on s390x (LP: #1732691)
    Remaining changes:
    - qemu-kvm to systemd unit
      - d/qemu-kvm-init: script for QEMU KVM preparation modules, ksm,
        hugepages and architecture specifics
      - d/qemu-kvm.service: systemd unit to call qemu-kvm-init
      - d/qemu-system-common.install: install systemd unit and helper script
      - d/qemu-system-common.maintscript: clean old sysv and upstart scripts
      - d/qemu-system-common.qemu-kvm.default: defaults for
        /etc/default/qemu-kvm
      - d/rules: install /etc/default/qemu-kvm
    - Enable nesting by default
      - set nested=1 module option on intel. (is default on amd)
      - re-load kvm_intel.ko if it was loaded without nested=1
      - d/p/ubuntu/expose-vmx_qemu64cpu.patch: expose nested kvm by default
        in qemu64 cpu type.
      - d/p/ubuntu/enable-svm-by-default.patch: Enable nested svm by default
        in qemu64 on amd
    - libvirt/qemu user/group support
      - qemu-system-common.postinst: remove acl placed by udev, and add udevadm
        trigger.
      - qemu-system-common.preinst: add kvm group if needed
    - Distribution specific machine type
      - d/p/ubuntu/define-ubuntu-machine-types.patch: define distro machine
        types to ease future live vm migration.
      - d/qemu-system-x86.NEWS Info on fixed machine type defintions
    - improved dependencies
      - Make qemu-system-common depend on qemu-block-extra
      - Make qemu-utils depend on qemu-block-extra
      - let qemu-utils recommend sharutils
    - s390x support
      - Create qemu-system-s390x package
      - Include s390-ccw.img firmware
      - Enable numa support for s390x
    - ppc64[le] support
      - d/qemu-system-ppc.links provide usr/bin/qemu-system-ppc64le symlink
    - arch aware kvm wrappers
  * Added Changes
    - update VCS-git to match the bionic branch
    - sdl2 is yet too unstable for the LTS Ubuntu release given the reports
      we still see upstream and in Debian - furthermore sdl2 isn't in main yet,
      so we revert related changes to stick with the proven for now:
      - 0fd25810 - do not build-depend on libx11-dev (libsdl2-dev already
                   depends on it)
      - 9594f820 - switch from sdl1.2 to sdl2 (#870025)
    - d/qemu-system-x86.README.Debian: document intention of nested being
      default is comfort, not full support
    - update Ubuntu machine types for qemu 2.11
    - qemu-guest-agent: freeze-hook fixes (LP: #1484990)
      - d/p/guest-agent-freeze-hook-skip-dpkg-artifacts.patch
      - d/qemu-guest-agent.install: provide /etc/qemu/fsfreeze-hook
      - d/qemu-guest-agent.dirs: provide /etc/qemu/fsfreeze-hook.d
    - Create and install pxe netboot images for KVM s390x (LP: #1732094)
      - d/rules enable install s390x-netbo...

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

What is the high-level goal here? The bug description says:

> Having a netboot image would be a step towards further usage (like MAAS ...).

But d-i netboot images are not a precursor to MAAS netboot support for the architecture; these are entirely separate codebases. d-i is also not a recommended install method for KVM instances: we recommend either boot-in-place cloud images, or, in the case of MAAS KVM pods, you would use MAAS netboot + curtin.

d-i is thus not really on the roadmap at all for Canonical's scale infrastructure products, and would not be a priority for Foundations to implement without some other external driver. Should this bug be reassigned to maas/maas-images/curtin?