[oneiric] Cannot start services on target during autoinstall

Bug #516528 reported by Thomas Ribbrock
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
debian-installer (Ubuntu)
Triaged
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: debian-installer

To automatically install identical workstations, we use preseeding in conjunction with a netboot. At the end of the installation, we need to configure some host-specific values on the machine. To do so, we use the following construct:

d-i preseed/late_command string \
[...]
in-target /tmp/set_hostspecific_values;

"set_hostspecific_values" is of course copied into the right directory first.

Within "set_hostspecific_values", we need to access NIS data related to that machine. In order to do so and use ypcat, we need to start up NIS. In Hardy/8.04, this was possible with
 /etc/init.d/portmap start
 /etc/init.d/nis start

In Karmic, this fails. With some digging I found that the portmap start fails with some message about portmap being converted to an upstart service and ends with
start: Unable to connect to Upstart: Failed to connect to socket /com/ubuntu/ upstart: Connection refused

Hence, the NIS start fails as well (as portmap is not running) and ypcat does not work. I have already found some hints at problems with Upstart and chroot environments (which is what the installer uses), so I'm not sure whether this is a bug in Upstart or in the installer. In any case, I would expect this to work in Karmic as it has in Hardy.

Revision history for this message
Thomas Ribbrock (emgaron+ubuntu) wrote :

For completeness: The workaround in this case is to call /sbin/portmap directly. However, I still think it should be easier to invoke services from the installer.

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Unfortunately Upstart doesn't work in a chroot yet, which rather impedes this. There's a separate bug about that ...

Changed in debian-installer (Ubuntu):
status: New → Triaged
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
Revision history for this message
Thomas Ribbrock (emgaron+ubuntu) wrote :

Why is this "wishlist"? This is functionality that was working and now is broken. That makes it a regression => bug, not a wish in my eyes.

Revision history for this message
Thomas Ribbrock (emgaron+ubuntu) wrote :

This is still a problem in oneiric - even worse, as /sbin/portmap does no longer exist...

summary: - [karmic] Cannot start services on target during autoinstall
+ [oneiric] Cannot start services on target during autoinstall
Revision history for this message
Thomas Ribbrock (emgaron+ubuntu) wrote :

For completeness: ypbind can be used once /sbin/rpcbind is started in chroot, so there is still a workaround for this regression bug.

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