FAI is out of date

[stephen mulcahy]

Latest FAI at http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/ is 3.2.16
Latest stable Debian package is also at 3.2.16 http://packages.debian.org/lenny/fai-server

This release contains significant improvements including a better partitioning tool.
I've been testing FAI on ubuntu and running into lots of small problems even completing the quickstart process - I can document these but may make more sense to start from a newer baseline.

Can we get the newest version for Jaunty?

[adrian15 (adrian15)]

I have made a repository that works for Ubuntu Intrepid. It actually servers Ubuntu Intrepid to client while on default installation you can only serve Hardy to the clients.

Many of the bugs that I have solved I think will be repeated in Jaunty.

So it is worth for Ubuntu fai developers to take a look at it.

The repository is here: https://launchpad.net/~adrian15/+archive/fai

[Russ Allbery (rra-debian)]

adrian15 <email address hidden> writes:

> I have made a repository that works for Ubuntu Intrepid. It actually
> servers Ubuntu Intrepid to client while on default installation you
> can only serve Hardy to the clients.
>
> Many of the bugs that I have solved I think will be repeated in Jaunty.
>
> So it is worth for Ubuntu fai developers to take a look at it.

Have you filed bugs against initramfs-tools and live-initramfs in either
Launchpad or in the Debian BTS (probably best to do both, since I think
Ubuntu gets them mostly from Debian) with the necessary changes?

--
Russ Allbery (<email address hidden>) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>

[adrian15 (adrian15)]

>Have you filed bugs against initramfs-tools and live-initramfs in either
>Launchpad or in the Debian BTS (probably best to do both, since I think
>Ubuntu gets them mostly from Debian) with the necessary changes?

Yes, I have done it in both initramfs-tools and live-initramfs (and also in busybox) in launchpad.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/live-initramfs/+bug/320623

I cannot file the bugs to Debian BTS because nobody at the official FAI mailing list complains about having problems with Debian. So this is an Ubuntu specific problem.

I have also attached some patches to same bug. Although they are workarounds because I use OR sentences for the mount syntax problem. It would be great if we knew what were the exact mount syntax to use (in each ocassion) and if it broke another Ubuntu package or not.

Let's hope that some Ubuntu live-initramfs and initramfs-tools experts read the bug.

I have not tried FAI for Jaunty but I have heard that it was broken. At least I have fixed FAI for Intrepid.

[Russ Allbery (rra-debian)]

adrian15 <email address hidden> writes:

> Yes, I have done it in both initramfs-tools and live-initramfs (and also
> in busybox) in launchpad.
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/live-initramfs/+bug/320623

Excellent, thank you!

--
Russ Allbery (<email address hidden>) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>

[Ro (robert-markula)]

Well, to report directly from the front, FAI is horribly broken in Jaunty. Even with FAI 3.2.20 from the http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/download archive, initramfs-tools and live-initramfs pose serious problems. So far I could not find a solution.

So an up-to-date package would be seriously needed. Ubuntu for the enterprise, anyone?

[Stephan Rügamer (sruegamer)]

I'm setting the target jaunty to "Won't Fix" because we won't be able to fix this for jaunty anymore.
Actually we need to make sure that we update FAI for karmic, or we remove that package from karmic and deal with readding later for karmic+1 when we fixed this package in general

[stephen mulcahy (stephen-mulcahy)]

I'd suggest removing it entirely until such time as it works. Or at least add a big readme clarifying the known, non-working status of it in Ubuntu.

[Henning Sprang (henning)]

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 1:35 PM, stephen
mulcahy<email address hidden> wrote:
> I'd suggest removing it entirely until such time as it works. Or at
> least add a big readme clarifying the known, non-working status of it in
> Ubuntu.
>

I also thought about letting FAI be removed.

But fai-client works well and can be used for configuration management
for systems installed manually, with images, or with D-I.

fai dirinstall (for chroots and virtualization environments) should
also work well.

Maybe the fai-server might be removed, I'm not sure.

Henning

[Stephan Rügamer (sruegamer)]

FAI is back on track for maverick.