Lan6_Conf section is unknown to freeipmi

[Wido den Hollander]

In bug #1645912 support for the Lan6_Conf section was added: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/freeipmi/+bug/1645912

This also worked on our Ubuntu 18.04 systems, but does not seem to work anymore on our Ubuntu 20.04 systems.

We use these systems:

- SuperMicro AS-1123US-TN10RT
- Dell R6525

In both case it works with Ubuntu 18.04, but with Ubuntu 20.04 I get this message:

root@hv-72-6-12:~# ipmi-config --checkout -S Lan6_Conf
Unknown section `Lan6_Conf', perhaps another category must be specified (see --category)
root@hv-72-6-12:~#

Attached is a file with the commands we execute to obtain the IPv6 address of the IPMI/iDRAC device.

[Lucas Kanashiro (lucaskanashiro)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and trying to make Ubuntu better.

Could you provide more information about the package version you are using? And I think you forgot to add the attachment you mentioned. I checked the package in Focal and it contains the fix that was applied in LP #1645912 (the bug you mentioned), so it is not clear to me that this is a regression.

I am setting the status of the bug to Incomplete, once you provide more information please set it back to New and we will take a look again.

[Wido den Hollander (wido)]

Thank you for the response!

ii freeipmi-common 1.6.4-3ubuntu1.1 all GNU implementation of the IPMI protocol - common files
ii freeipmi-tools 1.6.4-3ubuntu1.1 amd64 GNU implementation of the IPMI protocol - tools
ii libfreeipmi17 1.6.4-3ubuntu1.1 amd64 GNU IPMI - libraries

In this case it's a Dell R6515 server where the iDRAC and I can confirm that the iDRAC has IPv6 connectivity.

Through the WebUI of the iDRAC we can obtain the IPv6 address or calculate the address based on the MAC of the iDRAC.

This seems like a bug in freeipmi under Ubuntu 20.04

[Fantu (fantonifabio)]

trying "ipmi-config --listsections" Lan6_Conf is not listed (on Dell PE R740)
ipv6 support was added but like other things probably some parts are not available on all systems
from a fast look to code I don't understand if there is a bug/unexpected case related to this, probably is better report upstream

[Wido den Hollander (wido)]

I tried this on two Dell R6525 machines running. One with 18.04 the other with 20.04

On the 20.04 machine the Lan6_Conf section is missing.

** UBUNTU 18.04 **

root@hv-138-e14-25:~# dmidecode memory|grep R6525
        Product Name: PowerEdge R6525
        SKU Number: SKU=NotProvided;ModelName=PowerEdge R6525
root@hv-138-e14-25:~# ipmi-config --listsections|grep ^Lan
Lan_Channel
Lan_Conf
Lan6_Conf
Lan_Conf_Auth
Lan_Conf_Security_Keys
Lan_Conf_User_Security
Lan_Conf_Misc
root@hv-138-e14-25:~# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS
Release: 18.04
Codename: bionic
root@hv-138-e14-25:~#

** UBUNTU 20.04 **

root@hv-72-5-22:~# dmidecode memory|grep R6525
        Product Name: PowerEdge R6525
        SKU Number: SKU=NotProvided;ModelName=PowerEdge R6525
root@hv-72-5-22:~# ipmi-config --listsections|grep ^Lan
Lan_Channel
Lan_Conf
Lan_Conf_Auth
Lan_Conf_Security_Keys
Lan_Conf_User_Security
Lan_Conf_Misc
root@hv-72-5-22:~# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal

[Fantu (fantonifabio)]

found now that was disabled: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/freeipmi.git/commit/?id=e418a67daf30dd705bea6ffb6cb7e01a48f50278
I don't have time to test it in these days but if someone want I'll build a package in PPA with it enabled

[Wido den Hollander (wido)]

I would love to test this with a PPA package on one of our systems.

We rely on IPv6 for our IPMI systems and have now noticed this has broken after upgrading to 20.04

We follow a rather 'slow' process. We usually use HWE kernels for a longer period prior to upgrading. This is now breaking many of our processes.

[Fantu (fantonifabio)]

done an unofficial backport on my ppa (https://launchpad.net/~fantonifabio/+archive/ubuntu/backports) of 1.6.9-2 (not yet released) for ubuntu 20.04
if lan6_conf will be confirmed as working I'll upload 1.6.9-2 to debian unstable, later it will also be taken by the next version of ubuntu.
I don't know if I'll try to do a possible official backports (or stable proposed update with only patch) for Focal, as I saw for other fixes for cinnamon and nemo can require a very long time, we will see later.

[Sergio Durigan Junior (sergiodj)]

Thanks Wido for reporting the bug and Fantu for finding the underlying reason why it's not working.

As Fantu said, this code is disabled on Ubuntu Focal. It is extremely unlikely that we will re-enable it given that the code has been disabled because the upstream maintainer doesn't feel comfortable with the its current lack of resources to test this specific path.

Upon looking at current state of the code, I see it's still disabled. Personally, I would suggest that if you have the interest and the resources to test this feature, then you could get in touch with the upstream maintainer to get it re-enabled.

Since you expressed interest in a PPA with the feature enabled, I am providing you the following:

https://launchpad.net/~sergiodj/+archive/ubuntu/freeipmi-unsupported-lan6-config

Bear in mind that the PPA is completely unsupported and the package is untested. In other words, use at your own risk.

I will demote the importance of this bug to Low in order to reflect my opinion that it is very unlikely that it will be addressed in Ubuntu.

Thanks.

[Fantu (fantonifabio)]

An LTS version (Bionic) have it enabled and working (from 1.4.11-1.1ubuntu3), also other minor versions and there was a backport also to another LTS (Xenial) with 1.4.11-1.1ubuntu3~0.16.04, I saw no bugs reported related to it but this about its lack so is confirmed was used.
If someone will confirm that it is still working in the latest freeipmi version I'll activate it for the next build in debian unstable as previously written.
I don't use ipv6 on servers with ipmi at work at the moment (it would be useful but unfortunately only a few providers in Italy support it well :( ) but if I get the chance I'll do some quick tests too.

[Wido den Hollander (wido)]

See the attached file where I used the PPA from Fantu with an updated version of freeipmi.

The Lan6_Conf section is back as expected.

And yes, this seems like a major regression to me. This all worked fine under Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and is suddenly removed when going to a newer LTS version.

We depend on having this working. We have various tools which parse the output of 'ipmi-config' and record the IPv4 and IPv6 address of our IPMI en iDRAC systems this way.

For us this is a breaking bug.

[Fantu (fantonifabio)]

I reported upstream but after a diff from patch used in ubuntu 18.04 upstream have additional changes so before enable by default upstream more testing is needed, also a stable proposed update for ubuntu 20.04 is excluded
for the users that are using/will use latest version with lan6_conf section enabled, after testing it (not simple check that is present like the output in previous msg) please report if is working or there is bugs here: https://github.com/chu11/freeipmi-mirror/issues/53

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package freeipmi - 1.6.9-2

---------------
freeipmi (1.6.9-2) unstable; urgency=medium

  * d/rules: fix configure option for kfreebsd FTBFS (Closes: #998696)
  * d/patches/enable-lan6-conf.patch: enable ipmi-config lan6_conf
    section (LP: #1956213)
  * d/patches: add some upstream fixes
    - ipmi-config: Return int instead of uint8_t when a negative
      value can be returned. Cast to uint8_t when appropriate.
    - ipmi-config: correct IPv6 dynamic address checkout error
    - ipmi-config: do not output all IPv6 addresses by default,
      only output them all in verbose mode.
    - ipmi-config: fix output corner case due to missing error
      handling
    - libfreeipmi/cmds: fix invalid template check error

 -- Fabio Fantoni <email address hidden> Wed, 16 Feb 2022 20:46:59 +0100