Karmic installer does not prompt for iSCSI install

[sub.mesa]

Reading the release notes of karmic alpha's it clearly marks improvements to iSCSI support during install. But when i try this with karmic alpha6 amd64 in a Virtualbox VM, when it gets to the partition phase it simply lists no partitions at all and no option to activate iSCSI initiator. The open-iscsi package was not installed when booting from the livecd, and installing it did not affect the installer in my case.

I created both a forum thread and launchpad question regarding this issue, unfortunately i did not get a reply. Could anyone working on iSCSI support for the karmic installer point me how this is supposed to work? I could find no info regarding this using Google, and it doesn't work as described in the release notes, which state:

"The iSCSI installation process has been improved, and no longer requires iscsi=true as a boot parameter; the installer will offer you the option of logging into iSCSI targets if there are no local disks, or you can select "Configure iSCSI" in the manual partitioner. Putting the root filesystem on iSCSI is now supported. "

I did get no such "option of logging into iSCSI targets" when no local disks were present. Either this a bug, or i'm overseeing something but i would really appreciate any feedback regarding this. As i think a diskless ubuntu client is a pretty sleek feature for Ubuntu.

Anyone can point me how a diskless ubuntu system would be possible using the karmic installer? To be clear i want the Ubuntu system to have no local disks at all, and boot from PXE network and use iSCSI as protocol for a block-level storage device to install ubuntu to.

Additional info:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1271257

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Thanks for your report. This upload should fix it:

partman-iscsi (3) karmic; urgency=low

  * Change priority to standard to match overrides.
  * Stop checking disk-detect/iscsi/enable before deciding whether to offer
    an option in the partitioner, as that template doesn't exist any more.

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:37:20 +0100

In the meantime, as a workaround, you can boot with anna/choose_modules=partman-iscsi as a boot parameter, and select "login to iSCSI targets" in the driver choice menu it gives you after realising that there are no local disks.

[sub.mesa (sub-mesa)]

Thanks for your update. If i understand correctly, your fix will be included in the next Ubuntu 9.10 (beta) release?

You said i should have gotten a 'choice menu' when no local disks were found. However all i got was a blank list in the manual partitioner. In previous installs i first got a coloured representation of my partitions with some options, where one of those options is to manually partition. But in my case with Karmic alpha6 once it had gotten to the partition phase, it proceeded directly to the manual partitioner and displayed no partitions or devices and all buttons were grey. It would be nice if a more friendly message appeared notifying that no local disks were found, and gives a few options such as using iSCSI to install/boot from.

Are you saying i should have gotten such a message/menu? Is this a different bug?

Thanks alot for your feedback!

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

On Fri, Oct 02, 2009 at 08:15:28PM -0000, sub.mesa wrote:
> Thanks for your update. If i understand correctly, your fix will be
> included in the next Ubuntu 9.10 (beta) release?

Well, there won't be another beta release of 9.10, but it'll be in a
daily build shortly.

> You said i should have gotten a 'choice menu' when no local disks were
> found. However all i got was a blank list in the manual partitioner.

Normally if there were no local disks I'd expect a select question whose
text starts with "No disk drive was detected". It will always include an
option "continue with no disk drive", although there should also have
been an option "login to iSCSI targets" immediately below it; that
option was missing due to that bug.

Furthermore, in the manual partitioner, there should have been an option
"Configure iSCSI volumes". That option was also missing due to this bug.

[sub.mesa (sub-mesa)]

Alright thanks for your information. I'll retry with a newer release (RC probably) and will report back in this bug thread.

[sub.mesa (sub-mesa)]

I tried the 20091006 daily build, in a Virtualbox with no local disks. It still doesn't appear to give any possibility to use iSCSI. There's notification about no disks being detected, or any of that.

For your convenience i attached a screenshot, located at:
http://img40.yfrog.com/img40/4483/screenshotinstall.png

Please tell me if you need more information, or if i did something wrong. Should your fix be included in the 20091006 build?

[sub.mesa (sub-mesa)]

Ive tried the alternate cd image too, located here:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/20091006/

Still no option to use iscsi, i did get a screen about no disk being detected, with a list of drivers. Not any one contained "iscsi" or something like that. If i choose the first option "Continue with no disk" or something like that, it gets me to the partitioner which gives me three options that don't work:

Undo Changes to partitions
Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
Go back

Is it this screen where i should have an option to login into iSCSI targets? I still don't see any sign of iSCSI being supported or even mentioned anywhere. Booting with the anna/choose_modules=partman-iscsi boot parameter didn't help either, although i haven't done this with the normal desktop amd64 ISO yet, only the alternate.

I really hope you can make this work in time for 9.10 final. Thanks for all your work so far!

[Kevin Otte (nivex)]

sub.mesa: I responded to you in the forums but you must not have seen my post. The iSCSI installer only works on the *server* install CD. Give that a try and make sure that installer works. You can install the ubuntu-desktop package once booted into the installed OS if you want a desktop build.

[sub.mesa (sub-mesa)]

The server daily build ISO indeed worked, it did prompt me for iSCSI and install was a breeze, though setting up the network boot and mount root part is not. Some more documentation on this would be nice, especially now that Ubuntu has more or less "out of the box" support for iSCSI. For example, perhaps an initrd-iscsi.img file could be included on the cd. This is what people will need to make the mount root stuff working.

Also, is it intended that the desktop cd has no options to install to iSCSI targets, only the server cd? Or will this be resolved for the final release? If you ask me, the desktop cd wasn't very friendly to newbies, as it gave me an empty partition window when no disks are detected. This can happen in consumer systems if their controller is not connected, or if they want to install to network like me. Perhaps in the case of no disks being detected, the user should be given a warning screen explaining no local disks were detected, with the possibility to install to an iSCSI-target (and AoE or ATA-over-Ethernet would also be nice).

Cheers!

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

On Fri, Oct 09, 2009 at 01:35:46AM -0000, sub.mesa wrote:
> The server daily build ISO indeed worked, it did prompt me for iSCSI and
> install was a breeze, though setting up the network boot and mount root
> part is not. Some more documentation on this would be nice, especially
> now that Ubuntu has more or less "out of the box" support for iSCSI.

Perhaps you could file a separate bug on partman-iscsi with specifics.
The intention for 9.10 is that this works out of the box ...

> For example, perhaps an initrd-iscsi.img file could be included on the
> cd. This is what people will need to make the mount root stuff
> working.

We don't in general have space for multiple initrds. It is necessary to
make one initrd serve all purposes. In the case of the initrd used after
installation, that's generated by initramfs-tools and we can do some
dynamic things there; I can't tell from your comment whether you're
talking about the installer initrd or the installed-system initrd.

> Also, is it intended that the desktop cd has no options to install to
> iSCSI targets, only the server cd? Or will this be resolved for the
> final release?

This is intentional for the time being, as we did the iSCSI work for
this release as a server feature and it's a decent chunk of work to make
this available in the desktop installer as well. Feel free to file a
wishlist bug against ubiquity describing your situation.