F17 on AWS EC2

[Joseph VLcek]

I am trying to upgrade an AWS EC2 f16 to f17 following these instructions:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum#Fedora_16_-.3E_F...

I start with AMI:  ami-0316d86a as listed here:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Cloud_SIG/EC2_Images

The instructions describe:
"Change the following kernel commandline parameter directly in the bootloader menu,
which
is shown during bootup, or edit the line in /etc/grub*.cfg to remove ro and rhgb and
append rw
rd.info rd.convertfs enforcing=0"

However /etc/grub*.cfg is empty:
[root@domU-12-31-39-04-F1-72 etc]# file /etc/grub2.cfg
/etc/grub2.cfg: symbolic link to `../boot/grub2/grub.cfg'
[root@domU-12-31-39-04-F1-72 etc]# file ../boot/grub2/grub.cfg 
../boot/grub2/grub.cfg: empty

Am I doing something wrong?

How can one get a f17 EC2 instance?

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions.

Joe VLcek

[Robyn Bergeron]

On 02/21/2012 02:49 PM, Joseph VLcek wrote:
>  I am trying to upgrade an AWS EC2 f16 to f17 following these 
>  instructions:
>  http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum#Fedora_16_-.3E_F...
>
>  I start with AMI:  ami-0316d86a as listed here:
>  https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Cloud_SIG/EC2_Images
>
>  The instructions describe:
>  "Change the following kernel commandline parameter directly in the 
>  bootloader menu, which
>  is shown during bootup, or edit the line in /etc/grub*.cfg to remove 
>  ro and rhgb and append rw
>  rd.info <http://rd.info> rd.convertfs enforcing=0"
>
>  However /etc/grub*.cfg is empty:
>  [root@domU-12-31-39-04-F1-72 etc]# file /etc/grub2.cfg
>  /etc/grub2.cfg: symbolic link to `../boot/grub2/grub.cfg'
>  [root@domU-12-31-39-04-F1-72 etc]# file ../boot/grub2/grub.cfg
>  ../boot/grub2/grub.cfg: empty
>
>  Am I doing something wrong?
>
>  How can one get a f17 EC2 instance?
>
>  Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions.
>
>  Joe VLcek 
Hi Joe,

Thanks for your note.

I think the main thing to note here is that the instructions you're 
looking at aren't necessarily geared towards EC2 - EC2 has some subtle 
differences (including around grub) that may be making these 
instructions slightly incompatible for upgrading from F16 to F17 on EC2.

As you probably saw, the notes say that F17 isn't out yet - and that's 
still the case, of course.  We're expecting F17 Alpha to land next week 
on Tuesday (barring any unforeseen delays), and I expect that we'll be 
uploading the F17 Alpha to EC2 as well.

In the interim, a few notes to everyone on list:

* Can someone more technical than me (that would be most readers of this 
list, teehee) give a slightly better explanation or etc. as to what 
might be going on here for Joe?

* Could someone perhaps look into the page referenced 
(http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum#Fedora_16_-.3E_F... 
) and seeing about (a) if those steps *should* be compatible with EC2, 
and (b) if not, figure out if we should have some sort of note on there 
saying "this doesn't apply to EC2, please go $here ... and (c) figure 
out the $here part? :D

-Robyn
>  _______________________________________________
>  cloud mailing list
>  cloud(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/cloud

[Max Spevack]

On Tue, 21 Feb 2012, Robyn Bergeron wrote:

>  * Can someone more technical than me (that would be most readers of 
>  this list, teehee) give a slightly better explanation or etc. as to 
>  what might be going on here for Joe? 
Someone even more technical is probably going to have to shore this up 
behind me... but I'll give it a shot.

It has something to do with the interplacy between grub and grub2. 
Fedora 16 introduced grub2, which was great everywhere except for EC2, 
because (and now I'm hand waving) PV-GRUB (which EC2 uses) and grub2 
don't (or at the time of F16's release didn't) get along well.

The instructions you are following simply won't work, and show the need 
for an "Upgrading Fedora in EC2" doc.  Though the truth is that 
especially because Fedora images in EC2 are all EBS-backed, you should 
be able to just launch a F17 image (when it exists), attach your 
snapshot, and be off and running.  Part of the EC2 mentality is that you 
just spin up a new instance when you need it, and you separate Important 
Data from OS Guts as much as possible.

Anyway, you could try to modify the instructions to use 
/boot/grub/grub.conf -- and figure out why /boot/grub/grub.conf and 
/boot/grub/menu.lst are different files -- I thought that one was 
usually a symlink to the other.

Alternatively, you could bug the Release Engineering team and ask them 
if F17 Alpha images are going to be released on the F17 Alpha release 
date of Feb 28. -- http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/17/Schedule

And now is when someone like gholms comes into the thread and tells me 
everything that is wrong here, and makes it all make sense.  :)

--Max

[Max Spevack]

On Tue, 21 Feb 2012, Max Spevack wrote:

>  It has something to do with the interplacy between grub and grub2. 
>  Fedora 16 introduced grub2, which was great everywhere except for EC2, 
>  because (and now I'm hand waving) PV-GRUB (which EC2 uses) and grub2 
>  don't (or at the time of F16's release didn't) get along well. 
> From 
http://www.practicalclouds.com/content/guide/create-your-own-fedora-16-am...

We need to set up GRUB so that the Amazon Kernel Image can boot into our 
new kernel and initial ram disk.  Fedora 16 uses the Grub2 boot loader 
by default, but we don't have access to a Grub2 AKI on Amazon AWS so we 
can't use it, however, this is not a problem as we can still boot our 
Fedora 16 instances from Grub version 1 without any issues."

--Max

[Brian Burns]

On 02/21/2012 04:49 PM, Joseph VLcek wrote:
>  I am trying to upgrade an AWS EC2 f16 to f17 following these
> instructions:
>  http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum#Fedora_16_-.3E_F...
>
>  I start with AMI: ami-0316d86a as listed here:
>  https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Cloud_SIG/EC2_Images
>
>  The instructions describe:
>  "Change the following kernel commandline parameter directly in the
>  bootloader menu, which
>  is shown during bootup, or edit the line in /etc/grub*.cfg to remove ro
>  and rhgb and append rw
>  rd.info <http://rd.info> rd.convertfs enforcing=0"
>
>  However /etc/grub*.cfg is empty:
>  [root@domU-12-31-39-04-F1-72 etc]# file /etc/grub2.cfg
>  /etc/grub2.cfg: symbolic link to `../boot/grub2/grub.cfg'
>  [root@domU-12-31-39-04-F1-72 etc]# file ../boot/grub2/grub.cfg
>  ../boot/grub2/grub.cfg: empty
>
>  Am I doing something wrong?
>
>  How can one get a f17 EC2 instance?
>
>  Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions.
>
>  Joe VLcek 
Hey Joe,

I just setup a F16 EC2 using that same AMI, so I thought I'd chime in.
This is the page you need.
http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/UserProvidedker...

In a nutshell, you launch that AMI and select the PV-GRUB kernel image.
Most likely this one:
aki-825ea7eb ec2-public-images/pv-grub-hd0_1.02-x86_64.gz.manifest.xml

Then, you can uninstall grub if you like... the only file you need at 
this point is /boot/grub/menu.lst, which you'll have to manually update 
whenever you update the kernel.

[Joseph VLcek]

On Feb 22, 2012, at 2:57 AM, Brian Burns wrote:

>  On 02/21/2012 04:49 PM, Joseph VLcek wrote:
> > I am trying to upgrade an AWS EC2 f16 to f17 following these instructions:
> > http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum#Fedora_16_-.3E_F...
> > 
> > I start with AMI: ami-0316d86a as listed here:
> > https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Cloud_SIG/EC2_Images
> > 
> > The instructions describe:
> > "Change the following kernel commandline parameter directly in the
> > bootloader menu, which
> > is shown during bootup, or edit the line in /etc/grub*.cfg to remove ro
> > and rhgb and append rw
> > rd.info <http://rd.info> rd.convertfs enforcing=0"
> > 
> > However /etc/grub*.cfg is empty:
> > [root@domU-12-31-39-04-F1-72 etc]# file /etc/grub2.cfg
> > /etc/grub2.cfg: symbolic link to `../boot/grub2/grub.cfg'
> > [root@domU-12-31-39-04-F1-72 etc]# file ../boot/grub2/grub.cfg
> > ../boot/grub2/grub.cfg: empty
> > 
> > Am I doing something wrong?
> > 
> > How can one get a f17 EC2 instance?
> > 
> > Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions.
> > 
> > Joe VLcek
>  
>  Hey Joe,
>  
>  I just setup a F16 EC2 using that same AMI, so I thought I'd chime in.
>  This is the page you need.
>
> http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/UserProvidedker...
>  
>  In a nutshell, you launch that AMI and select the PV-GRUB kernel image.
>  Most likely this one:
>  aki-825ea7eb ec2-public-images/pv-grub-hd0_1.02-x86_64.gz.manifest.xml
>  
>  Then, you can uninstall grub if you like... the only file you need at this point is
> /boot/grub/menu.lst, which you'll have to manually update whenever you update the
> kernel.
>  _______________________________________________
>  cloud mailing list
>  cloud(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/cloud 

Thank you all for the replies!

I appreciate the help.

Joe