Bootloader --append option support?

[Ian Main]

Howdy list!

So I've been working on adding serial console support to ovirt (http://ovirt.org).  We
use livecd-tools to create our images.  I wanted to add the serial console to the kernel
command line but found there was no real easy way to do this (I'm using
livecd-tools-017.1-1.fc9.x86_64). 

I see in the kickstart documentation that a --append flag is available to the
'bootloader' config option.  However, it is ignored by livecd-creator.  I was
poking through the code and there's an 'extras' variable in the kernel command
building, so the idea is there, it's just not hooked up.

Anyway, I was poking around in there so I could do up a patch, unless there's someone
already mucking about or wants to fix that up.  Let me know.  I'm hoping this would be
considered a bug and would go out in a point release?

Thanks,

  Ian

[Jeremy Katz]

On Thu, 2008-08-07 at 12:30 -0700, Ian Main wrote:
>  I see in the kickstart documentation that a --append flag is
> available to the 'bootloader' 
>  config option.  However, it is ignored by livecd-creator.  I was poking through the code
> and there's 
>  an 'extras' variable in the kernel command building, so the idea is there,
> it's just not hooked up.
>  
>  Anyway, I was poking around in there so I could do up a patch, unless there's someone
> already 
>  mucking about or wants to fix that up.  Let me know.  I'm hoping this would be
> considered a bug 
>  and would go out in a point release? 
Yeah, that seems like a bug.  So I'd be more than glad to see a patch
for it :-)

Jeremy

[Bryan Kearney]

Ian Main wrote:
>  Howdy list!
>  
>  So I've been working on adding serial console support to ovirt (http://ovirt.org). 
> We use livecd-tools to create our images.  I wanted to add the serial console to the
> kernel command line but found there was no real easy way to do this (I'm using
> livecd-tools-017.1-1.fc9.x86_64). 
>  
>  I see in the kickstart documentation that a --append flag is available to the
> 'bootloader' config option.  However, it is ignored by livecd-creator.  I was
> poking through the code and there's an 'extras' variable in the kernel command
> building, so the idea is there, it's just not hooked up.
>  
>  Anyway, I was poking around in there so I could do up a patch, unless there's someone
> already mucking about or wants to fix that up.  Let me know.  I'm hoping this would be
> considered a bug and would go out in a point release?
>  
>  Thanks,
>  
>    Ian 
I am seeing the append flag being used by the appliance creator. Any 
reason to (1) not use appliance creator or (2) ignore this in livecd tools?

-- bk

Bryan Kearney wrote:
>  I am seeing the append flag being used by the appliance creator. Any
>
>  reason to (1) not use appliance creator or (2) ignore this in livecd tools? 
ad (1) oVirt Node image is normal livecd image, while appliance-creator produces disk
image
ad (2) this clearly a livecd-tools bug which needs to be fixed

[Bryan Kearney]

Alan Pevec wrote:
>  Bryan Kearney wrote:
> > I am seeing the append flag being used by the appliance creator. Any 
> > reason to (1) not use appliance creator or (2) ignore this in livecd 
> > tools?
>  
>  ad (1) oVirt Node image is normal livecd image, while appliance-creator 
>  produces disk image
>  ad (2) this clearly a livecd-tools bug which needs to be fixed 

On (2) I typed poorly. I did not know why livecd would need/want to 
ignore this.

[Michael Prisant]

This is probably obvious but insofar as the livecd toolset is used to
produce a pxe booted image (as with the stock livecd-iso-to-pxeboot script
or a hacked variant), the relevant serial console options can be appended to
the  append line  in the relevant stanza of the pxeboot file.  For example
here is an excerpted stanza from the "default" file in my
/var/lib/tftpboot/linux-install/pxelinux.cfg directory:

LABEL pxelive
  KERNEL vmlinuz0
  APPEND initrd=initrd0.img,iso.cpio.gz root=/livecd.iso rootfstype=iso9660
rootflags=loop selinux=0 console=ttyS0,57600n8


On Fri, Aug 8, 2008 at 12:35 PM, Alan Pevec <apevec(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:

>  Bryan Kearney wrote:
>
> > I am seeing the append flag being used by the appliance creator. Any
> > reason to (1) not use appliance creator or (2) ignore this in livecd tools?
> >
>
>  ad (1) oVirt Node image is normal livecd image, while appliance-creator
>  produces disk image
>  ad (2) this clearly a livecd-tools bug which needs to be fixed
>
>
>  --
>  Fedora-livecd-list mailing list
>  Fedora-livecd-list(a)redhat.com
>  https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-livecd-list
>  


-- 
Michael G. Prisant,
Durham, NC

[Ian Main]

On Fri, 8 Aug 2008 12:51:43 -0400
"Michael Prisant" <michael.prisant(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  This is probably obvious but insofar as the livecd toolset is used
> to
>  produce a pxe booted image (as with the stock livecd-iso-to-pxeboot script
>  or a hacked variant), the relevant serial console options can be appended to
>  the  append line  in the relevant stanza of the pxeboot file.  For example
>  here is an excerpted stanza from the "default" file in my
>  /var/lib/tftpboot/linux-install/pxelinux.cfg directory:
>   
Yes, as a work around this is what we are doing for now.  However this only solves it for
the pxe boot versions.  There are also cd rom and flash varieties which get their boot
options from the cd image.  It'd be much better to have it adjustable in the kickstart
and then have it propagate to all image types.

I'll take a look and post a patch in the next few days.

Thanks guys!

	Ian