PXE boot in F17 has changed considerably?

[Mark Zhitomirski]

Hi!

I've got used to installing Fedora 15/16 via PXE by simply putting/modifying a couple
of lines in pxelinux.cfg/default like these:

LABEL Fedora16
    MENU LABEL Install Fedora 16 x86-64
    KERNEL fedora16x64/vmlinuz
    initrd fedora16x64/initrd.img

vmlinuz and initrd.img were taken from 
linux/releases/16/Fedora/x86_64/os/images/pxeboot/
in case of F16

However when i do the same with files from 
linux/releases/test/17-Beta/Fedora/x86_64/os/images/pxeboot/
or
linux/development/17/x86_64/os/images/pxeboot/
i get the following errors (both on a real and on a virtual machine):
====
dracut: anaconda using disk root at /dev/sr0
dracut Warning: Couldn't mount /dev/sr0
dracut Warning: no suitable images
dracut Warning: /dev/root does not exists

Dropping to debug shell
===

Is this the expected behavior and was it discussed / documented somewhere?  

Regards,
-- Mark

[Tom H]

On Sat, Apr 28, 2012 at 5:03 PM, Mark Zhitomirski <markj(a)mail.ru&gt; wrote:
>  I've got used to installing Fedora 15/16 via PXE by simply putting/modifying a couple
> of lines in pxelinux.cfg/default like these:
>
>  LABEL Fedora16
>     MENU LABEL Install Fedora 16 x86-64
>     KERNEL fedora16x64/vmlinuz
>     initrd fedora16x64/initrd.img
>
>  vmlinuz and initrd.img were taken from
>  linux/releases/16/Fedora/x86_64/os/images/pxeboot/
>  in case of F16
>
>  However when i do the same with files from
>  linux/releases/test/17-Beta/Fedora/x86_64/os/images/pxeboot/
>  or
>  linux/development/17/x86_64/os/images/pxeboot/
>  i get the following errors (both on a real and on a virtual machine):
>  ====
>  dracut: anaconda using disk root at /dev/sr0
>  dracut Warning: Couldn't mount /dev/sr0
>  dracut Warning: no suitable images
>  dracut Warning: /dev/root does not exists
>
>  Dropping to debug shell
>  ===
>
>  Is this the expected behavior and was it discussed / documented somewhere? 
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2012-February/105658.html

http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2012-February/105514.html

[Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX]

Here is the "default" I use.  Askmothod is ignored.
I installed 3312 apps on the last pxeboot install.

On 04/28/2012 09:49 PM, Tom H wrote:
>  On Sat, Apr 28, 2012 at 5:03 PM, Mark
> Zhitomirski<markj(a)mail.ru>  wrote:
> > I've got used to installing Fedora 15/16 via PXE by simply putting/modifying a
> couple of lines in pxelinux.cfg/default like these:
> >
> > LABEL Fedora16
> >     MENU LABEL Install Fedora 16 x86-64
> >     KERNEL fedora16x64/vmlinuz
> >     initrd fedora16x64/initrd.img
> >
> > vmlinuz and initrd.img were taken from
> > linux/releases/16/Fedora/x86_64/os/images/pxeboot/
> > in case of F16
> >
> > However when i do the same with files from
> > linux/releases/test/17-Beta/Fedora/x86_64/os/images/pxeboot/
> > or
> > linux/development/17/x86_64/os/images/pxeboot/
> > i get the following errors (both on a real and on a virtual machine):
> > ====
> > dracut: anaconda using disk root at /dev/sr0
> > dracut Warning: Couldn't mount /dev/sr0
> > dracut Warning: no suitable images
> > dracut Warning: /dev/root does not exists
> >
> > Dropping to debug shell
> > ===
> >
> > Is this the expected behavior and was it discussed / documented somewhere?
>  http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2012-February/105658.html
>
>  http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2012-February/105514.html 
-- 
Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469R     caf(a)omen.com   www.omen.com
Developer of Industrial ZMODEM(Tm) for Embedded Applications
   Omen Technology Inc      "The High Reliability Software"
10255 NW Old Cornelius Pass Portland OR 97231   503-614-0430

[Kamil Paral]

>  Here is the "default" I use.  Askmothod is ignored.
>  I installed 3312 apps on the last pxeboot install. 
Don't use root= argument, that might cause a lot of problems, just repo=.

Please don't top-post.

[Adam Williamson]

On Wed, 2012-05-02 at 07:36 -0400, Kamil Paral wrote:
>  > Here is the "default" I use.  Askmothod is ignored.
>  > I installed 3312 apps on the last pxeboot install.
>  
>  Don't use root= argument, that might cause a lot of problems, just repo=.
>  
>  Please don't top-post. 
Have we checked that the need for repo= is documented in the release
notes and/or install guide? If not, does anyone want to volunteer? :)
-- 
Adam Williamson
Fedora QA Community Monkey
IRC: adamw | Twitter: AdamW_Fedora | identi.ca: adamwfedora
http://www.happyassassin.net

[Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX]

On 05/02/2012 01:28 PM, Adam Williamson wrote:
>  On Wed, 2012-05-02 at 07:36 -0400, Kamil Paral wrote:
> >> Here is the "default" I use.  Askmothod is ignored.
> >> I installed 3312 apps on the last pxeboot install.
> > Don't use root= argument, that might cause a lot of problems, just repo=.
> >
> > Please don't top-post.
>  Have we checked that the need for repo= is documented in the release
>  notes and/or install guide? If not, does anyone want to volunteer? :) 
root= is no
longer needed.

If one leaves off repo= will Anaconda ask for it?

-- 
Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469R     caf(a)omen.com   www.omen.com
Developer of Industrial ZMODEM(Tm) for Embedded Applications
   Omen Technology Inc      "The High Reliability Software"
10255 NW Old Cornelius Pass Portland OR 97231   503-614-0430

[Adam Williamson]

On Wed, 2012-05-02 at 13:48 -0700, Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469R wrote:
>  
>  On 05/02/2012 01:28 PM, Adam Williamson wrote:
>  > On Wed, 2012-05-02 at 07:36 -0400, Kamil Paral wrote:
>  >>> Here is the "default" I use.  Askmothod is ignored.
>  >>> I installed 3312 apps on the last pxeboot install.
>  >> Don't use root= argument, that might cause a lot of problems, just repo=.
>  >>
>  >> Please don't top-post.
>  > Have we checked that the need for repo= is documented in the release
>  > notes and/or install guide? If not, does anyone want to volunteer? :)
>  root= is no longer needed.
>  
>  If one leaves off repo= will Anaconda ask for it? 
No, that's where we came in: if you leave repo= off, stuff breaks.

I've just talked to wwoods about this and sent a mail to docs@.

When doing a direct kernel boot (e.g. PXE) you have to specify either
repo= or stage2= , pointing to a repository with a stage2 file in it -
i.e. you point to the directory with a .treeinfo file, and a
subdirectory LiveOS with a file squashfs.img in it. If the repo you're
pointing to is a complete one - i.e. it also has packages, all the
packages you need for the install you're doing, and you want to use it
as the package repo - then use repo= . If the repo you're pointing to
for stage2 is a skeleton that only contains squashfs.img (in the correct
layout, of course) and you want to pull the packages from somewhere
else, use stage2= to point to the stage2 repo and either leave repo= out
(in which case anaconda will use the default mirror list repos, as
usual) or specify both stage2= and repo= . If you specify both, anaconda
will pull stage2 from the 'stage2=' repo and packages from the 'repo='
repo.

We're not sure anyone's actually tested the stage2= parameter
functionality, so if anyone wants to test that, please do.
-- 
Adam Williamson
Fedora QA Community Monkey
IRC: adamw | Twitter: AdamW_Fedora | identi.ca: adamwfedora
http://www.happyassassin.net