[cobbler] Cobbler 2.4.0, Ubuntu 12.04.1 64bit server == not using local repo?

Andrew Hamilton ahamilton55 at gmail.com
Mon Nov 12 07:21:10 UTC 2012


Hi,


On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 10:10 PM, Zack Perry <zack.perry at sbcglobal.net>wrote:

> This weekend, I decided to try out the cobbler 2.4.0 from the
> epel-testing. I set it on in my "home lab", on an Acer Aspire One D257
> netbook, which runs SL 6.3 64bit.
>
> Going over the usual (1) import ubuntu-12.04.1-server-amd64.iso to create
> a distro and profile, add a repo, reposync, (2) add a system was pretty
> quick. Since my home has a DSL, so I upgraded dnsmasq from repoforge to
> 2.63rc6, and used its proxy mode.
>
> Two issues immediately became obvious:
>
> (1) Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS default vmlinuz and initrd.gz always resulted
> prompting for CD/DVD :-(
>
> As a quick get-around, I renamed the pair, and copied their counterpart
> from install/netboot/ubuntu-installer/amd64/.
>
> The replacement pair got the PXE going, but despite what I specified in
> the preseed template, it always retrieve every package from the remote
> Ubuntu repositories :-(
>
> I also tried to use the vmlinux and initrd.lz from Ubuntu 12.04.1 precise
> desktop daily build. That pair got into the busybox :-( So no go.
>

You can try pointing the preseed file to the proxy using the following
entries:

d-i     mirror/http/hostname string <IP or Hostname of the proxy>
d-i     mirror/http/directory string <directory where the repository is>

We currently use the above with our internal mirrors and it works like a
charm. I'm not sure about the dnsmasq proxy and if / how it will work for
you.

The repos will most likely only be added to the preseed by using a snippet
and templating. I'm not totally sure about this so hopefully someone with
some more info can help you out here. For a standard cobbler installation
your directory setting would be similar to "cblr/ks_mirror/<distro_name>/".

>
> (2) Despite the fact that I set the desired interface to use during the
> installation as eth0, I still got prompted for selecting among two (eth0
> and wlan0)
>

The preseed file needs to be downloaded before the values in the preseed
file can be used but it needs info such as which interface to use to
download the preseed file. So you can place the following into the "Kernel
Options" on either the profile or the distro in cobbler:

interface=eth0 vga16fb.modeset=0 locale=en_US
keyboard-configuration/layoutcode=us

You will mainly be in the "interface=eth0" entry as it will tell the
installation to use interface eth0 for the network connection and will in
turn allow you to download your preseed file.

Regards,

Andrew

>
> What I have in the /var/lib/cobbler/kickstart/ubuntu-server.seed:
>
> [...]
> # netcfg will choose an interface that has link if possible. This makes it
> # skip displaying a list if there is more than one interface.
> #d-i netcfg/choose_interface select auto
> d-i netcfg/choose_interface select eth0
>
> [...]
> # You can choose to install restricted and universe software, or to install
> # software from the backports repository.
> # d-i apt-setup/restricted boolean true
> # d-i apt-setup/universe boolean true
> # d-i apt-setup/backports boolean true
>
> # Uncomment this if you don't want to use a network mirror.
> d-i apt-setup/use_mirror boolean false
>
> # Select which update services to use; define the mirrors to be used.
> # Values shown below are the normal defaults.
> d-i apt-setup/services-select multiselect security
> d-i apt-setup/security_host string security.ubuntu.com
> d-i apt-setup/security_path string /ubuntu
>
> # Additional repositories, local[0-9] available
> # d-i apt-setup/local0/repository string \
> #     http://local.server/ubuntu precise main
> # d-i apt-setup/local0/comment string local server
> [...]
>
> And here is the profile:
> [root at cobbler kickstarts]# cobbler profile report
> --name=ubuntu-12.04.1-x86_64
> Name                           : ubuntu-12.04.1-x86_64
> TFTP Boot Files                : {}
> Comment                        :
> DHCP Tag                       : default
> Distribution                   : ubuntu-12.04.1-x86_64
> Enable gPXE?                   : 0
> Enable PXE Menu?               : 1
> Fetchable Files                : {}
> Kernel Options                 : {'priority': 'critical', 'locale':
> 'en_US'}
> Kernel Options (Post Install)  : {'reboot': 'efi'}
> Kickstart                      :
> /var/lib/cobbler/kickstarts/ubuntu-server.seed
> Kickstart Metadata             : {'gateway': '192.168.1.254'}
> Management Classes             : []
> Management Parameters          : <<inherit>>
> Name Servers                   : []
> Name Servers Search Path       : []
> Owners                         : ['admin']
> Parent Profile                 :
> Proxy                          :
> Red Hat Management Key         : <<inherit>>
> Red Hat Management Server      : <<inherit>>
> Repos                          : ['ubuntu-12.04.1-x86_64']
> [...]
>
> The Repos attribute seemed to be completely ignored!
>
> Has anyone succeeded PXE booting Ubuntu 12.04?  If so, were you successful
> in getting the installation to use your repos? I would be thankful to any
> hints.
>
> Regards,
>
> --Zack
>
>
>
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