Hi Thomas, > > Some of these are FAI tasks, some are not. You can probably argue about > > whether hostname and /etc/network/interfaces are the responsibility of FAI > > or of the config space. > > Then the wise master nodded and asked the initiate: What is an 'installation'? > > Sorry, I just had to do it, because this issue felt like it needed a koan. > Don't take it personally.
oh, in my case it was just an upgrade von 3.x/squeeze to 4.x/wheezy. I started with 3.x and the quick installation by using the example scripts. This worked finde and I started to define my own classes, scripts etc. Now I migrated to 4.x and I thought - it is a major release change and therefore I expected some conceptual changes - it would be a good way to start the same way as with 3.x: The example scripts. I did not find an upgrade path - probably it would be impossible to write one since FAI is extremly flexible and one can not take care for all possibilities. Maybe a documentation of the changes in the example files might be a good idea. Although, this are example files... But back to me: I did not expect that all will work out-of-the-box. And I found right quickly the cause for my problem. But I guess that there are more people out there with similar problems and maybe they will not find the cause quickly. So maybe a collection of possible issues would be a good idea to start debugging or get hints where to look at. And at this point I think, one could also start to collect some tips and tricks, too. Why should everyone reinvent the wheel? I just found some solutions here: http://wiki.fai-project.org/wiki/Helper_scripts Maybe on can extend this section... > > [...] I'm sure there are reasons for what appears to me to be mixing up > > necessary installation steps and facultative installation steps in a FAIBASE > > class. I'd just like to understand them :). > > Everything in FAIBASE _is_ optional and depends on your environment: > - partition layout (chroot / virtual containers) > - pre-seeding (may not even be possible (RPM?)) > - packages (base image can contain everything) > - mountpoints (chroot / virtual containers) > - network interfaces (chroot / virtual containers) > - config files (handled via some other config management tool) > > (The simple example features 2 hooks, but it wouldn't matter much if they > were > simply left out.) > > FAI provides a low-level abstraction and the config space is the environment- > specific implementation. With the exception of installing a bootloader you > can > install a standalone client with just a bunch of text files (disk_config, > packages, ...) and exactly two commands (fcopy /etc/network/interfaces and > the > one for setting the root password.) > > The bootloader issue is pretty nasty though, because the 'correct' > configuration is linked very tightly to the installed distribution, your > environment and possibly even the underlying 'hardware'. (Installing a > paravirtualised XenServer instance was a nightmare, because Citrix did not > actually parse the bootloader, but circumvented grub completely instead read > the menu.lst directly and expected to find specifically named boot > configuration. > Took a while to figure that one out...) Yes, this would be one further point in a tips & tricks or extended FAQ section. Maybe one should start with the FAQ and use sections for installation, tips/tricks, trouble shooting, etc. One can even put links there to better places/explanation, but one would have a good starting point in cases of problems/questions/ideas. It's just an idea... ;-) Best regards Dirk -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Dr. Dirk Geschke / Plankensteinweg 61 / 85435 Erding | | Telefon: 08122-559448 / Mobil: 0176-96906350 / Fax: 08122-9818106 | | d...@geschke-online.de / d...@lug-erding.de / kont...@lug-erding.de | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
