Public bug reported: Hi
This is to collect my thoughts on dropping the need for rmadison which seems to be the reason for the devscripts Depends/Recommends. Currently, vm-builder/VMBuilder/plugins/ubuntu/distro.py uses rmadison to query the version (particularly the ABI version) of the Xen kernel to use for the guest. This is used as a default for the --xen-kernel and --xen-ramdisk filenames in the generated config file. I understand that the expectation is that the host has the kernels for the guest system installed. What's wrong with the current approach? - devscripts is heavy and pulls in many deps not desirable on a server install (mostly useful on developers' systems) - rmadison introduces a runtime dependency on the network and Launchpad / CGIs in particular; that is, if Launchpad is down, rmadison fails; rmadison fails multiple times per day against the Debian servers too (albeit vm-builder doesn't support Debian ATM); it might be desirable to run vm-builder in environments without access to the public Internet / Launchpad, or during Launchpad downtimes, and passsing --xen-kernel / --xen-ramdisk is slightly less handy - this is not friendly to Ubuntu derivatives or other Debian derivatives not providing a rmadison service, or for local xen kernels, but these require porting anyway *If* vm-builder really needs to query this data, I would recommend parsing the Packages.gz files of the target (perhaps from $target/var/lib/apt/*_Packages). However, I believe it's useful to have the kernel package installed within the xen guest, to provide the corresponding modules. So I would propose that: - vm-builder installs linux-image-xen (or linux-image-server, or linux-image-virtual etc.) in the xen guests - vm-builder uses the $target/boot/ramdisk and $target/boot/kernel files (without the $target prefix) for the xen config, unless overriden on the command-line Does the proposed approach makes sense? Thanks, ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04 Package: ubuntu-vm-builder 0.12.3-0ubuntu1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-19.28-generic 2.6.32.10+drm33.1 Uname: Linux 2.6.32-19-generic x86_64 Architecture: amd64 Date: Sun Apr 11 15:10:34 2010 PackageArchitecture: all ProcEnviron: LANGUAGE=fr_FR:fr:en_GB:en PATH=(custom, user) LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/zsh SourcePackage: vm-builder ** Affects: vm-builder (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags: amd64 apport-bug lucid -- Shouldn't use rmadison https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/560686 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Server Team, which is subscribed to vm-builder in ubuntu. -- Ubuntu-server-bugs mailing list Ubuntu-server-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-server-bugs