Installing Ubuntu Linux with FAI: Difference between revisions

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(kudzu is in hoary not breezy, see diskussion-page)
(add documentation for new ubuntu/multi-distribution packages)
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=== introduction ===
The newest and hottest way to install Ubuntu Linux with FAI:
Attention! this information is a bit out of date! The general principles should still apply, but your mileage may vary. You can ask on the [[Linux-fai mailing list infos | FAI Mailing list]], irc channel #fai on freenode, or contact [[User:Lazyboy | Henning Sprang]] for getting help.
I would be thankful to get information of success and failure of working with this documentation.


* the following howto is a quick and dirty description what i did to get an Ubuntu system installed automatically without any manual interaction by using the tool FAI
get all the debs from here: http://www.sprang.de/download/fai-multi-distribution/
* on an Ubuntu Install Server, the easiest way is possibly to just use my Ubuntu FAI package from here: http://www.sprang.de/download/ubuntu/ ( I created it some time before the Hoary Release, and did not test it with the release version, please give me feedback in case anything doesn't work - see [[ContacT]] for that.
* in case you don't have an Ubuntu Server but want to install from a sarge Server,  or if you want to use the newest FAI Package (version 2.8.2 at time of this writing), you should read the following howto and download the config files I provide.
* can be made easily with a shared FAI config dir and an extra nfsroot directory -  install some ubuntu machines, some sarge, maybe some sid... (will try progeny, too)
* the howto assumes a working [[FaI]] system on a debian sarge install server - this is probably the hardest part http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/ - a warty server might do the same
* I admit and am aware of, this Howto is not tested with the newest FAI version (2.8.2, I am working on that) and only with hoary about 4 weeks before release... I beg you to tell me of any error and problems that occur with my Ubuntu FAI Package or with the HOWTO below!


=== Howto ===
usage:
* install FAI like describe in it's docs:
* install the deb's from the download location, including the package fai-distributions (look into it to see what it is about)
* install ubuntu's debootstrap from http://higgs.djpig.de/ubuntu/www/hoary/admin/debootstrap - needed because sarge package is missing warty scripts (might contact maintainer if patch is done?!)
* do everything you'd do with any other FAI install - read this wiki on how to do that.
* make copy of the fai config in /etc/fai to /etc/ubuntu-fai -  
* copy example classes as usual in FAI
* adjust some things there, my config files look like [http://www.sprang.de/download/etc_ubuntu-fai-2005-02-25.tar.gz this] after that - short said, sources.list for ubuntu, nfsroot, debootstrap options...
* copy additional example classes:
* run make-fai-nfsroot -c /etc/ubuntu-fai
cp -a /usr/share/doc/fai-doc/examples/classes/*/* /usr/local/share/fai/
* adjust /etc/exports to export the ubuntu nfsroot
* run make-fai-nfsroot
* adjust dhcp config so the nfsroot for the host to be installed to use ubuntu
* run /usr/lib/fai/dists/ubuntu_hoary/make-base-tgz ( in lib because it should be called from make-fai-nfsroot)
* adjust package config in fai config dir (can be resused from debian original config) which is broken (at least on my setup) because of some missing packages now ( would be great if those errors would be more verbose or otherwise better to find, or if there would be an option to apt-get install that it still installs available packages even if some of the packages in the parameters are missing from repository)
* run /usr/lib/fai/dists/ubuntu_breezy/make-base-tgz
* start the fai install
* name your install clients sarge, hoary, and breezy in DNS , or add them to the same classes as these example host configurations and install them as usual
* enjoy ubuntu


some time later, i realized that my cdrom wasnt found after that, and found out that this has something to do with the udev daemon ubuntu uses.
It only needs one nfsroot for all.
it helped to load the kernel module ide-cd and cdrom (that was not neccessary in sarge)
 
in case more problems occur (i don't remeber any more), the ubuntu bootstrapping howto might help:
http://archive.ubuntulinux.org/ubuntu/dists/warty/main/installer-i386/current/doc/manual/en/apcs03.html
 
If you want to create an ubuntu mirror, you can call debmirror like this:
 
debmirror -h archive.ubuntu.com -d hoary -e rsync -s main,restricted,universe,multiverse --progress -r :ubuntu /home/ftp/ubuntu
 
thanks to Thomas Lange for creating such a productivity-enhancing tool :)





Revision as of 00:09, 3 January 2006

The newest and hottest way to install Ubuntu Linux with FAI:

get all the debs from here: http://www.sprang.de/download/fai-multi-distribution/

usage:

  • install the deb's from the download location, including the package fai-distributions (look into it to see what it is about)
  • do everything you'd do with any other FAI install - read this wiki on how to do that.
  • copy example classes as usual in FAI
  • copy additional example classes:

cp -a /usr/share/doc/fai-doc/examples/classes/*/* /usr/local/share/fai/

  • run make-fai-nfsroot
  • run /usr/lib/fai/dists/ubuntu_hoary/make-base-tgz ( in lib because it should be called from make-fai-nfsroot)
  • run /usr/lib/fai/dists/ubuntu_breezy/make-base-tgz
  • name your install clients sarge, hoary, and breezy in DNS , or add them to the same classes as these example host configurations and install them as usual

It only needs one nfsroot for all.


notes:

  • make-fai-nfsroot needs the package kudzu. This is not available under ubuntu.
    • I had to disable it in /usr/sbin/make-fai-nfsroot
    • kudzu is available (in hoary) in universe/utils