[Fai-commit] r4494 - trunk/doc
lange at alioth.debian.org
lange at alioth.debian.org
Sun Aug 12 13:38:44 UTC 2007
Author: lange
Date: 2007-08-12 13:38:44 +0000 (Sun, 12 Aug 2007)
New Revision: 4494
Modified:
trunk/doc/fai-guide.sgml
Log:
major update to reflect FAI 3.X changes (closes: #390508)
Modified: trunk/doc/fai-guide.sgml
===================================================================
--- trunk/doc/fai-guide.sgml 2007-08-12 13:33:22 UTC (rev 4493)
+++ trunk/doc/fai-guide.sgml 2007-08-12 13:38:44 UTC (rev 4494)
@@ -57,12 +57,12 @@
<sect id="availability">Availability<p>
The homepage of FAI is <url id="&faiwww;">.
There you will find information about FAI, for example the mailing
-list archive. The FAI package is also available as a Debian package from
+list archives. The FAI package is also available as a Debian package from
<url id="&faidownload;">. It's an official Debian package and is available from
all Debian mirrors. To access the newest versions of the FAI packages,
you can add the following line to your <file>/etc/apt/sources.list</file> file.
-<example>deb http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/download sarge koeln</example>
+<example>deb http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/download etch koeln</example>
<p> Send any bug or comment to
<email>fai at informatik.uni-koeln.de</email>. You can also use the
@@ -150,9 +150,9 @@
<taglist>
<tag> install server : <item> <p>The host where the package
- FAI is installed. It provides several services and data for
+ <tt>fai-server</tt> is installed. It provides several services and data for
all install clients. In the examples of this manual this
- host is called <tt>kueppers</tt>.
+ host is called <tt>faiserver</tt>.
<tag>install client : <item> A host which will be installed using
FAI and a configuration from the install server. Also called
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@
and mount options</p> </item>
<item> <p>Software packages</p> </item>
<item> <p>Keyboard layout, time zone, NIS,
- XFree86 configuration, remote filesystems, user accounts,
+ Xorg configuration, remote filesystems, user accounts,
printers ...</p> </item>
</list>
<tag> nfsroot : <item> A (chroot) filesystem located on the install
@@ -207,10 +207,12 @@
<item> <p>A fully automated installation can be performed.</p> </item>
<item> <p>Very quick unattended installation</p> </item>
<item> <p>Update of running systems without reinstallation</p> </item>
- <item> <p>Hosts can boot from floppy, network card or CD.</p> </item>
- <item> <p>Easy creation of the boot floppy or CD</p> </item>
- <item> <p>DHCP and BOOTP protocol and PXE boot method are supported.</p> </item>
- <item> <p>No initial ramdisk is needed, runs even on a 486 CPU.</p> </item>
+ <item> <p>Hosts can boot from network card, CD, USB stick or floppy.</p> </item>
+ <item> <p>Easy creation of the CD, USB stick or floppy boot media</p> </item>
+ <item> <p>PXE with DHCP and BOOTP boot methods are supported.</p> </item>
+ <item> <p>Lilo and grub support</p> </item>
+ <item> <p>ReiserFS, ext3 and XFS filesystem support</p> </item>
+ <item> <p>Automatic hardware detection</p> </item>
<item> <p>Remote login via ssh during installation process
possible.</p> </item>
<item> <p>Two additional virtual terminals available
@@ -229,9 +231,6 @@
<item> <p>Diskless client support</p> </item>
<item> <p>Easily add your own functions via hooks.</p> </item>
<item> <p>Easily change the default behavior via hooks.</p> </item>
- <item> <p>Lilo and grub support</p> </item>
- <item> <p>ReiserFS, ext3 and XFS filesystem support</p> </item>
- <item> <p>Automatic hardware detection</p> </item>
</list>
<chapt id=impatient>Quickstart - For the impatient user<p>
@@ -241,9 +240,9 @@
a few minutes.
<list>
- <item><p>Install fai and all recommended packages (see
+ <item><p>Install the package <tt>fai-serber</tt> and all recommended packages (see
<ref id="faisetup"> on your install server).</p></item>
- <item><p>Edit /etc/fai.conf,run fai-setup -v and read its output.</p></item>
+ <item><p>Edit /etc/fai.conf, run fai-setup -v and read its output.</p></item>
<item><p>
Install the simple examples into the configuration space:
@@ -274,7 +273,9 @@
<taglist>
<tag>A computer: </tag><item> The computer must have a
- network interface card. Unless a diskless installation
+ network interface card<footnote>If you install from USB
+ stick or CD you do not need a network
+ card</footnote>. Unless a diskless installation
should be performed a local hard disk is also needed. No floppy disk,
CD-ROM, keyboard or graphic card is needed.</item>
@@ -285,7 +286,7 @@
<tag>TFTP server:<item> The TFTP daemon is used for
transferring the kernel to the clients. It's only needed when
booting from network card with a boot PROM.</item>
- <tag>Client root:<item> It is a mountable directory which contains the whole
+ <tag>NFS-Root:<item> It is a mountable directory which contains the whole
filesystem for the install clients during installation. It will
be created during the setup of the FAI package and is also
called <strong>nfsroot</strong>.</item>
@@ -293,17 +294,17 @@
mirror is needed. A local mirror of all Debian packages or
an <manref name="apt-proxy" section="8"> is recommended if
you install several computers.</item>
- <tag>Install kernel: <item> The kernel image that is used
+ <tag>Install kernel: <item> The kernel image and the initial
+ randisk that is used
for booting the install clients. It mounts its root filesystem via NFS. </item>
<tag>Configuration space:<item> This directory tree which
contains the configuration data is mounted via NFS by
default. But you can also get this directory from a revision
- control system like CVS.
+ control system like CVS or subversion.
</taglist>
<p>
The TFTP daemon and an NFS server will be enabled automatically when
-installing the FAI package. All clients must have a network card
-which is recognized by the install kernel.
+installing the FAI package.
<p>
@@ -314,9 +315,9 @@
for creating your own local Debian mirror. This script uses the
script <manref name="debmirror" section="1"> and <manref name="rsync"
section="1">. A partial Debian mirror only for i386 architecture for
- Debian 3.1 (aka sarge) without the source packages needs about
- &mirrorsize of disk space. Accessing the mirror via NFS will be the
- normal and fastest way in most cases. To see more output from the
+ Debian 4.0 (aka etch) without the source packages needs about
+ &mirrorsize of disk space. Accessing the mirror via HTTP will be the
+ normal way in most cases. To see more output from the
script call <tt>mkdebmirror --debug</tt>. A root account is not
necessary to create and maintain the Debian mirror.
<p>
@@ -386,7 +387,7 @@
<p>For building the nfsroot there's the command called
<manref name="debootstrap" section="8">. It needs
the location of a Debian mirror and the name of the distribution
- (woody, sarge, sid) for which the basic Debian
+ (etch, lenny, sid) for which the basic Debian
system should be built.
</p> </item>
@@ -400,7 +401,7 @@
</item>
<tag><var>FAI_SOURCES_LIST</var></tag> <item> <p>Now
- OPSOLETE and unsupported. Use the file
+ OBSOLETE and unsupported. Use the file
<file>/etc/fai/apt/sources.list</file> instead.<p>
</p> </item>
@@ -409,29 +410,58 @@
<p> THE USE OF THIS VARIABLE IS NOW OBSOLETE.</p></item>
<tag> <var>NFSROOT_PACKAGES</var></tag>
<item>
- <p> This variable contains a list of additional software packages which
- will be added to the nfsroot.</p></item>
+ <p> THE USE OF THIS VARIABLE IS NOW OBSOLETE. Use
+ <file>/etc/fai/NFSROOT</file> instead.</p></item>
<tag><var>FAI_BOOT</var></tag>
<item><p>
which of DHCP and/or BOOTP the server should create setups for
- (when make-fai-nfsroot is run). The default is to create
- the setup for both protocols.
+ (when make-fai-nfsroot is run). If undefined (the default)
+ it means to create the setup for both protocols.
</p></item>
</taglist>
+
<p>
These are important variables in &fc;:
<taglist>
<tag><var>FAI_LOCATION</var></tag>
- <item><p>This is the host name and the remote directory of
- the configuration space, which will be mounted via NFS. Its
- default value is <file>/srv/fai/config</file> but some
- like to use <file>/home/fai/config</file> or
- <file>/var/fai/config</file>. Remember that this directory
+ <item> <p> THE USE OF THIS VARIABLE IS NOW OBSOLETE. Use
+ the variable <var>FAI_CONFIG_SRC</var> instead.</p></item>
+
+ <tag><var>FAI_CONFIG_SRC</var></tag>
+ <item> <p>This variables described how to access the
+ configuration spoace on the install clients. It's an Universal Resource
+ Identifier (URI) even it may not always comply to the
+ official schemes. See
+ <httpsite>en.wikipedia.org</httpsite><httppath>/wiki/URI_scheme</httppath>
+ for details. <p>
+ Currently supported methods are:
+
+ <taglist>
+ <tag><var>nfs://host/path/to/exported/config</var></tag>
+ <item> <p>The config space is mounted from host via NFS.</p></item>
+
+ <tag><var>cvs[+ssh]://user at host/path/to/cvsroot
+ module[=tag]</var></tag>
+ <item> <p>The config space is received from a cvs checkout.</p></item>
+
+ <tag><var>svn://user@host/svnpath</var></tag>
+ <item> <p>The config space checked out from a
+ subversion repository. Also supported are svn+file,
+ svn+http, svn+https and checkouts without an user
+ name.</p></item>
+ </taglist>
+
+ If <var>FAI_CONFIG_SRC</var> is undefined in &fc, then the
+ default is to use an NFS mount from the fai install server
+ onto the install client. It's the same as
+ <tt>nfs://`hostname`/$FAI_CONFIGDIR</tt> with the hostname
+ determined on the install server. Remember that this directory
must be exported to all install clients, so that all files
can be read by root. </p></item>
+
<tag><var>FAI_DEBMIRROR</var></tag>
<item>
<p> If you have NFS access to your local Debian mirror,
@@ -450,14 +480,7 @@
FAI uses <manref name="apt-get" section="8"> to create the nfsroot
filesystem in <file>/srv/fai/nfsroot</file>. It needs about
-&nfsrootsize; of free disk space. Before setting up FAI, you should get
-the program <prgn>imggen</prgn>,<footnote>Available at the download
-page <httpsite>www.ltsp.org</httpsite> or from the FAI download
-page &faidownload;.</footnote> if you like to boot from a 3Com network
-card. This executable converts netboot images created by <manref
-name="mknbi-linux" section="8">, so they can be booted by network
-cards from 3Com. Put that executable in your path
-(e.g. <file>/usr/local/bin</file>). After editing &fc; and &mfnc; call
+&nfsrootsize; of free disk space. After editing &fc; and &mfnc; call
<prgn>fai-setup</prgn>.
&faisetup;
@@ -476,7 +499,7 @@
(recover). Adding '-v' gives you a more verbose output which may help you
pinpoint the error. If you want to create a log file you may use
<p><tt>
-sudo /usr/sbin/make-fai-nfsroot -r -v 2>&1 | tee make-fai-nfsroot.log
+sudo make-fai-nfsroot -r -v 2>&1 | tee make-fai-nfsroot.log
</tt><p>
It may help to enter the chroot environment manually
<example>
@@ -500,8 +523,8 @@
commands, depending on which NFS server you are using:
<example>
-kueppers# /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server reload
-kueppers# /etc/init.d/nfs-user-server reload
+faiserver# /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server reload
+faiserver# /etc/init.d/nfs-user-server reload
</example>
<p>
@@ -529,7 +552,8 @@
name="make-fai-nfsroot" section="8">. If you only like to install a new kernel to
the nfsroot add the flags <tt>-k</tt> or <tt>-K</tt> to
<tt>make-fai-nfsroot</tt>. This will not recreate your nfsroot, but
-only updates your kernel and kernel modules inside the nfsroot
+only updates your kernel and kernel modules inside the nfsroot or add
+additional poackages into the nfsroot.
<sect1 id=troublefaisetup> Troubleshooting the setup<p>
@@ -539,7 +563,6 @@
will see more messages. When using a local Debian mirror, it's
important that the install server can mount this directory via
NFS. If this mount fails, check <file>/etc/exports</file> and <file>/etc/netgroup</file>.
-An example can be found in <file>/usr/share/doc/fai-doc/examples/etc/netgroup</file>.
<chapt id="booting">Preparing booting <p>
@@ -547,8 +570,12 @@
Before booting for the first time, you have to choose which medium you
use for booting. You can use the boot floppy or configure the computer
to boot via network card using a boot PROM, which is much smarter.
+Also booting from CD-ROM or from an USB stick is easy to set up. The
+prefered method for booting is using PXE. PXE is the Preboot Execution
+Environment which most modern network cards support.
-<sect id="nicboot">Booting from 3Com network card with boot PROM
+
+<sect id="nicboot">Enabling PXE on a 3Com network card with boot PROM
<p>
If you have a 3Com network card that is equipped with a boot ROM by
Lanworks Technologies or already includes the DynamicAccess Managed PC
@@ -576,10 +603,11 @@
ESC to quit, F9 restore previous settings, F10 to save
</example>
-Set the boot method to <tt>PXE</tt> and enable local boot in this
+Set the boot method to <tt>PXE</tt> (do not use RPL or BOOTP) and
+enable local boot in this
menu. So the first boot device will be the network card using PXE, and
the second should be the local hard disk. This has to be configured in
-the BIOS of your computer. If you like to use the BOOTP protocol
+the BIOS of your computer. For using the BOOTP protocol
choose <tt>TCP/IP</tt> and set the protocol to <tt>BOOTP</tt>.
When using BOOTP, you have to make a
@@ -588,18 +616,18 @@
<prgn>tlink</prgn> (<file>/usr/share/doc/fai-doc/examples/utils/tlink</file>) to create
this link. The file
<file>installimage_3com</file> is created by <prgn>imggen</prgn> and
-is suitable for booting 3Com network cards<footnote> <p>If you have
+is suitable for booting 3Com network cards.<footnote> <p>If you have
problems booting with a 3Com network card and get the error "BOOTP
record too large" after the kernel is transfered to the computer, try
the imggen-1.00 program to convert the netboot image to a
installimage_3com image. I had this problem using netboot 0.8.1-4 and
Image Creator for MBA ROMs v1.01, Date: Nov 26, 2001 but only on an
Athlon computer.
-</p></footnote>.
+</p></footnote>
<sect id="pxeboot">Booting from network card with a PXE conforming boot ROM<p>
Most modern bootable network cards support the PXE boot environment.
-Some network cards (e.g. Intel EtherExpress PRO 100) have a fixed
+Some network cards (e.g. on notebooks) have a fixed
boot configuration, so they can only use the PXE boot protocol. This requires a PXE
Linux boot loader and a special version of the <tt>TFTP</tt> daemon,
which is available in the Debian package <package>tftpd-hpa</package>.
@@ -621,7 +649,8 @@
The install client then loads the pxelinux boot loader which receives
its configuration via TFTP from a file in the directory
-<file>/srv/tftp/pxelinux.cfg</file>. Using the command <manref
+<file>/srv/tftp/fai/pxelinux.cfg</file> (defined by the variable
+<var>TFTPROOT</var> in &mfnc;). Using the command <manref
name="fai-chboot" section="8"> you can
define which kernel will be loaded by the PXE Linux loader and
which additional parameters are passed to this kernel. You should
@@ -638,13 +667,14 @@
<p>
If your network card can't boot by itself, you have two options. The
-first is to create a small boot floppy that uses etherboot, so you can
+first is to create a small boot floppy that uses etherboot, which
+will provide the PXE feature for your network card. So you can
use DHCP and TFTP to get the install kernel that was created with
<manref name="mknbi-linux" section="8">. A lot of ethernet cards
support booting via ethernet if a special boot EPROM is inserted or
booted from floppy <httpsite>rom-o-matic.net/</httpsite>. In
depth documentation about booting via ethernet may be found at
-<httpsite>etherboot.sourceforge.net</httpsite>.
+<httpsite>www.etherboot.org</httpsite>.
The second option is to boot via floppy disk that is created with the
command <manref name="make-fai-bootfloppy" section="8">. Since there's
@@ -682,6 +712,19 @@
A sample ISO image is available at
<httpsite>www.informatik.uni-koeln.de</httpsite><httppath>/fai/fai-cd/</httppath>.
+<sect id="usbboot">Booting from USB stick<p>
+
+Using the command <manref name="fai-cd" section="8"> you can also
+create a bootable USB stick. First format your stick with an ext2 file
+system (ext3 makes no sense on flash memory devies). Then mount it.
+After that call:
+<tt>fai-cd -m /path/to/mirror -u /path/to/mounted/stick</tt>
+Then unmount the USB stick.
+
+The USB stick must be formatted with an ext2 file system. VFAT is not
+yet tested. Currently the file system that will be written onto the
+stick is not compressed.
+
<sect id="mac">Collecting Ethernet addresses<p>
Now it's time to boot your install clients for the first time. They
@@ -881,8 +924,8 @@
Kernel panic: VFS Unable to mount root fs on 02:00
</example>
Use the following command to see which directories are exported
-from the install server (named kueppers):
-<example>showmount -e kueppers</example>
+from the install server (named faiserver):
+<example>showmount -e faiserver</example>
<p>
@@ -975,19 +1018,23 @@
example:
<example>
demohost:~# df
-
-Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
-rootfs 2064192 1071184 888152 55% /
-/dev/root 2064192 1071184 888152 55% /
-shm 63548 76 63472 1% /tmp
-kueppers:/srv/fai/config
- 2064192 994480 964856 51% /fai
-/dev/hda1 54447 9859 41777 19% /tmp/target
-/dev/hda10 1153576 20 1141992 0% /tmp/target/files/install
-/dev/hda9 711540 20 711520 0% /tmp/target/home
-/dev/hda8 303336 13 300191 0% /tmp/target/tmp
-/dev/hda7 1517948 98252 1342588 7% /tmp/target/usr
-/dev/hda6 202225 8834 182949 5% /tmp/target/var
+Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
+rootfs 4099064 414088 3645296 11% /
+udev 10240 76 10164 1% /dev
+192.168.1.250:/srv/fai/nfsroot
+ 3905600 410976 3454944 11% /live/image
+unionfs 4099064 414088 3645296 11% /
+tmpfs 193464 3112 190352 2% /live/cow
+unionfs 4099064 414088 3645296 11% /dev/.static/dev
+unionfs 4099064 414088 3645296 11% /tmp/fai
+faiserver:/srv/fai/config
+ 3905600 410976 3454944 11% /var/lib/fai/config
+/dev/sda1 241116 74519 154149 33% /tmp/target
+/dev/sda9 4364212 139888 4179988 4% /tmp/target/home
+/dev/sda7 553376 16840 536536 4% /tmp/target/tmp
+/dev/sda8 2221628 275936 1832840 14% /tmp/target/usr
+/dev/sda6 577096 172924 374856 32% /tmp/target/var
+udev 10240 76 10164 1% /tmp/target/dev
</example>
<strong>This method can be used as a rescue environment!</strong> In the
@@ -1019,7 +1066,6 @@
<enumlist>
<item> <p>Set up FAI </p> </item>
- <item> <p>Load kernel modules</p> </item>
<item> <p>Define classes</p> </item>
<item> <p>Define variables</p> </item>
<item> <p>Partition local disks</p> </item>
@@ -1063,7 +1109,22 @@
ends. The fai monitor daemon prints this messages to standard
output. In the future, there will be a graphical frontend available.
+<sect id=bootkernel>Booting the kernel<p>
+The install client receives and loads the kernel and initial ramdisk. The kernel
+boots up and load the ramdisk. It does some hardware detection and
+then tries to figure where the root file system is located. When
+booting from network, this is determined by parameters from additional
+kernel parameters. When booting from CD-ROM or USB stick the kernel
+and initial ramdisk probes removable devices and tries to figure out
+where the root file system is located. This may also be a compressed
+file system (using squashfs).
+After the root file system is mounted read only, it is made writeable
+by mounting a ramdisk via unionfs on top of it. So it's possible for
+programms or daemons to write to files inside a read-only mounted file system.
+
+We are using the package <tt>live-initramfs</tt>
+
<sect id=isetup>Set up FAI<p>
After the install client has booted, only the script
@@ -1074,9 +1135,7 @@
sequence of tasks for FAI. No other scripts in
<file>/etc/init.d/</file> are executed.
<p>
-A ramdisk is created and mounted to <file>/tmp</file>, which is the
-only writable directory until local filesystems are
-mounted. Additional parameters are received from the BOOTP or DHCP
+Additional parameters are received from the BOOTP or DHCP
daemon and the configuration space if
mounted via NFS from the install server to <file>/fai</file>. The
setup is finished after additional virtual terminals are created and
@@ -1086,13 +1145,13 @@
Now the script <manref name="fai-class" section="1"> is used to define
classes. Therefore several scripts in <file>/fai/class/</file> are
-executed to define classes. All scripts matching <tt>[0-9]*</tt>
-(they start with a digit)
+executed to define classes. All scripts matching <tt>[0-9][0-9]*</tt>
+(they start with two digits)
are executed in alphabetical order. Every word that these scripts
print to the standard output are interpreted as class names.
Scripts ending in <tt>.source</tt>
are sourced, so they can define new classes by adding these classes to
-the variable <var>newclasses</var> (see <file>06hwdetect.source</file> for an
+the variable <var>newclasses</var> (see <file>20-hwdetect.source</file> for an
example). The output of these scripts is ignored.
These classes are defined for the
install client. You can also say this client belongs to these
@@ -1102,17 +1161,11 @@
<file>/usr/share/doc/fai-doc/classes_description.txt</file>. It is
advisable to document the job a new class performs. Then, this
documentation is the base for composing the whole configuration from classes.
-The scripts <prgn>06hwdetectsource</prgn> loads kernel modules on
+The scripts <prgn>20-hwdetect.source</prgn> loads kernel modules on
demand.
The complete description of all these scripts can be found in <ref id="cscripts">.
<p>
-The script <file>30menu.source</file> pops up a little menu and asks
-the user which kind of installation should be performed (e.g. CAD
-workstation, notebook, scientific workstation, work group server, Gnome
-desktop...). Keep in mind that this won't lead to a fully automatic
-installation ;-)
-<p>
After defining the classes, every file matching <tt>*.var</tt> with a
prefix which matches a defined class is executed to define variables.
There, you should define the variable <var>FAI_ACTION</var> and
@@ -1170,27 +1223,29 @@
examples for these scripts, but you can write your own Bourne, bash,
Perl, cfengine or expect scripts.
<p>
-These important scripts are described in detail in <ref
-id="cscripts">.
+More information about these scripts are described in <ref id="cscripts">.
-<sect id=isavelog>Save log files<p> When all installation tasks are
-finished, the log files are written to
+<sect id=isavelog>Save log files<p>
+
+When all installation tasks are finished, the log files are written to
<tt>/var/log/fai/$HOSTNAME/install/</tt> <footnote>
<p><file>/var/log/fai/localhost/install/</file> is a link to this
directory.</p> </footnote> on the new system and to the account on the
install server if <var>$LOGUSER</var> is defined in &fc;. It is also
possible to specify another host as log saving destination through
-a file in <file>/fai/class/</file>. Additionally, two symlinks will
+the variable <var>$LOGSERVER</var>. Additionally, two symlinks will
be created to indicated the last directory written to.
-This method uses rsh/rcp or ssh/scp and is the default.
+By default log files will be copied to the log server using scp.
<p>
You can use other methods to save logs to the remote server. The currently
selected method is defined by the <var>$FAI_LOGPROTO</var> variable in
file &fc;:
<taglist>
+ <tag>rsh</tag> <item><p>Use the rcp command to copythe log files to
+ the log server.</p></item>
+
<tag>ftp</tag><item><p>
-
This option saves logs to the remote FTP server defined by the
<var>$LOGSERVER</var> variable (<var>$SERVER</var> value is used if
not set). Connection to the FTP server is done as user
@@ -1273,8 +1328,9 @@
install a computer. The central configuration space for all install
clients is located on the install server in <file>/srv/fai/config</file>
and its subdirectories. This will be mounted by the install clients to
-<file>/fai</file>. It's also possible to receive all the
-configuration data from a <manref name="cvs" section="1"> repository.
+<file>/var/lib/fai/config</file>. It's also possible to receive all the
+configuration data from a <manref name="cvs" section="1"> or
+subversion repository.
The following subdirectories are present and include
several files:
@@ -1398,13 +1454,13 @@
network devices is stored in <var>$netdevices</var>. Then additional
parameters are fetched from a DHCP or BOOTP server and also
additional variables
-are defined. The DNS resolver configuration file is created. The
-configuration space is mounted from the install server to
-<file>/fai</file> or it is checked out from the corresponding <manref
-name="cvs" section="1"> repository. To use a cvs repository, you have
-to set the variables <var>$FAI_CVSROOT, $FAI_CVSTAG,
-$FAI_CVSMODULE</var>. For details look a the subroutine
-<prgn>get_fai_cvs()</prgn>. After that, the file
+are defined. The DNS resolver configuration file is created.
+<p>
+The location of the configuration space is defined by the variable
+<var>$FAI_CONFIG_SRC</var>. You can use NFS, cvs or svn to access the
+configuration space. See section <ref id="isetup"> for how to set the variable.
+<p>
+After that, the file
<file>/fai/hooks/subroutines</file> is sourced if it exists. Using
this file, you can define your own subroutines or override the
definition of FAI's subroutines.
@@ -1445,7 +1501,7 @@
<tag>install</tag> <item><p>This task controls the installation
sequence. You will hear three beeps before the installation
starts. The major work is to call other tasks and to save the
- output to <file>/tmp/fai/rcS.log</file>. If you have any problems
+ output to <file>/tmp/fai/fai.log</file>. If you have any problems
during installation, look at all files in
<file>/tmp/fai/</file>. You can find examples of the log files
for some hosts in the download directory of the FAI homepage.</p>
@@ -1465,9 +1521,14 @@
according to the created <file>/tmp/fai/fstab</file> file relative to
<var>$FAI_ROOT</var>.</p> </item>
- <tag>extrbase</tag> <item><p>Extracts the base tar file
- <file>base.tgz</file>, which consists of all required
- packages. This is a snapshot of a basic Debian system created
+ <tag>extrbase</tag> <item><p>Extracts a minimal system after
+ that a chroot can be made into it. By default the base tar file
+ <file>/var/tmp/base.tgz</file> will be extracted. The command
+ <tt>ftar -1v -s $FAI/basefiles /</tt> is used for unpacking a
+ different tar file depending on classes defined. This can be
+ used for installing different Linux distributions than the one
+ used for creating the nfsroot. The default file
+ <file>base.tgz</file> is a snapshot of a basic Debian system created
by <manref name="debootstrap" section="8"></p> </item>
<tag>mirror</tag> <item><p>If a local Debian mirror is accessed via NFS
@@ -1671,7 +1732,7 @@
demohost)
echo "FAIBASE GRUB DHCPC DEMO" ;;
gnomehost)
- echo "FAIBASE GRUB DHCPC DEMO XFREE GNOME";;
+ echo "FAIBASE GRUB DHCPC DEMO XORG GNOME";;
*)
echo "FAIBASE GRUB DHCPC" ;;
esac
@@ -1702,15 +1763,15 @@
section="8">. If you can't use this command and are not using a
BOOTP server, define it in the script <file>LAST.var</file>.
- <tag>FAI_CONSOLEFONT</tag> <item> <p>Is the font which is loaded during
+ <tag>CONSOLEFONT</tag> <item> <p>Is the font which is loaded during
installation by <manref name="consolechars" section="8">.</p> </item>
- <tag>FAI_KEYMAP</tag> <item> <p>Defines the keyboard map files in
+ <tag>KEYMAP</tag> <item> <p>Defines the keyboard map files in
<file>/usr/share/keymaps</file> and <file>$FAI/files</file>. You
need not specify the complete path, since this file will be located
automatically.</p> </item>
- <tag>rootpw</tag> <item> <p>The encrypted root password for the new
+ <tag>ROOTPW</tag> <item> <p>The encrypted root password for the new
system. You can use <manref name="crypt" section="3"> or md5
encryption for the password.</p> </item>
@@ -1718,11 +1779,11 @@
<tt>$UTC=yes</tt>. Otherwise set clock to local time. See <manref
name="clock" section="8"> for more information.</p> </item>
- <tag>time_zone</tag> <item> <p>Is the file relative to
+ <tag>TIMEZONE</tag> <item> <p>Is the file relative to
<file>/usr/share/zoneinfo/</file> which indicates your time
zone.</p> </item>
- <tag>moduleslist</tag> <item> <p>Can be a multi line
+ <tag>MODULESLIST</tag> <item> <p>Can be a multi line
definition. List of modules (including kernel parameters) which are
loaded during boot of the new system (written to /etc/modules).</p>
</item>
@@ -1946,10 +2007,12 @@
Comments are starting with a hash (#) and are ending at the end of
the line. Every command begins with the word <tt>PACKAGES</tt>
-followed by a command name. The command name is similar to those of
-<prgn>apt-get</prgn>. Here's the list of supported command names:
+followed by a command name. The command defines which commnd will be
+used to install the packages named after this command. The list of all
+available commands can be listed using <tt>install_packages -H</tt>.
+Supported package tools are: <tt>aptitude, apt-get, smart, y2pmsh,
+yast, yum, urpm, rpm</tt>
-
<taglist>
<tag>hold:</tag> <item> <p>Put a package on hold. This package will
not be handled by dpkg, e.g not upgraded.</p> </item>
@@ -1989,7 +2052,7 @@
Multiple lines with lists of space separated names of packages follow
the PACKAGES lines. All dependencies are resolved. Packages with
-suffix <tt>-</tt> (eg. <tt>lilo-</tt>)will be removed instead of
+suffix <tt>-</tt> (eg. <tt>lilo-</tt>) will be removed instead of
installed. The order of the packages is of no matter.
<p>
A line which contains the <tt>PRELOADRM</tt> commands, downloads a
@@ -2012,7 +2075,8 @@
<p>
If you specify a package that does not exist this package will be
-removed from the installation list. You can also test all software package
+removed from the installation list when the command <tt>install</tt>
+is used. You can also test all software package
configuration files with the utility <prgn>chkdebnames</prgn>, which
is available in <file>/usr/share/doc/fai-doc/examples/utils/</file>.
<example>
@@ -2043,11 +2107,11 @@
But now have a look at the scripts and see what they are doing.
<sect1 id=perl>Perl scripts<p>
-Currently no Perl script is used for modifying the system
+Currently no Perl script are used in the simple examples for modifying the system
configuration.
<sect1 id=expect>Expect scripts<p>
-Currently no expect scripts are used for modifying the system
+Currently no expect scripts are used in the simple examples for modifying the system
configuration.
<sect1 id=cfengine>Cfengine scripts<p>
@@ -2195,7 +2259,7 @@
<item> <p>Partition the hard disk on an IA64 system, which needs a
special partition table type that must be created with <manref
-name="parted" section="8">. See <file>hooks/partition.IA64</file>.</p></item>
+name="parted" section="8">.</p></item>
</list>
<sect id=errors>Looking for errors<p>
@@ -2229,7 +2293,11 @@
<chapt id=beowulf>How to build a Beowulf cluster using FAI<p>
This chapter describes the details about building a Beowulf
-cluster using &dgl; and FAI. For more information about the Beowulf
+cluster using &dgl; and FAI. This chapter was written for FAI
+version 2.x for Debian woody and was not yet updated. The example
+configuration files were removed from the fai packages after FAI 2.8.4.
+
+For more information about the Beowulf
concept look at <httpsite>www.beowulf.org</httpsite>.
<sect id=beoplan> Planning the Beowulf setup<p>
@@ -2584,12 +2652,11 @@
FAI action <tt>dirinstall</tt>.
By calling
-
<example>fai <options> dirinstall <target-directory></example>
-and using either the option
-<example>-c <classes></example> or <example>-u <hostname></example>
-you get a FAI installation, without the partitioning action, right into the
-target directory.
+and using either the option <tt>-c <classes></tt> or
+<tt>-N</tt> you get a FAI installation, without the partitioning
+action, right into the target directory. The hostname for the target
+installation can be specified using <tt>-u <hostname></tt>
This, for example, can be used to combine FAI with the tool <tt>xen-tools</tt>, which
helps you to build Xen guest domains. <tt>xen-tools</tt> are very nice for
@@ -2855,7 +2922,7 @@
You can calculate the IP subnet adress (which is used in
-make-fai-nfsroot.conf for the variable <var>FAICLIENTS</var> by using
+&mfnc; for the variable <var>FAICLIENTS</var> by using
the nice tool ipcalc. Following example gives you the notation for a
class C network (16) when the server netork interface has the IP address
123.45.6.123
@@ -2917,6 +2984,15 @@
will find an example how to fully automatically install a system using the Debian
Installer (d-i) in conjunction with FAI's new softupdate (see <ref id=softupdate>).
+<p>
+You should get the program <prgn>imggen</prgn>,<footnote>Available at
+the download page <httpsite>www.ltsp.org</httpsite> or from the FAI
+download page &faidownload;.</footnote> if you like to boot from a
+3Com network card using the BOOTP protocol. This executable converts
+netboot images created by <manref name="mknbi-linux" section="8">, so
+they can be booted by network cards from 3Com. Put that executable in
+your path (e.g. <file>/usr/local/bin</file>)
+
<sect id=functions>Useful functions for advanced administrators<p>
<taglist>
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