init problems
 

Hello all,

I have a machine that I am attempting to boot over the network. I have
compiled a kernel for it, Debian Lenny Linux version 2.6.26, with nfs
file system and root file system support. For a complete rundown on how
I have created the setup, please see:


http://www.shadlen.org/~maria/pmwiki/Work/Gpxe

Things work well up until it is time to mount the file system from
fstab. The mount is not happening because statd is never started, and
statd is not starting because portmap is not starting. I suspect it is
related to this bug:


http://groups.google.com/group/linux.debian.bugs.dist/browse_thread/thread/fe95c99e1dbc5aa1

In that discussion some people say that portmap 6.0.9 fixes this for
them, but this is the version of portmap I am using, and it has not
fixed it. I have posted to the bug discussion, although weirdly it seems
to have posted my message as a new thread. What I am wondering is if
anyone has any other ideas of things to try to get this to work. I did
try the suggestion of adding ASYNCMOUNTNFS=no to /etc/default/rcS, to no
avail.


thanks,
maria


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init problems
 

I have a machine that I am attempting to boot over the network. I have
compiled a kernel for it, Debian Lenny Linux version 2.6.26, with nfs
file system and root file system support. For a complete rundown on how
I have created the setup, please see:


http://www.shadlen.org/~maria/pmwiki/Work/Gpxe

Things work well up until it is time to mount the file system from
fstab. The mount is not happening because statd is never started, and
statd is not starting because portmap is not starting. I suspect it is
related to this bug:


http://groups.google.com/group/linux.debian.bugs.dist/browse_thread/thread/fe95c99e1dbc5aa1

In that discussion some people say that portmap 6.0.9 fixes this for
them, but this is the version of portmap I am using, and it has not
fixed it. I have posted to the bug discussion, although weirdly it seems
to have posted my message as a new thread. What I am wondering is if
anyone has any other ideas of things to try to get this to work. I did
try the suggestion of adding ASYNCMOUNTNFS=no to /etc/default/rcS, to no
avail.


thanks,
maria

Update: I tried installing an earlier version of portmap (etch 5-26),
and this helped moderately. I now have portmap running, but statd still
did not start up. It complains that: Opening /var/run/rpc.statd.pid
failed: Read-only file system. Well, duh, that is why I am trying to get
statd running! Any way I can start statd without a pid until I get the
root file system mounted rw? Or something else to try?


thanks,
maria


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init problems
 

Maria McKinley wrote:

> I have a machine that I am attempting to boot over the network. I have
> compiled a kernel for it, Debian Lenny Linux version 2.6.26, with nfs
> file system and root file system support. For a complete rundown on how
> I have created the setup, please see:
>
> http://www.shadlen.org/~maria/pmwiki/Work/Gpxe
>
> Things work well up until it is time to mount the file system from
> fstab. The mount is not happening because statd is never started, and
> statd is not starting because portmap is not starting. I suspect it is
> related to this bug:
>
>

so you say, you can boot from the remote server but you can not mount the
root fs rw?

Are you dropped to the little shell from the initrd?

I suppose that you have the wrong permissions on the nfs server for what you
are using as root.

check the root_squash option in export

regards





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init problems
 

Maria McKinley wrote:

> I have a machine that I am attempting to boot over the network. I have
> compiled a kernel for it, Debian Lenny Linux version 2.6.26, with nfs
> file system and root file system support. For a complete rundown on how
> I have created the setup, please see:
>
> http://www.shadlen.org/~maria/pmwiki/Work/Gpxe
>

had another look and saw you have the no root squash option

I don't know anything about wraplinux. My server is on sarge and I booted
few clients with no problem, but I used custom initrd (and kernel).

I also don't understand (created image, and stuck it on a floppy). Did you
use the floppy to flash your network card's bios or to boot from?

I would just check the initrd file

cd /tmp
mkdir test
cd test
zcat /boot/<INITRD> | cpio -i -H newc

... do whatever you need to mount rw ...

find . ! -name "*~" | cpio -H newc --create | gzip -9 > /boot/<INITRD>

watch out - this will overwrite your initrd, so make backup

regards


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init problems
 

Emanoil Kotsev wrote:

Maria McKinley wrote:


I have a machine that I am attempting to boot over the network. I have
compiled a kernel for it, Debian Lenny Linux version 2.6.26, with nfs
file system and root file system support. For a complete rundown on how
I have created the setup, please see:

http://www.shadlen.org/~maria/pmwiki/Work/Gpxe



had another look and saw you have the no root squash option

I don't know anything about wraplinux. My server is on sarge and I booted
few clients with no problem, but I used custom initrd (and kernel).

I also don't understand (created image, and stuck it on a floppy). Did you
use the floppy to flash your network card's bios or to boot from?

I would just check the initrd file

cd /tmp
mkdir test
cd test
zcat /boot/<INITRD> | cpio -i -H newc

... do whatever you need to mount rw ...

find . ! -name "*~" | cpio -H newc --create | gzip -9 > /boot/<INITRD>

watch out - this will overwrite your initrd, so make backup

regards


hi there,

Thanks for the response. I am putting a gPXE image on a floppy, and
booting from the floppy. From there it downloads the kernel with initrd,
runs all of the way through the initrd file, and all of the way through
/sbin/init as well, actually (but there are errors during init). Initrd
is able to mount the root file system as read-only, which is what is
suppose to happen. The problem is that init is not able to start statd,
so cannot remount the root file directory according to fstab as a
read-write mount. I thought at first that statd wasn't starting because
portmap wasn't starting, but I downgraded portmap to 5-26 from etch, and
now portmap will start, but statd still doesn't start. When I try to
start statd from the command line, I get:


/var/run/rpc.statd.pid failed: Read-only file system.

Which seems really bizarre, as I need statd in order to mount the root
file system as read-write. So if anyone knows a way to start statd
temporarily without a pid until the root file system mounts read-write,
that would probably solve my problem.



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init problems
 

Maria McKinley wrote:

> Thanks for the response. I am putting a gPXE image on a floppy, and
> booting from the floppy. From there it downloads the kernel with initrd,
> runs all of the way through the initrd file, and all of the way through
> /sbin/init as well, actually (but there are errors during init). Initrd
> is able to mount the root file system as read-only, which is what is

Ok, this was useful info. I did the same with a usb stick, but then I found
out that the usb can hold the hole image (linux) and the initrd.

> suppose to happen. The problem is that init is not able to start statd,
> so cannot remount the root file directory according to fstab as a
> read-write mount. I thought at first that statd wasn't starting because
> portmap wasn't starting, but I downgraded portmap to 5-26 from etch, and
> now portmap will start, but statd still doesn't start. When I try to
> start statd from the command line, I get:
>
> /var/run/rpc.statd.pid failed: Read-only file system.
>
> Which seems really bizarre, as I need statd in order to mount the root
> file system as read-write. So if anyone knows a way to start statd
> temporarily without a pid until the root file system mounts read-write,
> that would probably solve my problem.

I know this and I've seen it before. I can imagine that your initrd or
bootfiles (rc-files) are broken somewhere.

It could be also the fsck stuff - on nfs I would disable it, or check if it
is running, but I would definitely look into the initrd file and see what's
there.

I don't remember when I had this error or how I solved. I remember it was
something in the initrd, then I wrote a script to create initrd easy and
forgot the utilities.

so may be your mkinitrd program is not configured properly or broken.

you can try

mount -o remount,rw /

on the emergency shell and see if it works

if so you can put it somehwere in the init script in the initrd or in a
rc-file.

regards


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