Problem:
Trying to provision of Ubuntu 24.04, after client load kernel from tftp and boots, it can not download ang mount iso distribution. See screen capture
In var/log/apache2/foreman-ssl_access_ssl.log we get this line:
<client_ip> - - [09/Jun/2025:13:02:32 +0200] “GET / HTTP/1.0” 400 362 “-” “-”
Expected outcome:
Download and mount iso distribution.
Foreman and Proxy versions:
Foreman and Proxy 3.16
Foreman and Proxy plugin versions:
Distribution and version:
Other relevant data:
As additional info, pxelinux boot file is:
DEFAULT linux cloud-init autoinstall
LABEL linux cloud-init autoinstall
KERNEL boot/ubuntu-24-04-autoinstall-zcIo8TMJBnZX-vmlinuz
INITRD boot/ubuntu-24-04-autoinstall-zcIo8TMJBnZX-initrd
APPEND root=/dev/ram0 ip=dhcp BOOTIF=c6:64:81:e3:e4:cb ramdisk_size=1500000 fsck.mode=skip autoinstall url=http://puppet2.terrassa.upc.edu:443/pub/installation_media/ubuntu/24.04-x86_64.iso cloud-config-url=/dev/null ds=nocloud-net;s=http://puppet2.terrassa.upc.edu/userdata/c6:64:81:e3:e4:cb/ console-setup/ask_detect=false locale=es_ES localechooser/translation/warn-light=true localechooser/translation/warn-severe=true hostname=ubuntu24.upc.edu domain=upc.edu
Just a litte move forward.
Changing
url=http://puppet2.terrassa.upc.edu:443/pub....iso
To
url=http://puppet2.terrassa.upc.edu/pub...iso
The iso file is downloaded, but now there’s a problem to mount it:
Not sure if this is the error I got when the RAM was to low, but there were many issues I found when trying to provision with less than 6 GB RAM.
Another common error is that the desktop iso does not include the required parts so you need to use the server iso even if you want a desktop installation.
Thanks for your answer Dirk.
You’re rigt, the client must have enough memory becase iso distribution is about 3G and more.
The thing here is:
why is it trying to mount /dev/loop0 into /cdrom?
The downloaded iso in in the root: /24.04.x86_64.iso
why doesn’t it try to mount it?
I did not look into Autoinstall so deep yet, but I would expect it to create the loop device /dev/loop0 from the iso and then mount it to /cdrom. This would be normal behavior that is just hidden for the user typically as you will only run “mount -t loop” or it even adds the type when seeing the iso for convenience.
After many hours of tests, conclousion is that netboot kernel doest not recongnize iso9660 format. It can not mount iso9660 devices. The message when I try to mount /dev/loop0 on /cdrom is:
FAT-fs (loop0): unable to read boot sector.
So it’s trying to mount it as FAT !!
If I try to force iso9660 on mount, I get the same error on console but no messages in dmesg.
So the question is: can it be possible that vmlinuz and initrd that are en “casper” directory of the iso server file don’t have support (necessary modules) for iso9660?
No, this should work. I have several environments where I have successfully installed every LTS version since Autoinstall was introduced (not without problems, but successful in the end).
You can find my workflow in our training material: foreman-training/provisioning/02_configuration.md at gh-pages · NETWAYS/foreman-training · GitHub
It is not really different from the official docs, but perhaps you see a difference which can help fixing the problem?
Thanks a lot Dirk. I’m gonna take a loot at that.
Wow! Incredible, a step in your notes make the trick!
What I did was mount iso file and copy all iso files to
/var/lib/foreman/public/pub/installation_media/ubuntu/24.04-x86_64
Now, instead of that, I follow your notes and I’ve mounted the iso in that path.
And voila! The autoinstall have begun.
All seems going web untill it reaches finsish step, where I get this:
But very close to the end!!
A thousand thanks!
Perhaps the token is no longer valid if you did not use a fresh system. If this is the case just cancel the build and then activate the build mode again.
I doen’t seem so. I’ve created the host from zero and same thing:
In web log:
“GET /unattended/finish?token=5d1e1408-631e-49cd-9dfd-c9b495c6c013 HTTP/1.1” 404 73 “-” “Wget/1.21.2”
So “not found”.
I guess this wget is for download finish script which is the last before reboot with new host ready
Yes, so is a finish script assigned to the Operating system? If it is, does it render as expected if you look into the preview in the Host details?
OMG There isn’t a finish template associated! It was that simple!
Netboot finished and new system ready!
Thanks a lot for your help.
I’m going to document all steps.
Have a nice weekend!
