Ubuntu 16.04, Dell R320 & preseed install via “The Foreman”

Hi guys & girls,

I've burnt a great many hours on this, and now, as suggested on IRC, I'll
try my luck here on the mailing list.

This is basically a copy of my question on serverfault
( http://serverfault.com/questions/787001/ubuntu-16-04-dell-r320-preseed-install-via-the-foreman
).

After lots of trial & error I've finally given up on the "SATA RAID" the
R320 provides, and resorted to using AHCI mode.

Partitioning/Provisioning work fine, but on the next boot the machine
claims to have no OS.

Booting it in rescue mode of an ISO (vFlash) I can mount the disks, chroot
to the installed OS, re-install GRUB w/o errors, but it still won't boot
afterwards. I've not seen anything like this before, btw.
Running a complete install of the ISO works as expected.

How do I identify the cause of this behaviour, and, more importantly, make
it go away?

After several attempts of the above w/ a few tweaks to the preseed install
(e.g. hard-coding the install disk to be /dev/sda, setting it via
host-parameter to make use of template, … ) I gave up on that.

I then tried taking the selections from the manual install
(debconf-get-selections --installer), filtered out anything that didn't
disk>partm>grub in it and created a preseed partitioning file for the R320
from that; using that the machine never gets past "partman: reading all
physical volumes …" … while it says this can take a long time I'll take
16h to be a failure :}

And then in my desparation … not being able to find out why/how the
provisioned system is never bootable with 16.04 I figured I'd try debian8
(Jessie) and ask them about preseed in IRC when it fails. Added Debian as
an OS in foreman, associated it with the same preseed files as Ubuntu,
changed the hosts OS from Ubuntu 16.06 to Debian, kicked off a build. Had
to answer 2 installer questions (language, hdd for grub), and had a working
server in about 30 minutes :confused: Not what I was going for. Can anyone tell me
how to find out why Ubuntu behaves so differently?

Cheers,
Andrej

Hello Andrej,

I think I had a similiar case for Ubuntu 14.04 on certain Dell machines as well.
In our situation, adding rootdelay=90 as a kernel parameter helped and the machine booted into the OS.

You can add this via preseed:
d-i debian-installer/add-kernel-opts string noquiet nosplash rootdelay=90

Regards,
Stefan

··· > Hi guys & girls, > > I've burnt a great many hours on this, and now, as suggested on IRC, I'll > try my luck here on the mailing list. > > This is basically a copy of my question on serverfault > ( > http://serverfault.com/questions/787001/ubuntu-16-04-dell-r320-preseed-install-via-the-foreman > ). > > > After lots of trial & error I've finally given up on the "SATA RAID" the > R320 provides, and resorted to using AHCI mode. > > > Partitioning/Provisioning work fine, but on the next boot the machine > claims to have no OS. > > > Booting it in rescue mode of an ISO (vFlash) I can mount the disks, chroot > to the installed OS, re-install GRUB w/o errors, but it still won't boot > afterwards. I've not seen anything like this before, btw. > Running a complete install of the ISO works as expected. > > How do I identify the cause of this behaviour, and, more importantly, make > it go away? > > > After several attempts of the above w/ a few tweaks to the preseed install > (e.g. hard-coding the install disk to be /dev/sda, setting it via > host-parameter to make use of template, ... ) I gave up on that. > > I then tried taking the selections from the manual install > (debconf-get-selections --installer), filtered out anything that didn't > disk>partm>grub in it and created a preseed partitioning file for the R320 > from that; using that the machine never gets past "partman: reading all > physical volumes ..." ... while it says this can take a long time I'll take > 16h to be a failure :} > > > And then in my desparation .. not being able to find out why/how the > provisioned system is never bootable with 16.04 I figured I'd try debian8 > (Jessie) and ask them about preseed in IRC when it fails. Added Debian as > an OS in foreman, associated it with the same preseed files as Ubuntu, > changed the hosts OS from Ubuntu 16.06 to Debian, kicked off a build. Had > to answer 2 installer questions (language, hdd for grub), and had a working > server in about 30 minutes :/ Not what I was going for. Can anyone tell me > how to find out why Ubuntu behaves so differently? > > > Cheers, > Andrej > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Foreman users" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email > to foreman-users+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to foreman-users@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/foreman-users. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Danke, Stefan,

Will give that a shot on Monday

Cheers
Andrej

··· On Jul 1, 2016 8:14 PM, "Dietrich, Stefan" wrote:

Hello Andrej,

I think I had a similiar case for Ubuntu 14.04 on certain Dell machines as
well.
In our situation, adding rootdelay=90 as a kernel parameter helped and the
machine booted into the OS.

You can add this via preseed:
d-i debian-installer/add-kernel-opts string noquiet nosplash rootdelay=90

Regards,
Stefan

Hi guys & girls,

I’ve burnt a great many hours on this, and now, as suggested on IRC, I’ll
try my luck here on the mailing list.

This is basically a copy of my question on serverfault
(

http://serverfault.com/questions/787001/ubuntu-16-04-dell-r320-preseed-install-via-the-foreman

).

After lots of trial & error I’ve finally given up on the “SATA RAID” the
R320 provides, and resorted to using AHCI mode.

Partitioning/Provisioning work fine, but on the next boot the machine
claims to have no OS.

Booting it in rescue mode of an ISO (vFlash) I can mount the disks,
chroot
to the installed OS, re-install GRUB w/o errors, but it still won’t boot
afterwards. I’ve not seen anything like this before, btw.
Running a complete install of the ISO works as expected.

How do I identify the cause of this behaviour, and, more importantly,
make
it go away?

After several attempts of the above w/ a few tweaks to the preseed
install
(e.g. hard-coding the install disk to be /dev/sda, setting it via
host-parameter to make use of template, … ) I gave up on that.

I then tried taking the selections from the manual install
(debconf-get-selections --installer), filtered out anything that didn’t
disk>partm>grub in it and created a preseed partitioning file for the
R320
from that; using that the machine never gets past “partman: reading all
physical volumes …” … while it says this can take a long time I’ll
take
16h to be a failure :}

And then in my desparation … not being able to find out why/how the
provisioned system is never bootable with 16.04 I figured I’d try debian8
(Jessie) and ask them about preseed in IRC when it fails. Added Debian as
an OS in foreman, associated it with the same preseed files as Ubuntu,
changed the hosts OS from Ubuntu 16.06 to Debian, kicked off a build. Had
to answer 2 installer questions (language, hdd for grub), and had a
working
server in about 30 minutes :confused: Not what I was going for. Can anyone tell
me
how to find out why Ubuntu behaves so differently?

Cheers,
Andrej


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To post to this group, send email to foreman-users@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/foreman-users.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Foreman users" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
email to foreman-users+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to foreman-users@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/foreman-users.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for the suggestion, but it unfortunately made no difference.
The machine still won't boot after provisioning succeeds.

Cheers,
Andrej

··· On 1 July 2016 at 20:14, Dietrich, Stefan wrote: > Hello Andrej, > > I think I had a similiar case for Ubuntu 14.04 on certain Dell machines as well. > In our situation, adding rootdelay=90 as a kernel parameter helped and the machine booted into the OS. > > You can add this via preseed: > d-i debian-installer/add-kernel-opts string noquiet nosplash rootdelay=90 > > Regards, > Stefan > >> Hi guys & girls, >> >> I've burnt a great many hours on this, and now, as suggested on IRC, I'll >> try my luck here on the mailing list. >> >> This is basically a copy of my question on serverfault >> ( >> http://serverfault.com/questions/787001/ubuntu-16-04-dell-r320-preseed-install-via-the-foreman >> ). >> >> >> After lots of trial & error I've finally given up on the "SATA RAID" the >> R320 provides, and resorted to using AHCI mode. >> >> >> Partitioning/Provisioning work fine, but on the next boot the machine >> claims to have no OS. >> >> >> Booting it in rescue mode of an ISO (vFlash) I can mount the disks, chroot >> to the installed OS, re-install GRUB w/o errors, but it still won't boot >> afterwards. I've not seen anything like this before, btw. >> Running a complete install of the ISO works as expected. >> >> How do I identify the cause of this behaviour, and, more importantly, make >> it go away? >> >> >> After several attempts of the above w/ a few tweaks to the preseed install >> (e.g. hard-coding the install disk to be /dev/sda, setting it via >> host-parameter to make use of template, ... ) I gave up on that. >> >> I then tried taking the selections from the manual install >> (debconf-get-selections --installer), filtered out anything that didn't >> disk>partm>grub in it and created a preseed partitioning file for the R320 >> from that; using that the machine never gets past "partman: reading all >> physical volumes ..." ... while it says this can take a long time I'll take >> 16h to be a failure :} >> >> >> And then in my desparation .. not being able to find out why/how the >> provisioned system is never bootable with 16.04 I figured I'd try debian8 >> (Jessie) and ask them about preseed in IRC when it fails. Added Debian as >> an OS in foreman, associated it with the same preseed files as Ubuntu, >> changed the hosts OS from Ubuntu 16.06 to Debian, kicked off a build. Had >> to answer 2 installer questions (language, hdd for grub), and had a working >> server in about 30 minutes :/ Not what I was going for. Can anyone tell me >> how to find out why Ubuntu behaves so differently? >> >> >> Cheers, >> Andrej >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Foreman users" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email >> to foreman-users+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. >> To post to this group, send email to foreman-users@googlegroups.com. >> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/foreman-users. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Foreman users" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to foreman-users+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to foreman-users@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/foreman-users. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


Please don’t top post, and don’t use HTML e-Mail :} Make your quotes concise.

http://www.georgedillon.com/web/html_email_is_evil.shtml
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/email-style.html

And a follow-up; out of despair I tried to install 14.04 on the same
box w/ the foreman.

'lo and behold, it worketh.

How do I find out in what weird and wonderful ways preseeding of 14.04
differs from 16.04?

··· On 4 July 2016 at 08:14, Andrej wrote: > Hi Stefan, > > Thanks for the suggestion, but it unfortunately made no difference. > The machine still won't boot after provisioning succeeds. > > Cheers, > Andrej > > On 1 July 2016 at 20:14, Dietrich, Stefan wrote: >> Hello Andrej, >> >> I think I had a similiar case for Ubuntu 14.04 on certain Dell machines as well. >> In our situation, adding rootdelay=90 as a kernel parameter helped and the machine booted into the OS. >> >> You can add this via preseed: >> d-i debian-installer/add-kernel-opts string noquiet nosplash rootdelay=90 >> >> Regards, >> Stefan >> >>> Hi guys & girls, >>> >>> I've burnt a great many hours on this, and now, as suggested on IRC, I'll >>> try my luck here on the mailing list. >>> >>> This is basically a copy of my question on serverfault >>> ( >>> http://serverfault.com/questions/787001/ubuntu-16-04-dell-r320-preseed-install-via-the-foreman >>> ). >>> >>> >>> After lots of trial & error I've finally given up on the "SATA RAID" the >>> R320 provides, and resorted to using AHCI mode. >>> >>> >>> Partitioning/Provisioning work fine, but on the next boot the machine >>> claims to have no OS. >>> >>> >>> Booting it in rescue mode of an ISO (vFlash) I can mount the disks, chroot >>> to the installed OS, re-install GRUB w/o errors, but it still won't boot >>> afterwards. I've not seen anything like this before, btw. >>> Running a complete install of the ISO works as expected. >>> >>> How do I identify the cause of this behaviour, and, more importantly, make >>> it go away? >>> >>> >>> After several attempts of the above w/ a few tweaks to the preseed install >>> (e.g. hard-coding the install disk to be /dev/sda, setting it via >>> host-parameter to make use of template, ... ) I gave up on that. >>> >>> I then tried taking the selections from the manual install >>> (debconf-get-selections --installer), filtered out anything that didn't >>> disk>partm>grub in it and created a preseed partitioning file for the R320 >>> from that; using that the machine never gets past "partman: reading all >>> physical volumes ..." ... while it says this can take a long time I'll take >>> 16h to be a failure :} >>> >>> >>> And then in my desparation .. not being able to find out why/how the >>> provisioned system is never bootable with 16.04 I figured I'd try debian8 >>> (Jessie) and ask them about preseed in IRC when it fails. Added Debian as >>> an OS in foreman, associated it with the same preseed files as Ubuntu, >>> changed the hosts OS from Ubuntu 16.06 to Debian, kicked off a build. Had >>> to answer 2 installer questions (language, hdd for grub), and had a working >>> server in about 30 minutes :/ Not what I was going for. Can anyone tell me >>> how to find out why Ubuntu behaves so differently? >>> >>> >>> Cheers, >>> Andrej >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "Foreman users" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email >>> to foreman-users+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. >>> To post to this group, send email to foreman-users@googlegroups.com. >>> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/foreman-users. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Foreman users" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to foreman-users+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. >> To post to this group, send email to foreman-users@googlegroups.com. >> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/foreman-users. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > > -- > Please don't top post, and don't use HTML e-Mail :} Make your quotes concise. > > http://www.georgedillon.com/web/html_email_is_evil.shtml > http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/email-style.html


Please don’t top post, and don’t use HTML e-Mail :} Make your quotes concise.

http://www.georgedillon.com/web/html_email_is_evil.shtml
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/email-style.html