Bug 1983008

Summary: PPC64: required "bootlist" executable may be missing, preventing system from being recovered
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Reporter: Renaud Métrich <rmetrich>
Component: rearAssignee: Pavel Cahyna <pcahyna>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact: David Jež <djez>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: urgent    
Version: 7.9CC: djez, fkrska, jreznik, lzaoral, ovasik, pcahyna
Target Milestone: rcKeywords: ZStream
Target Release: ---Flags: pm-rhel: mirror+
Hardware: ppc64   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: rear-2.4-14.el7_9 Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2022-01-11 17:36:05 UTC Type: Bug
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Renaud Métrich 2021-07-16 09:03:23 UTC 
Description of problem:

On PPC64/PPC64le, the "bootlist" executable is required when installing the boot loader, when the system is in PowerVM mode.
From /usr/share/rear/finalize/Linux-ppc64le/680_install_PPC_bootlist.sh:
-------- 8< ---------------- 8< ---------------- 8< ---------------- 8< --------
  2 #################################################################
  3 # Run bootlist only in PowerVM environment
  4 # which means not in BareMetal(PowerNV) or KVM (emulated by qemu)
  5 
  6 # Exit if you are not running in PowerVM mode.
  7 if grep -q "PowerNV" /proc/cpuinfo || grep -q "emulated by qemu" /proc/cpuinfo ; then
  8     return
  9 fi
 :
-------- 8< ---------------- 8< ---------------- 8< ---------------- 8< --------

Unfortunately the current code doesn't do this check while creating the ReaR ISO, it just adds "bootlist" as a "wished" executable, in /usr/share/rear/conf/Linux-ppc64.conf:
-------- 8< ---------------- 8< ---------------- 8< ---------------- 8< --------
[...]
  6 PROGS=(
[...]
 12 bootlist
[...]
 18 )
[...]
-------- 8< ---------------- 8< ---------------- 8< ---------------- 8< --------

Since "bootlist" is required, there should be a test during mkrescue phase if on PowerVM.

"bootlist" is shipped by "powervm-tools" on RHEL7 and "powervm-tools-core" on RHEL8.

Actual error when "bootlist" is not present while recovering:
-------- 8< ---------------- 8< ---------------- 8< ---------------- 8< --------
2021-07-09 13:35:43.982493402 PPC PReP Boot partition found: /dev/sda1
2021-07-09 13:35:43.985351115 Boot device disk is /dev/sda.
2021-07-09 13:35:43.989938442 Set LPAR bootlist to '/dev/sda'
2021-07-09 13:35:43.991806712 Unable to set bootlist. You will have to start in SMS to set it up manually.
-------- 8< ---------------- 8< ---------------- 8< ---------------- 8< --------



Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

rear-2.4 and Upstream (same code)


How reproducible:

N/A
Comment 3 Pavel Cahyna 2021-07-22 09:22:26 UTC 
See bz1983013 for the discussion of possible fixes.
Comment 13 errata-xmlrpc 2022-01-11 17:36:05 UTC 
Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory (rear bug fix and enhancement update), and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2022:0069