Bug 795526

Description of problem:

Using the release or boot ISO images mounted from a local machine (client) via iLO to a remote machine (server) where the install will occur. The connection between client and server is excessively slow and unreliable (VPN from a remote geographic location). Expecting to perform the complete install from a network-shared repo (http) that is local to the server being installed. PXE is not an available option.

Unless the "askmethod" option is explicitly passed (forcing interactivity that is undesired), the installer always downloads stage2 install.img from the mounted disc to the local drive. Over the slow connection, this causes an installer delay of up to 10 minutes to transfer the 130MB+ file.


Steps to Reproduce:

1. Limit bandwidth between client and server to <2Mbps
2. Mount RHEL 6.2 release DVD or boot ISO via remote console (iLO)
3. Press Esc at boot menu
4. Pass at the boot prompt:
  linux text nofb noipv6 ksdevice=eth0 ip=<ip> netmask=<netmask> gateway=<gateway> dns=<dns1,dns2> ks=<kickstart URL> repo=<repo URL> stage2=<repo URL>


Actual results:

The install.img file is copied from the mounted disc to the local drive, causing a significant delay in the installer.


Expected results:

The repo= and/or stage2= parameters should override loading of the stage2 install.img from the "local" disc, and instead load it from the specified network repo.


Additional info:

Code snippet from loader.c below. It appears to confirm the above observation that only the "askmethod" parameter will override the loading of install.img from the mounted ISO. The stage2= parameter apparently overrides this, but only later in the process after the transfer from disc has already occurred.

This apparently operates as designed, as so is not necessarily a code bug, however it arguably does not operate strictly as documented.

We've been able to mitigate this problem for a specific customer instance by building a custom boot ISO with a blank install.img file, and passing the repo= parameter.

    /* Before anything else, see if there's a CD/DVD with a stage2 image on
     * it.  However if stage2= was given, use that value as an override here.
     * That will also then bypass any method selection UI in loader.
     */
    if (!FL_ASKMETHOD(flags)) {
        url = findAnacondaCD("/mnt/stage2");
        if (url) {
            /* This is specific to RHEL, which does not have the mirror system
             * set up like Fedora does.  If the CD/DVD doesn't have packages,
             * then it's a boot.iso and we still need to prompt for the
             * installation source.
             */

            if (!access("/mnt/stage2/.discinfo", R_OK)) {
                skipLangKbd = 1;
                flags |= LOADER_FLAGS_NOPASS;

                setStage2LocFromCmdline(url, loaderData);
                skipMethodDialog = 1;

                logMessage(INFO, "Detected stage 2 image on CD (url: %s)", url);
                winStatus(50, 3, _("Media Detected"),
                          _("Found local installation media"), 0);
                sleep(3);
                newtPopWindow();
            }
            else {
                logMessage(DEBUGLVL, "This appears to be a boot.iso.");
                umountStage2();
                free(url);
                url = NULL;
            }
        }

        if (!loaderData->stage2Data && loaderData->instRepo) {
            /* If no CD/DVD with a stage2 image was found and we were given a
             * repo=/method= parameter, try to piece together a valid setting
             * for the stage2= parameter based on that.
             */
            char *tmp;

            checked_asprintf(&tmp, "%s/images/install.img",
                             loaderData->instRepo);

            logMessage(INFO, "no stage2= given, assuming %s", tmp);
            setStage2LocFromCmdline(tmp, loaderData);
            free(tmp);

            if (loaderData->method == METHOD_URL)
                ((urlInstallData*)loaderData->stage2Data)->noverifyssl =
                    loaderData->instRepo_noverifyssl;

            /* If we had to infer a stage2= location, but the repo= parameter
             * we based this guess on was wrong, we need to correct the typo
             * in both places.  Unfortunately we can't really know what the
             * user meant, so the best we can do is take the results of
             * running stage2= through the UI and chop off any /images/whatever
             * path that's at the end of it.
             */
            loaderData->inferredStage2 = 1;
            if (loaderData->method != -1) {
                skipMethodDialog = 1;
            }
        } else if (!url && loaderData->stage2Data) {
            logMessage(DEBUGLVL, "Have stage2 location, so skipping method dialog");
            skipMethodDialog = 1;
        }
    } else {
        /* Needed because they have already been set when parsing cmdline.
         * (Leaks a little.)
         */
        logMessage(DEBUGLVL, "askmethod parameter given");
        loaderData->method = -1;
        loaderData->stage2Data = NULL;
    }