Bug 1026834 - method= combined with 'url' in kickstart fails to find packages, in certain situations
Summary: method= combined with 'url' in kickstart fails to find packages, in certain s...
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: anaconda
Version: 20
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Martin Kolman
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard: RejectedBlocker AcceptedFreezeException
Depends On:
Blocks: F20FinalFreezeException 1040138
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2013-11-05 14:02 UTC by Kamil Páral
Modified: 2023-09-14 01:53 UTC (History)
10 users (show)

Fixed In Version: anaconda-20.25.15-1.fc20
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
: 1040138 (view as bug list)
Environment:
Last Closed: 2013-12-13 05:34:19 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
anaconda failure screenshot (134.32 KB, image/png)
2013-11-05 14:02 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details
ks.cfg (666 bytes, text/plain)
2013-11-05 14:05 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details
anaconda.log (with method=) (7.54 KB, text/plain)
2013-11-05 14:05 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details
anaconda-yum.conf (with method=) (269 bytes, text/plain)
2013-11-05 14:05 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details
packaging.log (with method=) (75.58 KB, text/plain)
2013-11-05 14:05 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details
program.log (with method=) (27.87 KB, text/plain)
2013-11-05 14:05 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details
storage.log (with method=) (100.52 KB, text/plain)
2013-11-05 14:06 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details
syslog (with method=) (63.91 KB, text/plain)
2013-11-05 14:06 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details
screenshot with error in TC3 (172.24 KB, image/png)
2013-11-28 13:39 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details
screenshot with error in TC4 (109.12 KB, image/png)
2013-12-03 16:08 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details


Links
System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Bugzilla 1026841 0 unspecified CLOSED virt-install runs anaconda with method= instead of inst.repo= 2021-02-22 00:41:40 UTC

Internal Links: 1026841

Description Kamil Páral 2013-11-05 14:02:22 UTC
Description of problem:
This command fails:

$ virt-install --name FedoraTest --ram 1024 --disk pool=default,size=10 --location http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/20-Beta-RC2/Fedora/x86_64/os/ --initrd-inject ks.cfg --extra-args "ks=file:/ks.cfg"

because Anaconda complains that it can't find a particular package in a repository. It is looking for device-mapper-libs-1.02.82-3.fc20.x86_64.rpm, which is available in the target location:
http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/20-Beta-RC2/Fedora/x86_64/os/Packages/d/

However, the included kickstart only enables "fedora" and "updates" repositories, which currently contain only device-mapper-libs-1.02.81-1.fc20.x86_64.rpm:
http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/20/x86_64/os/Packages/d/

It seems that anaconda retrieves yum metadata from http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/20-Beta-RC2/Fedora/x86_64/os/, but then it tries to use that metadata with standard fedora+updates repos as defined in the kickstart. That obviously doesn't work. The --location metadata must be flushed first, and only then fedora+updates repos should be queried and used.

I don't need to use virt-install, I can simulate exactly the same problem in virt-manager, if I use direct kernel boot (kernel+initrd) or netinst and provide these boot arguments:
method=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/20-Beta-RC2/Fedora/x86_64/os/ inst.ks=http://192.168.11.1:8000/ks.cfg


However, it is mostly interesting that these boot arguments *work well*:
inst.repo=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/20-Beta-RC2/Fedora/x86_64/os/ inst.ks=http://192.168.11.1:8000/ks.cfg

In another words, changing method= to inst.repo= fixes the situation and correct metadata are used. I have confirmed that in several attempts.

Please fix method= to work exactly same as inst.repo=.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
anaconda 20.25.5-1
F20 Beta RC2

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. boot anaconda using direct kernel boot or netinst
2. use the attached kickstart (http or initrd injection delivery method)
3. add boot argument: method=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/20-Beta-RC2/Fedora/x86_64/os/
4. see that the installation fails
5. replace the boot argument with: inst.repo=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/20-Beta-RC2/Fedora/x86_64/os/
6. see that the installation succeeds

Please note that the above reproducer will only work until device-mapper-libs-1.02.82-3.fc20.x86_64.rpm (and probably some other offending packages) are pushed to stable repositories. Some required packages must be newer in the method= location than in standard fedora repos in order to trigger this issue.

Comment 1 Kamil Páral 2013-11-05 14:02:54 UTC
Created attachment 819775 [details]
anaconda failure screenshot

Comment 2 Kamil Páral 2013-11-05 14:05:10 UTC
Created attachment 819776 [details]
ks.cfg

Comment 3 Kamil Páral 2013-11-05 14:05:25 UTC
Created attachment 819777 [details]
anaconda.log (with method=)

Comment 4 Kamil Páral 2013-11-05 14:05:35 UTC
Created attachment 819778 [details]
anaconda-yum.conf (with method=)

Comment 5 Kamil Páral 2013-11-05 14:05:47 UTC
Created attachment 819779 [details]
packaging.log (with method=)

Comment 6 Kamil Páral 2013-11-05 14:05:55 UTC
Created attachment 819780 [details]
program.log (with method=)

Comment 7 Kamil Páral 2013-11-05 14:06:03 UTC
Created attachment 819781 [details]
storage.log (with method=)

Comment 8 Kamil Páral 2013-11-05 14:06:13 UTC
Created attachment 819782 [details]
syslog (with method=)

Comment 9 Kamil Páral 2013-11-05 14:16:32 UTC
Full anaconda logs available here:
http://kparal.fedorapeople.org/bugs/rhbz_1026834.7z

Comment 10 Kamil Páral 2013-11-28 13:39:33 UTC
Created attachment 830241 [details]
screenshot with error in TC3

The reason why I've found this is because of bug 1026841. virt-install uses method= and therefore fails to install Fedora.

I have tried again with F20 TC3, the same problem occurs. This time it fails because of sqlite-3.8.1-2.fc20.x86_64 (which is in updates-testing, but not in stable repos). I used netinst and a kickstart. However, it's very interesting:

* BROKEN: method=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/20-TC3/Fedora/x86_64/os/ inst.ks=http://192.168.11.1:8000/ks.cfg

* WORKS: repo=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/20-TC3/Fedora/x86_64/os/ inst.ks=http://192.168.11.1:8000/ks.cfg

* WORKS: inst.repo=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/20-TC3/Fedora/x86_64/os/ inst.ks=http://192.168.11.1:8000/ks.cfg

* WORKS: method=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/20/x86_64/os/ inst.ks=http://192.168.11.1:8000/ks.cfg

* WORKS: repo=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/20/x86_64/os/ inst.ks=http://192.168.11.1:8000/ks.cfg

* WORKS: inst.repo=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/20/x86_64/os/ inst.ks=http://192.168.11.1:8000/ks.cfg

The only broken combination is method= _and_ a TC repository (i.e. not full development repository). The TC repository is just a small selection of packages (equivalent to loop-mounted DVD.iso), so I tried to replace it with a mounted DVD.iso image and it behaves the same - also spits out an error with method= (and not with repo= or inst.repo=).

I can't reproduce this with interactive installation, just with a kickstart.

The full TC3 logs are available at:
http://kparal.fedorapeople.org/bugs/rhbz_1026834_TC3.7z

Comment 11 Kamil Páral 2013-11-28 13:45:52 UTC
This could be a violation of
"The installer must be able to complete a scripted installation which duplicates the default interactive installation as closely as possible. " or
"Any installation method or process designed to run unattended must do so. There should be no prompts requiring user intervention. "
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_20_Beta_Release_Criteria

Only method= + ks= installations seem to be affected, and only if you use DVD.iso-like repository. But it might be a common use case, if people are used to mount DVD.iso and then run "virt-install --location" (and a kickstart by any approach possible). That's exactly a combination of DVD repository, method= and ks=.

Comment 12 Petr Schindler 2013-11-28 13:47:57 UTC
I reproduced failure from comment 10 with the same steps (kickstart and parameters).

Comment 13 Kamil Páral 2013-12-02 10:53:39 UTC
In case I can't attend today's blocker bug meeting, I vote +1 blocker. We should either
a) make virt-install to issue repo= instead of method= (that's bug 1026841). If people use method= manually, it's their fault, it has been obsolete for ages.
or
b) make anaconda behave the same for method= and repo= (that could be a fairly simple fix, the code probably contains some switch that activates different code path for method= than for repo=). This would fix virt-install as well and no changes to it would be necessary.

Comment 14 Kamil Páral 2013-12-02 16:00:20 UTC
I withdraw my previous blocker vote. I was convinced I can reproduce it any time, just by using an old DVD.iso or TC directory. But no, today neither me nor Martin Kolman can reproduce it, even when using a over old TC repository. It is clearly very much affected by current yum repos contents. So, probably -1 blocker right now until we can better demonstrate the affected use cases.

My latest suspicion is that this happens when the TC folder/DVD compose contains _newer_ packages than current stable repos. It was the case for ​sqlite-3.8.1-2.fc20 [1]. We will see when we have TC4 and it again includes some packages that are available in updates-testing and not in stable updates.

[1] https://fedorahosted.org/rel-eng/ticket/5808#comment:8

Comment 15 Adam Williamson 2013-12-02 17:40:47 UTC
Discussed at 2013-12-02 blocker review meeting: http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-blocker-review/2013-12-02/f20-blocker-review-%234.2013-12-02-17.02.log.txt . Agreed to delay the decision until after this can be tested with TC4, as outlined in c#14.

Comment 16 Kamil Páral 2013-12-03 16:08:33 UTC
Created attachment 832201 [details]
screenshot with error in TC4

Here we go with TC4 :-) 

error populating transaction: failure: Packages/f/fedora-release-20-1.noarch.rpm from anaconda: [Errno 256] No more mirrors to try.

These boot options were used:
method=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/20-TC4/Fedora/x86_64/os/ inst.ks=http://192.168.11.1:8000/ks.cfg

fedora-release-20-1.noarch.rpm is available at:
http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/20-TC4/Fedora/x86_64/os/Packages/f/
and also in updates-testing. But it's not available in stable updates (only older version).

If you perform a GNOME installation instead of a minimal one, it crashes on webkitgtk3-2.2.2-2.x86_64.fc20, available in TC repo, but unavailable in neither updates-testing nor stable updates.

We debugged this with mkolman and we found out that 'url' kickstart command clashes with 'method=' boot argument in these circumstances. If we remove 'url' from kickstart, everything works as expected (or if we use repo= instead of method=).

So, to recapitulate current findings:
1. This affects virt-install users that use --location with a DVD-sized repo (either mounted DVD.iso or a TC/RC compose repo) and a kickstart containing 'url' command. It affects them only in certain conditions, probably when their --location contains newer packages than what 'url' and default Fedora repos point at.
2. It can be worked around by
a) starting installation by hand with repo= (i.e. avoiding virt-install)
b) removing 'url' from kickstart

This bug lowers the reliability of our installation process, but no longer seems serious enough to warrant a release blocker, in my opinion.

Comment 17 Adam Williamson 2013-12-03 17:33:36 UTC
IIUC, it's going to be just about impossible to hit post-release, right? As the remote repos will be at least as new as the installation media at release time, and only get 'newer' as time goes on.

Comment 18 Kamil Páral 2013-12-04 11:45:19 UTC
(In reply to Adam Williamson from comment #17)
> IIUC, it's going to be just about impossible to hit post-release, right? As
> the remote repos will be at least as new as the installation media at
> release time, and only get 'newer' as time goes on.

Yes, currently it seems that way. I seem to hit it only when the provided repository in method= is newer than the default Fedora repositories, which should never happen after Fedora 20 is released. But I can't really vouch for that. It's a black box for me.

Comment 19 Kamil Páral 2013-12-04 12:10:59 UTC
Hmm, let's complicate the things even more, shall we?

Today I tried to boot Final TC4 netinst with a very old TC repo:

method=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/20-Alpha-TC3/Fedora/x86_64/os/ inst.ks=http://192.168.11.1:8000/ks.cfg

The kickstart contained:
> url --mirrorlist=http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=fedora-$releasever&arch=$basearch
> repo --name=fedora
> repo --name=updates
> repo --name=updates-testing
> 
> %packages --default
> %end

It failed to find liberation-fonts-common-1.07.3-2.fc20.noarch.rpm, which is available in both Alpha-TC3 repo:
http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/20-Alpha-TC3/Fedora/x86_64/os/Packages/l/
and current main repo:
http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/20/x86_64/os/Packages/l/
(it's not available in updates-testing repo)

Full logs available at: http://kparal.fedorapeople.org/bugs/rhbz_1026834_liberation.7z


When I do the same with 20-Alpha-TC1 repo, it crashes because of ql2200-firmware-2.02.08-8.fc20.noarch.rpm. But when I repeat that with 20-Beta-TC3 repo, everything works OK.

Can somebody explain me _that_? This indicates that this might affect even a post-release installations, in certain (unknown conditions).

Comment 20 Kamil Páral 2013-12-04 13:39:38 UTC
Additional information: If I replace 'url --mirrorlist=' in the kickstart with 'url --url=' command, it no longer crashes.

Comment 21 Kamil Páral 2013-12-04 13:41:22 UTC
James, can you please give us some yum-related feedback? Thanks.

Comment 22 Mike Ruckman 2013-12-04 17:14:35 UTC
Discussed in 2013-12-04 Blocker Review Meeting [1]. It was voted as a RejectedBlocker but an AcceptedFreezeException. Non-functional method affects only virt users and post-release users won't be probably affected. Rejected as blocker but it's consider as FE. 

[1] http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-blocker-review/2013-12-04/

Comment 23 Kamil Páral 2013-12-05 15:01:54 UTC
Fixing tags.

Comment 24 Tomáš Hozza 2013-12-05 15:14:09 UTC
I'm experiencing the same issue when trying to install F20 TC4 in virt-manager.

In the GUI I select "Create a new VM" -> Network Install (HTTP, FTP, or NFS)...

Note that:
- I don't use any kickstart, but manually doing all of the installation
steps.
- I'm installing the minimal installation.

Comment 25 Martin Kolman 2013-12-05 18:33:14 UTC
Fix has been posted for review.

Comment 26 Fedora Update System 2013-12-11 22:48:45 UTC
anaconda-20.25.15-1.fc20 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 20.
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/anaconda-20.25.15-1.fc20

Comment 27 Fedora Update System 2013-12-12 16:31:39 UTC
Package anaconda-20.25.15-1.fc20, python-blivet-0.23.9-1.fc20:
* should fix your issue,
* was pushed to the Fedora 20 testing repository,
* should be available at your local mirror within two days.
Update it with:
# su -c 'yum update --enablerepo=updates-testing anaconda-20.25.15-1.fc20 python-blivet-0.23.9-1.fc20'
as soon as you are able to.
Please go to the following url:
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2013-23257/python-blivet-0.23.9-1.fc20,anaconda-20.25.15-1.fc20
then log in and leave karma (feedback).

Comment 28 Fedora Update System 2013-12-13 05:34:19 UTC
anaconda-20.25.15-1.fc20, python-blivet-0.23.9-1.fc20 has been pushed to the Fedora 20 stable repository.  If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.

Comment 29 Red Hat Bugzilla 2023-09-14 01:53:07 UTC
The needinfo request[s] on this closed bug have been removed as they have been unresolved for 1000 days


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