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Bug 1983013 - PPC64: required "bootlist" executable may be missing, preventing system from being recovered
Summary: PPC64: required "bootlist" executable may be missing, preventing system from ...
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Classification: Red Hat
Component: rear
Version: 8.4
Hardware: ppc64le
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: rc
: ---
Assignee: Pavel Cahyna
QA Contact: David Jež
Prerana Sharma
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks: 1973448
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2021-07-16 09:09 UTC by Renaud Métrich
Modified: 2021-11-10 02:03 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

Fixed In Version: rear-2.6-1.el8
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
.Relax-and-Recover (ReaR) package now depends on the bootlist executable Previously, ReaR could produce a rescue image without the bootlist executable on the IBM Power Systems, Little Endian architecture. Consequently, if the `powerpc-utils-core` package is not installed, the rescue image did not contain the bootlist executable. With this update, the ReaR package now depends on the bootlist executable. The dependency ensures that the bootlist executable is present. ReaR does not create a rescue image if the bootlist executable is missing. This avoids creating an invalid rescue image.
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2021-11-09 18:53:41 UTC
Type: Bug
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Attachments (Terms of Use)


Links
System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Github rear rear pull 2665 0 None None None 2021-08-03 17:11:32 UTC
Red Hat Product Errata RHEA-2021:4344 0 None None None 2021-11-09 18:53:57 UTC

Description Renaud Métrich 2021-07-16 09:09:37 UTC 
This bug was initially created as a copy of Bug #1983008

I am copying this bug because: 

Also applies, same code.

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 1 Pavel Cahyna 2021-07-22 08:54:22 UTC 
I see two possibilities of what could be done.

One is to add bootlist to REQUIRED_PROGS instead of PROGS conditionally. The condition would be evaluated when running "rear mkrescue" - is there a risk that a user will make a backup on a KVM virtual machine and then try to restore on a PowerVM LPAR, or can we assume that restore will be always done on a system of the same type? (Still, even with this possibility, adding it to REQUIRED_PROGS would be an improvement. It would not catch the problem in this special situation, but it would in normal situations.)

Second possibility is to add a Requires: on the required package, or on /usr/sbin/bootlist, to ReaR package dependencies on the ppc* arches. This will lead to the package being installed even on systems that do not need it, I hope it will not be a problem.

By the way, the package is called powerpc-utils, not powervm-tools, AFAICT.

The two solutions can be implemented together in order to get the most reliable and user-friendly result.
Comment 14 errata-xmlrpc 2021-11-09 18:53:41 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/RHEA-2021:4344
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