Description of problem: While attempting to kickstart a RHEL4 box to RHEL5 through a Satellite Proxy (not sure if Proxy is important), my first kickstart failed and then when I attempted to reschedule the kickstart, another failure occurred. Although I'm not sure why the first kickstart failed, I know that all of the follow-up attempts to reschedule the kickstart failed with: <--- cut from stdout of rhn_check -vvv on the client ---> - reading URL: http://rlx-2-04.rhndev.redhat.com/cobbler/images/ks-rhel-i386-server-5-u3/vmlinuz - ['/sbin/grubby', '--add-kernel', '/boot/vmlinuz', '--initrd', '/boot/initrd.img', '--args', '"ksdevice=link lang= console=ttyS0,38400n8 text ks=http://rlx-2-04.rhndev.redhat.com/cblr/svc/op/ks/system/rlx-0-04.rhndev.redhat.com_RegisteredThroughProxy:1 kssendmac acpi=noirq "', '--copy-default', '--lilo', '--make-default', '--title=kick1251151203'] - applying lilo changes - ['/sbin/lilo'] Quoted string is too long near line 15 in file /etc/lilo.conf command failed (1) D: Sending back response (1, 'Kickstart failed. Koan error.', {'koan': 'command failed (1)'}) D: do_call packages.checkNeedUpdate ('rhnsd=1',) D: local action status: (0, 'rpm database not modified since last update (or package list recently updated)', {}) Notice the error "Quoted string is too long near line 15 in file /etc/lilo.conf". Below is /etc/lilo.conf after 4 rescheduled kickstart attempts. Notice how the append line grows longer with each attempted kickstart. prompt timeout=20 default=kick1251151203 boot=/dev/hda map=/boot/map install=/boot/boot.b serial=0 linear image=/boot/vmlinuz label=kick1251151203 initrd=/boot/initrd.img read-only root=/dev/myvg/rootvol append="acpi=noirq console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 ksdevice=link lang= console=ttyS0,38400n8 text ks=http://rlx-2-04.rhndev.redhat.com/cblr/svc/op/ks/system/rlx-0-04.rhndev.redhat.com_RegisteredThroughProxy:1 kssendmac acpi=noirq lang= console=ttyS0,38400n8 text ks=http://rlx-2-04.rhndev.redhat.com/cblr/svc/op/ks/system/rlx-0-04.rhndev.redhat.com_RegisteredThroughProxy:1 kssendmac acpi=noirq lang= console=ttyS0,38400n8 text ks=http://rlx-2-04.rhndev.redhat.com/cblr/svc/op/ks/system/rlx-0-04.rhndev.redhat.com_RegisteredThroughProxy:1 kssendmac acpi=noirq lang= console=ttyS0,38400n8 text ks=http://sun-x4200-01.rhts.bos.redhat.com/cblr/svc/op/ks/system/rlx-0-04.rhndev.redhat.com_RegisteredThroughProxy:1 kssendmac acpi=noirq " image=/boot/vmlinuz label=kick1251150923 initrd=/boot/initrd.img read-only root=/dev/myvg/rootvol append="acpi=noirq console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 ksdevice=link lang= console=ttyS0,38400n8 text ks=http://rlx-2-04.rhndev.redhat.com/cblr/svc/op/ks/system/rlx-0-04.rhndev.redhat.com_RegisteredThroughProxy:1 kssendmac acpi=noirq lang= console=ttyS0,38400n8 text ks=http://rlx-2-04.rhndev.redhat.com/cblr/svc/op/ks/system/rlx-0-04.rhndev.redhat.com_RegisteredThroughProxy:1 kssendmac acpi=noirq lang= console=ttyS0,38400n8 text ks=http://sun-x4200-01.rhts.bos.redhat.com/cblr/svc/op/ks/system/rlx-0-04.rhndev.redhat.com_RegisteredThroughProxy:1 kssendmac acpi=noirq " image=/boot/vmlinuz label=kick1251148998 initrd=/boot/initrd.img read-only root=/dev/myvg/rootvol append="acpi=noirq console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 ksdevice=link lang= console=ttyS0,38400n8 text ks=http://rlx-2-04.rhndev.redhat.com/cblr/svc/op/ks/system/rlx-0-04.rhndev.redhat.com_RegisteredThroughProxy:1 kssendmac acpi=noirq lang= console=ttyS0,38400n8 text ks=http://sun-x4200-01.rhts.bos.redhat.com/cblr/svc/op/ks/system/rlx-0-04.rhndev.redhat.com_RegisteredThroughProxy:1 kssendmac acpi=noirq " image=/boot/vmlinuz label=kick1251147763 initrd=/boot/initrd.img read-only root=/dev/myvg/rootvol append="acpi=noirq console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 ksdevice=link lang= console=ttyS0,38400n8 text ks=http://sun-x4200-01.rhts.bos.redhat.com/cblr/svc/op/ks/system/rlx-0-04.rhndev.redhat.com_RegisteredThroughProxy:1 kssendmac acpi=noirq " image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.9-78.EL label=linux initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.9-78.EL.img read-only root=/dev/myvg/rootvol append="acpi=noirq console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8" Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): staged (Satellite-5.3.0-RHEL5-re20090724.0) with updates from Aug 20, 2009 How reproducible: Steps to Reproduce: 1. register a RHEL 4 client to satellite (not sure if registering through a proxy is important for the recreate) 2. create a kickstart profile for RHEL 5 3. schedule the kickstart (and do something - not sure what - to cause the kick start to fail). Then do it again causing it to fail. The purpose is to cause repeated kickstart entries in /etc/lilo.conf 4. eventually on the second or third failure the reason should be because line 15 of /etc/lilo.conf (the append line) is too long. Actual results: Quoted string is too long near line 15 in file /etc/lilo.conf command failed (1) D: Sending back response (1, 'Kickstart failed. Koan error.', {'koan': 'command failed (1)'}) Expected results: The append entries in /etc/lilo.conf should not grow as kickstarts are added. Additional info:
Upon further review, I think the first failed kickstart can be forced by registering the client through a proxy and scheduling the kickstart through the proxy as well as setting a long (50chars+) profile name for the client. I think this will cause the append value on line 15 to go beyond it length limit. However, remember that the real bug being reported here is that the rescheduled kickstarts cause the line to grow and grow.