I used to boot Fedora 16 Installation from network, either through boot.fedoraproject.org (BFO) or through my own boot server referencing vmlinuz and initrd.img on a Fedora mirror. For Fedora 17 Alpha it no longer works, dracut fails: No or empty root= It seems boot.fedoraproject.org has some pre-release F17 installation option but it doesn't seem to be F17 Alpha and it doesn't work for me (bug 802041). But it uses more than just kernel and initrd and it seems to be referencing a squashfs file system in “os/LiveOS/squashfs.img” directory. But there's no README about it in “os/images/pxeboot” and BFO sources and configuration are AFAIK not available (bug 802031). I'll report about the workaround of setting the root option in a manner similar to what BFO's pre-release F17 does.
regret to confirm that proper F17 netboot with proper kernel, initrd and squashfs from test/17-Alpha fail the same way on x86_64 machine with CentOS 6 in LVM in DOS partition table already installed. The problem seems to be related to search for upgradable systems. Unfortunately, on an empty disk, the x86_64 kernel fails with something like: swapper/0 Not tainted 3.3.0-0.rc3.git7.2.fc17.x86_64 And with i386 it fails later when choosing network interfaces. The bad thing is that the installer lets me choose the wired ethernet device and then lets me choose from wireless networks (it scans them instead of just ignoring wireless at all). Somewhere on the way I also got HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed (when using USB-to-IDE cable to install on a USB disk). But I only have handwritten notes, so I don't know the exact circumstances.
*** Bug 802041 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This is what I'm using for pxelinux configuration: LABEL fedora-test/17-Alpha-i386 MENU LABEL Fedora test/17-Alpha Install i386 KERNEL http://ftp.linux.cz/pub/linux/fedora/linux/releases/test/17-Alpha/Fedora/i386/os/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz APPEND root=live:http://ftp.linux.cz/pub/linux/fedora/linux/releases/test/17-Alpha/Fedora/i386/os/LiveOS/squashfs.img initrd=http://ftp.linux.cz/pub/linux/fedora/linux/releases/test/17-Alpha/Fedora/i386/os/images/pxeboot/initrd.img LABEL fedora-test/17-Alpha-x86_64 MENU LABEL Fedora test/17-Alpha Install x86_64 KERNEL http://ftp.linux.cz/pub/linux/fedora/linux/releases/test/17-Alpha/Fedora/x86_64/os/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz APPEND root=live:http://ftp.linux.cz/pub/linux/fedora/linux/releases/test/17-Alpha/Fedora/x86_64/os/LiveOS/squashfs.img initrd=http://ftp.linux.cz/pub/linux/fedora/linux/releases/test/17-Alpha/Fedora/x86_64/os/images/pxeboot/initrd.img
By the way, who thinks LiveOS/squashfs.img is a good name for the installer image?
Moving to lorax, as it creates these structures.
These structures are all working: LABEL Fedora with NFS exported ISO kernel release-export/vmlinuz append initrd=release-export/initrd.img inst.repo=nfs:10.0.1.16:/var/exports/fedora/install/F17-x86_64 LABEL Fedora with NFS Repo and http Kickstart kernel release-export/vmlinuz append initrd=release-export/initrd.img inst.ks=http://10.0.1.16:/cobbler/aux/ks-basic.cfg repo=nfs:10.0.1.16:/var/exports/fedora/install/\ F17-x86_64 LABEL Fedora Basic Netinstall, Using fp.o repo kernel release-export/vmlinuz append initrd=release-export/initrd.img root=live:http://10.0.1.16/cobbler/aux/squashfs.img LABEL Fedora VNC attended Install kernel release-export/vmlinuz append initrd=release-export/initrd.img root=live:http://10.0.1.16/cobbler/aux/squashfs.img inst.vnc inst.vncconnect=10.0.1.100:5500 inst.\ ks=http://10.0.1.16:/var/exports/fedora/ks/ks-autopart.cfg As this bug appears to be on the options build into the release media, not the product itself, I will add that root=live:nfs:server:/path works now on TC2 and ks=nfs:server:/path does not appear to be functioning. Please advise if this is a non issue or a seperate issue. I'm tracking this for inclusion in the release notes, and it would be nice to have some clarification. If anaconda needs the root image, I don't see the 'fix' for this bug other than to advise users to provide it.
(In reply to comment #4) > By the way, who thinks LiveOS/squashfs.img is a good name for the installer > image? dracut requires that path/name, so that's what we're using. When dracut can take arbitrary path/names for the runtime image, we'll go back to using images/install.img.
(In reply to comment #6) > As this bug appears to be on the options build into the release media, not > the product itself, I will add that root=live:nfs:server:/path works now on > TC2 and ks=nfs:server:/path does not appear to be functioning. Please advise > if this is a non issue or a seperate issue. ks=nfs:server:/path should work; file a bug if it doesn't. > I'm tracking this for inclusion in the release notes, and it would be nice > to have some clarification. If anaconda needs the root image, I don't see > the 'fix' for this bug other than to advise users to provide it. Yes, unless there is installer media in the CDROM drive, one of root=XXX, repo=XXX, or stage2=XXX is required. This is roughly the same behavior as in Fedora 14 and earlier. We're updating the documentation for anaconda's boot options for Fedora 17. A draft can be found here: http://wwoods.fedorapeople.org/doc/boot-options.html
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