Problem booting from PXE/kickstart on FC7

[Gary Schlachter]

Mike Wright wrote:
> Gary Schlachter wrote:
>>
>>
>> Mike Wright wrote:
>>
>>> Gary Schlachter wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Mike Wright wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Gary Schlachter wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>    I am trying to use PXE/kickstart to load FC7 on an appliance.  
>>>>>> My initrd.img and vmlinuz are from FC7 and are loading but my 
>>>>>> console output looks like the following:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> <big snip />
>>>>>
>>>>>> Switching to new root and running init.
>>>>>> umounting old /dev
>>>>>> umounting old /proc
>>>>>> umounting old /sys
>>>>>> switchroot: mount failed: No such file or directory
>>>>>> Booting has failed.
>>>>>> Kernel panic - not syncing:  Attempted to kill init!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Any and all thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Gary,
>>>>>
>>>>> I'll take a stab at it.
>>>>>
>>>>> I nfs install f7 using pxeboot and kickstart.  I seem to remember 
>>>>> struggling with something similar.  It turned out that in the 
>>>>> pxeboot stanza I had broken the APPEND line using "\".  Big 
>>>>> no-no.  The "\" is for readability.  The APPEND line and all its 
>>>>> options must be on a single line.  Once I'd done that it worked 
>>>>> correctly.
>>>>>
>>>>> If that doesn't solve the problem would you post your pxeboot 
>>>>> stanza? Might be a clue there.
>>>>>
>>>>> hth,
>>>>> Mike Wright :m)
>>>>>
>>>> I finally got my initrd.img to load.  I found a post about changing 
>>>> the init script in the initrd.img from
>>>>
>>>>    mount /sysroot
>>>>
>>>>       to
>>>>
>>>>    mount -o defaults --ro -t ext3 /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 /sysroot
>>>>
>>>> and that did the trick.  However now my kickstart file is not being 
>>>> used.  My pxelinux.xfg/default looks like
>>>>
>>>>       label linux
>>>>       kernel vmlinuz
>>>>       append initrd=initrd.fc7.img 
>>>> ks=nfs:10.254.13.1:/home/tftpboot/kickstart/10.254.13.112-kickstart 
>>>> ramdisk_size=9216
>>>>
>>>> I have tried with and without the ksdevice=eth0 on the "append" 
>>>> line as well.  It is like the "ks=" is being ignored by the kernel 
>>>> alotugh I can see it as a kernel option on the console.
>>>
>>>
>>> Hmmm, couple possibilities:
>>>
>>> Is the nfs server running and has the kickstart file been exported?  
>>> Is that machine running iptables and are the required nfs ports open?
>>>
>>> When I was trying to debug my setup tcpdump was definitely my best 
>>> friend.
>>>
>>
>> Yes to all since I am able to boot other systems with FC1 from the 
>> same setup.  My PXE prompt has multiple options one of which is 
>> Fedora Core 1 and another is Fedora Core 7.
>>
>
> Our APPEND lines are very different.  Here's mine:
>
> APPEND ksdevice=eth0 load_ramdisk=1 initrd=images/fc7-install.img 
> network ks=nfs:lan51:/opt/fc7/ks.cfg
>
My default file looks like below with no line breaks:

prompt 1
default linux
timeout 100

label linux
kernel vmlinuz
append ksdevice=eth0 load_ramdisk=1 initrd=initrd.fc7.img network 
ks=nfs:10.254.13.1:/home/tftpboot/kickstart/10.254.13.112-kickstart 
ramdisk_size=9216

When I get to the boot line, I type "linux".  The vmlinuz and 
initrd.fc7.img are loaded. Then a "Ready" message appears.  Then the 
system boots with Fedora Core 7.  Is there any way I could try your 
fc7-install.img?  I still wonder if that is where my problem lies.

Thanks,
Gary