pxe boot doesn't work with kvm

Do you have the kvm-pxe package installed? It's listed in qemu-kvm's Suggests.

yes, kvm-pxe is installed, pxe boot works before the upgrade of this server

It works again, but not out of the box

It seems the kvm-pxe package install the rom in the wrong directory :

/usr/share/kvm and qemu-kvm seems to search rom images in /usr/share/qemu

I copied /usr/share/kvm/pxe-e1000.bin to /usr/share/qemu/pxe-e1000.bin

After that, I have another error message at boot:

Searching for server (DHCP)....No IP address

I remember I had the same problem with karmic. I have generated a new gpxe rom and it works again.

So it seems there is 2 problems (but not new):
1. kvm-pxe package install rom images in a wrong directory
2. rom for e1000 packaged in kvm-pxe is buggy

Transferring to the etherboot package.

Test package uploaded to the ~ubuntu-virt team's PPA.

Debdiff attached.

Please consider for SRU, MOTU team.?field.comment=Test package uploaded to the ~ubuntu-virt team's PPA.

Debdiff attached.

Please consider for SRU, MOTU team.

Motu-release-

Please clarify... Should I upload this to lucid, or lucid-proposed?

Dustin,

The motu-release team has been integrated into the ubuntu-release team, as described at <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2010-March/000685.html>. Please subscribe ubuntu-release to freeze exception bugs, not motu-release.

Looking at the diff, I don't think regression-testing this before release is going to be possible, and the time available for accepting new packages into lucid release is quite short - I would advise proceeding with an SRU.

Steve, thanks. Agreed, and I don't think it's release-critical.

Ubuntu-SRU, can I get an ACK to upload this to lucid-proposed for an SRU?

Looks fine, thanks! Please upload to lucid-proposed with non-PPA version number.

A safer way to tackle this that will avoid breaking things and permit software that's come to expect things to live where kvm-pxe used to put them is to just install some suitable symlinks.

See attached patch.

True. This could be handled with symlinks.

bug 472485 seems a dupiicate of this bug (at least the point 1: wrong directory for rom images), it is marked "fix released" while it does not seem the case

for the second point (pxe rom for e1000 buggy with "No IP address"), it seems there is the same bug on the redhat bugtracker that solves it:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=494541

and the solution (494541 is a duplicate of 507391)

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=507391

Uploaded to proposed. Used a cleaner symlink method. Updated debdiff attached for the curious. Otherwise, please test the package once it's accepted to -proposed.

Accepted etherboot into lucid-proposed, the package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback here. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

is this update causing Bug #574524 ?

This update didn't work for me today:
sudo aptitude install etherboot/lucid-proposed

Actiu, since you did not previously comment here, are you sure that you have the same bug?

pingou67 or anyone else who is affected, can you please test the proposed update?

I'm sorry because I install diverse computers each week, and I found this bug on a system already released.
I haven't now the opportunity to check the question again.

I can confirm that this bugfix does the trick for kvm-pxe.

One funny/strange thing is that it accedently worked on some machines for me, and didn't work on some, because qemu-kvm was installed before kvm-pxe and thus /usr/share/kvm was already a symlink to qemu.

Sorry. My last comment was a bit to hasty. When i have qemu-kvm package installed already, /usr/share/kvm is a symlink to /usr/share/qemu , and when kvm-pxe tries to add a file into both of those directories it conflicts with itself.

the working patch is the one named 570870.debdiff from Dustin Kirkland on 2010-04-27 . For any of the other patches and solutions it will need some coordinated update of the qemu-kvm package.

Nominating for Maverick, as it seems the issue is likely to exist there. Is there any update on verification for Lucid?

I removed the lucid-proposed package again. This wasn't fixed in maverick yet, and there is a reported regression.

Why is there still no fix for the broken pxe-e1000.bin in lucid kvm-pxe? The Debian unstable ROM (e1000-82540em.rom) in etherboot-qemu_5.4.4-6_all.deb works. And the fix is decribed in the fedora thread mentioned above.

Re-assigning to Serge. I've taken a swipe at fixing this. It's worked for me and some people. And others have complained about it. I can't spend much more time on it, and Serge is picking up maintenance of the kvm packages.

Serge, poke me if you need some help here. The solution should be pretty straightforward. Basically, these ROMs need to get installed into the static location that qemu expects them to be installed. Getting this fixed in a way that makes everyone happy is the trick.

Well, this is not the problem I've been talking about. The actual ROM file for e1000 (pxe-e1000.bin) is broken, and doesn't allow booting over PXE (Searching for server (DHCP)....No IP address see #3).

Rfehren: As that is a different issue, please open a new bug against etherboot with
more details. Please don't interpret that as not being appreciative of the report,
because we are - but mixing new issues into this bug will confuse (block) the SRU
process. Thanks much!

Hi Martin,

I'm confused - is this bug just waiting for someone to target it at maverick (and subscribe
ubuntu-release, since maverick just entered freeze)? The same patch which Dustin had
posted against lucid-proposed does apply against the maverick package.

Serge,

Martin's comment was:

> I removed the lucid-proposed package again. This wasn't
> fixed in maverick yet, and there is a reported regression.

So what it's waiting for is for someone to provide a regression-free fix for the package and upload it to both maverick and lucid-proposed. There should be no need for a freeze exception here, it appears to be a bugfix plain and simple.

Setting back to 'confirmed' for maverick, as this package hasn't been uploaded since before maverick opened.

>>>>> "Serge" == Serge Hallyn <email address hidden> writes:

    Serge> Rfehren: As that is a different issue, please open a new bug
    Serge> against etherboot with more details.

Well, I can surely do that. However, this problem was already mentioned
in this bug by pingou67 on 2010-04-27. So why nobody suggested to open a
new report then? Anyway, now that this problem has been in this bug
report almost from the beginning, shall I really open up a new one?

Quoting rfehren (<email address hidden>):
> >>>>> "Serge" == Serge Hallyn <email address hidden> writes:
>
> Serge> Rfehren: As that is a different issue, please open a new bug
> Serge> against etherboot with more details.
>
> Well, I can surely do that. However, this problem was already mentioned
> in this bug by pingou67 on 2010-04-27. So why nobody suggested to open a
> new report then?

Sorry, I can't say.

> Anyway, now that this problem has been in this bug
> report almost from the beginning, shall I really open up a new one?

Yes, please do, and feel free to subscribe me.

Steve,

thanks for the clarification.

My understanding (from comment #22 and #23) was that Dustin's
570870.patch did NOT have regressions. But then #21 is quite confusing so
I may have misunderstood.

I will do a bunch more testing in VMs with karmic-maverick as soon as I'm
able.

New bug report opened concerning the broken e1000 ROM in kvm-pxe:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/617316

Serge, let me restate it here from the merge proposal: 570870.patch can not work (for lucid at least, haven't looked at the maverick package), since qemu-kvm contains /usr/share/kvm and /usr/share/qemu-kvm as symlinks to the also contained /usr/share/qemu directory.

After having looked at lucid's and maverick's qemu-kvm source package, I'd suggest to simply move the roms from /usr/share/kvm to /usr/share/qemu, as Dustin originally proposed in comment #5.

A cleaner approach might be to follow Debian in this regard, and not have the etherboot package install files to a location out of its namespace and patch qemu-kvm to look in the proper directory. However that would mean to update both etherboot and qemu-kvm, and I doubt it's suitable for a SRU hence.

Dustin,

was there any specific reason not to go with your original patch, putting
the roms only in /usr/share/qemu and not in /usr/share/kvm/?

The other alternative of course is to simply do a check for whether qemu
and kvm already exist as symlinks to each other, but if nothing is checking
under /usr/share/kvm, then I see no reason not to go the simpler route.

targetting to beta. Please get the fix in prior to it so that we can weed out any negative effects (if there are any).

Hey Dustin, re-assigning this to just to make sure you see my question
in #36. I'll go ahead and do a new patch and propose for merge, but
want to make sure I'm not missing anything else. Did you only switch
from your first proposed fix to the symlink one bc it *seemed* like a
better idea, or did you see an actual problem with your first approach?

(Since there *is* a problem with the second approach, I intend to submit
the first one again)

thanks.

Uploaded the patch from comment #5 to lucid-proposed. It should build soon, and hopefully SRU team will accept it. And then you can test it.

I'm doing the same for Maverick now ...

This bug was fixed in the package etherboot - 5.4.4-1ubuntu2

---------------
etherboot (5.4.4-1ubuntu2) maverick; urgency=low

  * debian/rules: fix the installation directory of the kvm-pxe roms
    to /usr/share/qemu, rather than /usr/share/kvm, LP: #570870
 -- Dustin Kirkland <email address hidden> Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:53:46 -0500

Thanks a lot, Serge and Dustin!

Version 5.4.4-1ubuntu1.1 had already been in lucid-proposed, and removed later on. So it can't be accepted again, you have to reupload with a higher version number. Thanks!

Uploaded to lucid-proposed again. Hopefully it works for you, and makes it into lucid-updates.

This will be my last post on this bug.

I've been trying to have this fixed since April 27, 2010, and will be spending no more time on it, as of now.

Accepted etherboot into lucid-proposed, the package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback here. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

-proposed works for me; tested using the following commands on a lucid server that I was having exactly this issue with.

   apt-get install kvm kvm-pxe

Also tried installing kvm-pxe before kvm and that worked fine as well.

Packages where purged prior to testing using the following command:

   apt-get purge kvm qemu-kvm qemu-common kvm-pxe

All of the pxe-*.bin files end up in the right location.

This bug was fixed in the package etherboot - 5.4.4-1ubuntu1.2

---------------
etherboot (5.4.4-1ubuntu1.2) lucid-proposed; urgency=low

  * debian/rules: fix the installation directory of the kvm-pxe roms
    to /usr/share/qemu, rather than /usr/share/kvm, LP: #570870
 -- Dustin Kirkland <email address hidden> Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:57:56 -0500