Long pause in pxe/preseed install

Question

I'm encountering a long pause during unattended (preseeded) install of precise server via pxe. The install eventually works, but appears to just sit there for 20 or 30 minutes after it authenticates the mirror.

There is nothing in the logs during this time, even with full debug.

Log excerpt:

Aug  2 13:29:59 net-retriever: Signature made Fri Aug  2 06:05:28 2013 UTC using DSA key ID 437D05B5
Aug  2 13:29:59 net-retriever: gpgv: 
Aug  2 13:29:59 net-retriever: Good signature from "Ubuntu Archive Automatic Signing    Key <[email protected]>"
Aug  2 13:29:59 net-retriever: 
Aug  2 13:50:10 anna[5072]: DEBUG: resolver (ext2-modules): package doesn't exist (ignored)
Aug  2 13:50:10 anna[5072]: DEBUG: resolver (efi-modules): package doesn't exist (ignored)

Bug related to this problem that is not being worked.

I'm surprised that no one else is complaining about this. Or, is there some other way to do an unattended install that everyone else is using?

Solution

I looked a bit more, and it seems like this is the relevant bug on Launchpad:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/net-retriever/+bug/1067934

I've confirmed that using the netboot files from the precise-updates directory fixes the issue for me. Good luck!

@Joren/@jokerdino: Comment-answers are a natural consequence of the 50 karma minimum for posting comments. In the future, maybe avoid punishing new Ubuntu users for mistakes in how this site has been configured.

Comments

[Bo Kersey]

The long pause happens after net-retriever finishes getting the signatures for the Ubuntu archives. After this happens, there is no network activity and no hard drive activity for 20 minutes. Then the installation starts up again.

[BlitZz]

FWIW I do preseeded installs over PXE all the time and I haven't seen this problem, so the reason nobody is complaining is that it's apparently not a generic problem, but something that's triggered by a particularity of your network or installation environment. Perhaps you could share your preseed file to see if anyone spots a problem there?

[Bo Kersey]

Thanks for the response... Actually, I've dumped my presseed.cfg and everything that I've customized. I'm not just trying the default install after netbooting. Still stopped at the same place. I've even set this machine to bypass my squid proxy. Not sure what to do now...

[Bo Kersey]

And I have made sure that the pxe boot files are from archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/precise/main/installer-i386/‌​…

[Henk]

IMHO this bug should also be fixed in the ISO-images. Using Packer and Ubuntu provisioning on VMware, I have to kill -HUP the specific packages-related process or wait > 20m ...

[Nick Garvey]

This did it - the solution was as easy as changing "precise" to "precise-updates" in the install location.