Unable to install 12.10 with PXE

Question

I'm trying to install Ubuntu 12.10 with PXE (Cobbler) and Kickstart from a local server. At some point, the installation stops telling me it cannot upload a file from mirror. The install log on the workstation looks fine and here's the end of the log :

net-retriever: gpgv: Good signature from "Ubuntu CD Image Automatic Signing Key <[email protected]>"
anna [4222]: cat: can't open '/tmp/net-retriever-4226-deduplicate/*': No such file or directory

I don't see any errors (404) on the apache's logs.

I have a similar setup for 12.04 that works fine and the only difference is the use of Ubuntu's alternate CD. For 12.10, I used the default ISO I added manually the netboot folder to my installation image (netboot.tar.gz uncompressed to install/netboot folder).

PXE entry looks like this:

LABEL ubuntu-12.10-i386
kernel /images/ubuntu-12.10-i386/linux
MENU LABEL ubuntu-12.10-i386
append initrd=/images/ubuntu-12.10-i386/initrd.gz ksdevice=bootif lang= preseed/url=http://10.0.0.1/cblr/ks_mirror/ubuntu-12.10-i386/preseed/ubuntu.seed locale=en_US text kssendmac priority=critical  ks=http://10.0.0.1/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/ubuntu-12.10-i386

Kickstart file:

#Generated by Kickstart Configurator
#platform=x86
#System language
lang fr_CA
#Language modules to install
langsupport fr_CA
#System keyboard
keyboard ca_multix
#System mouse
mouse
#System timezone
timezone America/Montreal
#Root password
rootpw --disabled
#Initial user
user administrateur --fullname "user" --iscrypted --password ***
#Reboot after installation
reboot
#Use text mode install
text
#Install OS instead of upgrade
install
#Use CDROM installation media
#cdrom
# Use network installation
url --url=http://10.0.0.1/cblr/ks_mirror/ubuntu-12.10-i386
#System bootloader configuration
bootloader --location=mbr 
#Clear the Master Boot Record
zerombr yes
#Partition clearing information
clearpart --all --initlabel 
#Disk partitioning information
part /boot --fstype ext4 --size 512 --asprimary 
part swap --size 4096
part / --fstype ext4 --size 30720
part /home --fstype ext4 --size 1 --grow 
#System authorization infomation
auth  --useshadow  --enablemd5 
#Network information
network --bootproto=dhcp --device=eth0
#Firewall configuration
firewall --disabled 
#Do not configure the X Window System
skipx
%pre
exec < /dev/tty6 > /dev/tty6 2> /dev/tty6
chvt 6
MACHINE=""
while [ "$MACHINE" == "" ]; do
echo -n "Machine name: "
read MACHINE
done
echo "MACHINE=$MACHINE" > /tmp/answers.txt
DOMAINE=""
while [ "$DOMAIN" == "" ]; do
echo -n "Domain name: "
read DOMAIN
done
echo "DOMAIN=$DOMAIN" >> /tmp/answers.txt
chvt 1
exec < /dev/tty1 > /dev/tty1 2> /dev/tty1
...

Solution

use apt-mirror to download missing repository main/debian-installer (about 50 MB) which is necessary for netboot installation. It was presented on alternate CD in the past.

sudo apt-get install apt-mirror

comment out all deb* lines in /etc/apt/mirror.list and add the following

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu quantal main/debian-installer

or deb-amd64 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu quantal main/debian-installer for amd64 edition of Ubuntu.

and execute sudo -u apt-mirror apt-mirror

wait a little bit and then copy downloaded files from /var/spool/apt-mirror/mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu into your netboot installation point. For example,

cp -a /var/spool/apt-mirror/mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu /var/www/

where /var/www has already contained ubuntu directory with dists and pool subdirectories.

Comments

[user99905]

Thanks for the info but I decided to go the Cobbler way : I used the command 'cobbler-ubuntu-import' that downloads the mini iso, creates the distribution, the profile and the repos in Cobbler. I then activated the repos in Cobbler to download the repository. With that method, everything is controlled from within Cobbler.

[Pat]

It's unbelievable why Ubuntu does not make of every Ubuntu ISO a valid Ubuntu repository. this is really nuts;

[Admin]

Thanks for this first. But when i do exactly what you say, the installation says that the MD5Sum is missmatched :(. I think file Release in the CD repo is differ than the apt-mirror Release. I still get stuck at this

[Danduk82]

You better should create a link between mirror files and /var/www/ by ln -s /var/spool/apt-mirror/mirror/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu /var/www/ubuntu or mount it as a bind file-system. In this way you don't need to copy 100Gb of disk 2 times, and all the files get synchronized when the mirror is updated. Anyway, thanks for the main/debian-installer part of the config file. This is what was missig to me. Cheers