I'm gzipping the patch and attaching it because the list manager keeps telling me that the size is too large. It is, but, well, that's how it came from IBM. If I don't hear anything from people after a few days, I will take it that people are ok with this patch going in to rawhide. It's basically just a big rewrite to linuxrc.s390. There is also a new helper script for linuxrc.s390 that scans for devices on the system. And a one line patch to mk-images to make sure the new helper script is installed. Here's the text of the commit message: INTRODUCTION After booting the installation environment on System z, there are no local storage devices such as a CD/DVD drive available to install RHEL from. Hence, only installation from network sources is possible, which requires an initial setup of a network device to reach such an installation source. Due to the possibly large number of hardware network devices (hundreds) and the way they are configured in the hardware setup, Linux does not automatically detect and allocate all available network devices. There is need for a dialog from which the user can choose a sensible device configuration. The least common multiple of console devices on System z is limited in functionality -- it only supports line mode. The initial network setup also provides the ability for users to login over the network from a curses capable text terminal, to provide an X window display, or to use VNC in order to continue installation. DOWNSIDES OF CURRENT LINUXRC.S390 The initial network setup was done with a simple error-prone dialog without any possibility for the user to correct wrong input. On getting stuck, the only option for the user was a reboot, which of course means that he had to manually enter values all over again. The user was asked various questions and had to know exactly what answers to provide for a successful network setup. Linuxrc.s390 provided no guidance or support to simplify the choice of correct answers for the user. Configuration happened after the user had answered all questions which could lead to situations where configuration failed due to an earlier incorrect answer the user was not informed about. User feedback has shown, that these downsides can be an obstacle for a successful installation of RHEL on System z. IMPROVEMENTS OF NEW LINUXRC.S390 - dialog allows the user to correct single answers - dialog allows to restart configuration, providing previous answers as default values - dialog provides a sub shell for problem determination - cut-down question text prevents frequent scrolling on line mode terminal - explaining help text is shown for each question on user demand - automated decision which questions the user has to answer - semi-automatic configuration of network devices by providing a selection list of possible hardware configurations - manual configuration remains possible as before - sensible default answers are provided where possible - superfluous questions (NETWORK, BROADCAST) have been removed - answers by the user are strictly checked for syntax and semantics - whenever possible, each answer is used to do a configuration step and provide timely feedback to the user in case of an error - user transparent support of System z device blacklist (cio_ignore) for short boot times on systems with many (thousands) devices - basic support for installation from FCP-attached CD/DVD drive (our version of linuxrc.s390 is based on rhel5.3-snap1-20081029) - basic support for installation over IPv6 (full functionality would require further support in loader) - prints answers in a format which can directly be used for parm/conf file (as a complement to /root/anaconda-ks.cfg) - may serve as a specification on how to configure network devices on System z outside of an installer, e.g. in init scripts or configuration tools such as system-config-network Otherwise, our version is fully compatible with the current version including the processing of parm/conf files. We made sure that existing parm/conf files from users are processed with the same outcome as previously. Also the interactive mode asks the user questions in the same order as before, so users do not have to adapt to a completely new structure of the initial network configuration. Patch from Steffen Maier <MAIER@xxxxxxxxxx>. -- David Cantrell <dcantrell@xxxxxxxxxx> Red Hat / Honolulu, HI
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new-linuxrc.s390.patch.gz
Description: GNU Zip compressed data
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