Bug#777215: Missleading error message in fai-cd

[Christian Meyer]

Package: fai-server
Version: 4.3.1


Dear Maintainer,

I'm a FAI newbie so understanding error messages is very important for me.
I wanted to create a custom fai-cd and did:

# fai-make-nfsroot -fl -> finishes without an error

# fai-cd -M /fai-cd.iso
ERROR: Please create NFSROOT by calling fai-make-nfsroot or fai-setup.

Then I can re-run fai-make-nfsroot or fai-setup but the error from fai-cd is still the same. That's a bit wired: I do exactly what the error message tells me to do and this does not solve the problem.

Changing the scripts errormessage to "$NFSROOT" showed me that there is no /srv/fai/nfsroot/live/filesystem.dir/etc/fai/ directory, while NFSROOT /srv/fai/nfsroot/live/filesystem.dir of course do exist.

After thinking a while I found that the cause of the problem was the missing package fai-nfsroot in /etc/fai/NFSROOT

So please change the error message to a more specific one (like: .../live/filesystem.dir/etc/fai/ is missing) or add a detailed alanysis (e.g with the error message: fai-nfsroot must be included in /etc/fai/nfsroot).

Thank you
Christian


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[Thomas Lange]

>>>>> On Fri, 6 Feb 2015 12:40:53 +0100, "Christian Meyer" <c2h...@web.de> said:

> Changing the scripts errormessage to "$NFSROOT" showed me that there is no /srv/fai/nfsroot/live/filesystem.dir/etc/fai/ directory, while NFSROOT /srv/fai/nfsroot/live/filesystem.dir of course do exist.

> After thinking a while I found that the cause of the problem was the missing package fai-nfsroot in /etc/fai/NFSROOT

Hi Christian,

a much better error message (less technical details but more help to
the user how to fix it) would be "Why did you removed fai-nfsroot from /etc/fai/NFSROOT?"

I think I cannot consider all those cases in the error messages. In 99%
this error messages is caused by forgetting to build the
nfsroot. You are the first one who did build the nfsroot, but it was
build incorrectly. Sorry, I think I can't catch all thoses cases with
better error messages.

I wonder why you removed the package fai-nfsroot from /etc/fai/NFSROOT?
--
regards Thomas

[Christian Meyer]

Am Freitag, den 06.02.2015, 13:45 +0100 schrieb Thomas Lange:
> > On Fri, 6 Feb 2015 12:40:53 +0100, "Christian Meyer" <c2h...@web.de> said:
>

> > there is no /srv/fai/nfsroot/live/filesystem.dir/etc/fai/ directory

>
> > the cause of the problem was the missing package fai-nfsroot in /etc/fai/NFSROOT

> a much better error message (less technical details but more help to
> the user how to fix it) would be "Why did you removed fai-nfsroot from /etc/fai/NFSROOT?"

> I think I cannot consider all those cases in the error messages. In 99%
> this error messages is caused by forgetting to build the
> nfsroot.
> You are the first one who did build the nfsroot, but it was
> build incorrectly.

Oh really? - this explains why I didn't find a solution online.

> Sorry, I think I can't catch all thoses cases with
> better error messages.

Okay, thats right. I remember murphys law. ("It is impossible to make
anything foolproof ...")
I wonder why you test $NFSROOT/etc/fai and not $NFSROOT.
Of course it makes sense: the NFSROOT isn't useful without fai-nfsroot.
But the error message is about an not existing NFSROOT at all.

My intention in filing this bug report was to help making FAI friendlier
to newbies and misconfiguration. I thought of something like:
[ -d "$NFSROOT" ] || die 10 "Please create NFSROOT by calling
fai-make-nfsroot or fai-setup."
[ -d "$NFSROOT/etc/fai" ] || die XY "Don't remove fai-nfsroot
from /etc/fai/NFSROOT. You'll need it!"

Okay: perhaps it makes more sense when fai-make-nfsroot (and not fai-cd)
is testing $NFSROOT/etc/fai (along with other really important packages)
- or (at least) comment these rip (really important packages ;) )
in /etc/fai/NFSROOT like you did with the architecture dependend kernel
images: # you should not edit the lines below

But I agree: If this is really rare and I am the first and only person
with this particular problem - please feel free to simply close this
bug.

> I wonder why you removed the package fai-nfsroot from /etc/fai/NFSROOT?

Short answer: I didn't remove it intentionally and I don't know why
$NFSROOT/etc/fai wasn't present.
Yes: I messed up the configuration before but I thought I had cleaned it
up again. - Possibly not good enough.
In fact fai-nfsroot package was in /etc/fai/NFSROOT and I only added it
a second time in the file to fix it (don't looked for it before). I
tried to reproduce the problem and track it down but didn't find the
cause of why the NFSROOT is build (even without an error) but
fai-nfsroot is not included.

Christian Meyer