Package: ltsp-server Version: 0.58debian4 Severity: normal i've been unable to get a working etch ltsp client chroot... this is why, as i understand it: because the ltsp-client package has a dependency on "initramfs-tools | initrd-netboot-tools", ltsp-build-client installs a chroot withmodifications for initramfs-tools, as initramfs-tools is the preferred tool for ltsp-client. the problem is that kernel-image-netbootable, which is pulled in only with the debian version of ltsp-build-client, depends on modifications for use with initrd-netboot-tools, and only works with the 2.4 kernels in etch. if initramfs-tools is present, the modifications for initrd-netboot-tools do not happen. if you can follow all that, in short, what happens is we are left with a 2.4 kernel with an initramfs-tools generated initrd.img that doesn't work. a simple workaround (patch attached) is to install initrd-netboot-tools before installing ltsp-client, which seems to work for me. the drawback is that it will fail if 2.4 kernels are removed from etch, or if the version of kernel-image-netbootable in sid (0.7.0b-2) migrates into etch (see debian bug #336134). a more long-term fix would be to switch to initramfs-tools and 2.6 kernels, but i've experienced problems with that (see debian bug#336519). another alternative might be to use yaird, but i've also had troubles with that (see debian bug #336518). whew.
live well, vagrant -- System Information: Debian Release: 3.1 Architecture: i386 (i586) Kernel: Linux 2.6.8-2-386 Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US (charmap=ISO-8859-1)
--- ltsp-build-client.conf.orig 2005-12-29 09:08:40.667091670 +0000 +++ ltsp-build-client.conf 2005-12-29 05:28:15.000000000 +0000 @@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ EXTRA_MIRROR="" # packages to install early in the process -EARLY_PACKAGES="x-window-system-core ltsp-client discover1 mdetect xresprobe udhcpc udev devfsd xdebconfigurator openbsd-inetd" +EARLY_PACKAGES="x-window-system-core initrd-netboot-tools ltsp-client discover1 mdetect xresprobe udhcpc udev devfsd xdebconfigurator openbsd-inetd" # packages to install later, after some tweaks have been made LATE_PACKAGES="kernel-image-netbootable"
