[Bug 1048699] Re: ltsp-build-client fails when specifying old distros

[Alkis Georgopoulos]

Hi Colin,

older ltsp-client versions were looking for a (chroot)/etc/ltsp-chroot file, and if they didn't find it, they aborted the installation. That file was put there by older ltsp-build-client versions. That's why running ltsp-build-client on 12.04 to generate an 8.04 chroot doesn't work.
You could work around that by creating a plugin in (server)/usr/share/ltsp/plugins/ltsp-build-client/... that creates that file.

But that's the least of your problems.

The squashfs format was changed between 8.04 and 12.04. So, you won't be
able to run `ltsp-update-image` from 12.04 on a 8.04 chroot, the client
initramfs won't be able to mount it. You'd have to keep an 8.04 ltsp
installation around just to be able to run ltsp-update-image there, and
then transfer the result to your 12.04 server.

And that's not all.

In 12.04, nbd-server is now using the IANA assigned port 10809 instead
of the old 2000. But it also uses "name based export" instead of "port
based exports", which means that nbd-client communicates with the server
with a different protocol. To work around that, you'd have to emulate
the old port-based behavior by running nbd-server with different
parameters, just for that chroot.

So I'll mark that bug as "won't fix", I don't see any easy ways to solve
those problems, especially the squashfs one.

On a side note, we have many ancient labs here ourselves, so if you want, mention the specific problems you have with the older hardware, maybe there are workround to run 12.04 (or 11.10 chroots) on them.
Also, for 486 machines (no PAE support etc), the easiest path might be to create a wheezy debian chroot (which is compatible with 12.04) and transfer it to 12.04, and then maintain it there.

** Changed in: ltsp (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Won't Fix

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1048699

Title:
  ltsp-build-client fails when specifying old distros

Status in “ltsp” package in Ubuntu:
  Won't Fix

Bug description:
  This bug report comes after a lot of frustration with trying to create
  an LTSP “hardy” chroot for some old systems with now unsupported
  Graphics chipsets and researching this issue. I’m using Edubuntu
  12.04. The command I’m using is “ltsp-build-client --arch i386 --dist
  hardy --chroot 8.04-i386 --copy-package-lists --keep-packages --purge-
  chroot” which I understand will never succeed unless the package ltsp-
  client-core_5.0.40~bzr20080212-0ubuntu7_i386.deb is made installable.

  Until recently any version of client package ltsp-client-core was not
  installable on “regular machines”, it could only be installed chrooted
  “because it required special changes to the operating system done by
  ltsp-build-client”. From Edubuntu 12.04 / LTSP 5.3 the situation has
  been reversed i.e. the newer versions are installable on “regular
  machines” and the older ones can’t be installed chrooted.

  Bug #936810 gives some background to this problem:

  “In LTSP 5.3, most of those changes were moved from the chroot build
  phase to the client boot phase (/sbin/init-ltsp).”

  ltsp-build-client failure text:

  "Unpacking ltsp-client (from .../ltsp-client_5.0.40~bzr20080212-0ubuntu7_all.deb) ...
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   /var/cache/apt/archives/ltsp-client-core_5.0.40~bzr20080212-0ubuntu7_i386.deb
  E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
  "

  Manually run dpkg command failure text:

  chroot /opt/ltsp/8.04-i386 dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/ltsp-client-core_5.0.40~bzr20080212-0ubuntu7_i386.deb
  (Reading database ... 14566 files and directories currently installed.)
  Unpacking ltsp-client-core (from .../ltsp-client-core_5.0.40~bzr20080212-0ubuntu7_i386.deb) ...
  dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/ltsp-client-core_5.0.40~bzr20080212-0ubuntu7_i386.deb (--install):
   subprocess pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   /var/cache/apt/archives/ltsp-client-core_5.0.40~bzr20080212-0ubuntu7_i386.deb

  Prompt appears as follows:

  "Installation aborted

  ltsp-client cannot be installed in a regular machine. This package
  provides the basic structure for a LTSP terminal. . Please read the
  package description to understand what it means"

  Please understand that my primary goal is to save others a lot of
  frustration as I have now actually given up on the ltsp-client-
  core_5.0.40~bzr20080212-0ubuntu7_i386.deb not installable issue. I
  guess I will have to download and install Edubuntu 11.04, which I hope
  is the version before these changes were made, in order to just create
  an 8.04 chroot environment and then I guess I can transfer the chroot
  to 12.04 and destroy the temporary Edubuntu 11.04 installation?

  What we absolutely need at a minimum is for ltsp-build-client to
  generate an error that older distros are no longer supported in order
  to save folks hours of research on this problem and maybe stop some
  more duplicates of Bug 936810 being reported! I guess all the old
  distro links / scripts in “/usr/share/debootstrap/scripts” can be
  removed from the relevant packages as well in order to clean things
  up?

  If there is a workaround for the ltsp-client-
  core_5.0.40~bzr20080212-0ubuntu7_i386.deb not being installable using
  the latest ltsp-build-client then I would be interested in knowing
  what that is.

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