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#1 Malformed IP with Static IP and Debian

closed
leem
None
5
2007-11-20
2007-09-25
Scott
No

I am using LinuxCOE to build Debian installations. I have worked with the precompiled version, the CVS version and finally the VMWare appliance version and the problem is consistent as follows:

* Debian 3.1 install with 2.4 kernel option.
* I specify a static IP address and related parameters. Everything works fine when using DHCP option.

What I get is a Malformed IP address from the debian installer once I start the installation, I have obviously tried a number of address options to make sure it was not me and my typing. I also tried it with all 3 distribution options noted above and the results are consistent. One other thing is I don't get the problem with other distros including Unbuntu strange since they have more than a little relation.

I love this system but most of my work is with Debian so you can guess I would truely like to figure this out.

Right now it use the VMWare appliance version, it seems to be the best options and everything we do here is VMWare based anyway.

## Network Configuration
# Note that any hostname and domain names assigned from dhcp take
# precidence over values set here. However, setting the values still
# prevents the questions from being shown even if values come from dhcp.
d-i netcfg/get_hostname string localhost
d-i netcfg/get_domain string localdomain

# Disable that annoying WEP key dialog.
d-i netcfg/wireless_wep string

# netcfg will choose an interface that has link if possible. This makes it
# skip displaying a list if there is more than one interface.
d-i netcfg/choose_interface select auto

# If you prefer to configure the network manually, here's how:
d-i netcfg/disable_dhcp boolean true
d-i netcfg/get_nameservers string 192.168.100.100
d-i netcfg/get_ipaddress string 192.168.100.100
d-i netcfg/get_netmask string 255.255.255.0
d-i netcfg/get_gateway string 192.168.100.100
d-i netcfg/confirm_static boolean true

# Auto-confirm reboot
d-i prebaseconfig/reboot_in_progress note
## Mirror Settings
d-i mirror/country string enter information manually
d-i mirror/http/hostname string archive.ubuntu.com
d-i mirror/http/directory string /ubuntu/
d-i mirror/suite string dapper
d-i mirror/http/proxy string
# Alternatively, you can specify a disk to partition. The device name can
# be given in either devfs or traditional non-devfs format.
# For example, to use the first disk devfs knows of:
d-i partman-auto/disk string

# This makes partman automatically partition without confirmation.
d-i partman/choose_partition select Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
d-i partman/confirm boolean true

## Boot loader
# This is fairly safe to set, it makes grub install automatically to the MBR
# if no other operating system is detected on the machine.
d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean true
# This one makes grub-installer install to the MBR if if finds some other OS
# too, which is less safe as it might not be able to boot that other OS.
d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true
# Alternatively, if you want to install to a location other than the mbr,
# uncomment and edit these lines:
#d-i grub-installer/bootdev string (hd0,0)
#d-i grub-installer/only-debian boolean false
#d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean false
d-i languagechooser/language-name-fb select English
d-i debian-installer/locale select en_US.UTF-8
d-i pkgsel/install-pattern string ~n^$

d-i preseed/late_command string mkdir -p /target/opt/LinuxCOE/bin; /bin/mv /LinuxCOE-final /target/opt/LinuxCOE/bin; in-target /usr/bin/perl /opt/LinuxCOE/bin/LinuxCOE-final >/var/log/LinuxCOE-final.log 2>&1
d-i apt-setup/uri_type select http
d-i apt-setup/country select enter information manually
d-i apt-setup/hostname string archive.ubuntu.com
d-i apt-setup/directory string /ubuntu/
d-i apt-setup/another boolean false
d-i apt-setup/security-updates boolean false

## Timezone
d-i tzconfig/gmt boolean false
d-i tzconfig/choose_country_zone/US select Alaska
d-i tzconfig/choose_country_zone_single boolean true

# lUsers
d-i passwd/user-fullname string Administrator
d-i passwd/username string admin
d-i passwd/user-password-crypted passwd $1$BKr85nr2$VDwNn8ILRf7rep9ScpT/10

## Package selection
# You can choose to install any combination of tasks that are available.
# Available tasks as of this writing include: Desktop environment,
# Web server, Print server, DNS server, File server, Mail server,
# SQL database, manual package selection. The last of those will run
# aptitude. You can also choose to install no tasks, and force the
# installation of a set of packages in some other way.
# XXX: this will not work until tasksel 2.12 is available
#tasksel tasksel/first multiselect Desktop environment
#tasksel tasksel/first multiselect Web server, Mail server, DNS server

# During a normal install, exim asks only two questions. Here's how to
# avoid even those. More complicated preseeding is possible.
exim4-config exim4/dc_eximconfig_configtype select no configuration at this time
exim4-config exim4/dc_postmaster string

## X Configuration
# Preseeding Debian's X config is possible, but you probably need to know
# some details about the video hardware of the machine, since Debian's X
# configurator does not do fully automatic configuration of everything.

# X can detect the right driver for some cards, but if you're preseeding,
# you override whatever it chooses. Still, vesa will work most places.
#xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/device/driver select vesa

# A caveat with mouse autodetection is that if it fails, X will retry it
# over and over. So if it's preseeded to be done, there is a possibility of
# an infinite loop if the mouse is not autodetected.
#xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/autodetect_mouse boolean true

xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/autodetect_monitor boolean true
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/selection-method select medium
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/mode-list select 1024x768 @ 60 Hz
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/display/modes multiselect 1024x768, 800x600

# Things below here slurped in from data/debconf snippet if it exists
aide aide/aideinit boolean false
aide aide/newlibdir boolean false
aide aideinit/copynew boolean false
aide aideinit/overwritenew boolean true
logcheck-database logcheck-database/conffile-cleanup boolean false
tripwire tripwire/local-passphrase password
tripwire tripwire/local-passphrase-again password
tripwire tripwire/local-passphrase-incorrect boolean false
tripwire tripwire/rebuild-config boolean true
tripwire tripwire/rebuild-policy boolean true
tripwire tripwire/site-passphrase password
tripwire tripwire/site-passphrase-again password
tripwire tripwire/site-passphrase-incorrect boolean false
tripwire tripwire/upgrade boolean true
tripwire tripwire/use-localkey boolean false
tripwire tripwire/use-sitekey boolean false

Discussion

  • leem

    leem - 2007-09-26

    Logged In: YES
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    Originator: NO

    This could be an old problem that's come back. Early versions of the d-i installer would silently convert your nameserver and default gateway to network address + .1 a static IP was in play, but a patch was filed and accepted. I'll double-check the version of the netconf udeb and friends and see if this is the case again. Could you use <ctl-alt-F2> on your installing system and see what values are being used?

     
  • leem

    leem - 2007-09-26
    • assigned_to: nobody --> lmayes
     
  • leem

    leem - 2007-09-26

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    Now that I have a little coffee in me, let me re-state what I'd like to see. :)

    On installing system that's failing, can you push a shell <cntl-alt-F2> and record the output of:

    # route -n
    # cat /etc/resolv.conf
    # ifconfig eth0 (or installing NIC)

    On your system designer system:

    $ cd $PREFIX/images
    $ tar tvf Debian-3.1-i386-tar.iso | grep netcfg

    Thank you!

    Lee

     
  • Scott

    Scott - 2007-09-26

    Error screen capture

     
  • Scott

    Scott - 2007-09-26

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    I attached some screen captures of the info you requested I will also give out the version info in a minute.

    File Added: info.jpg

     
  • Scott

    Scott - 2007-09-26

    The actual error message

     
  • Scott

    Scott - 2007-09-26

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    and now the network info you requested
    File Added: error.jpg

     
  • Scott

    Scott - 2007-09-26

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    Here is the info on the version of netcfg you requested.

    vandium:/var/www/images# tar tvf Debian-3.1-i386-iso.tar | grep netcfg
    drwxrwxrwx instalinux/pg477749 0 2005-04-05 15:45:10 pool/main/n/netcfg/
    -rwxrwxrwx instalinux/pg477749 158028 2005-02-16 22:02:13 pool/main/n/netcfg/netcfg_1.08_i386.udeb
    -rwxrwxrwx instalinux/pg477749 158652 2005-04-05 15:45:10 pool/main/n/netcfg/netcfg_1.07a_i386.udeb
    vandium:/var/www/images#

     
  • leem

    leem - 2007-09-26

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    Thank you for the images, I see now where you got the 'Malformed' remark from. I've never seen this error and will need to investigate it a little further.

    I just noticed something. You're using your own IP address as both the name server and default gateway. That may be what d-i is complaining about.

    d-i netcfg/get_nameservers string 192.168.100.100
    d-i netcfg/get_ipaddress string 192.168.100.100
    d-i netcfg/get_netmask string 255.255.255.0
    d-i netcfg/get_gateway string 192.168.100.100

     
  • Scott

    Scott - 2007-09-26

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    I was looking at that as well and it occurred to me that network install would be a problem since the system wouldn't know how to reach the network and download updates. I may need to rethink this. I don't want DHCP because some locations don't have it but then the network install won't work either because the install image won't have the correct information.

    This is your basic chicken and the egg problem.

     
  • Bryan Gartner

    Bryan Gartner - 2007-09-26

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    have to agree with lmayes here, using same IP

    d-i netcfg/get_nameservers string 192.168.100.100
    d-i netcfg/get_ipaddress string 192.168.100.100
    d-i netcfg/get_gateway string 192.168.100.100

    for all these just will not work during install (can replicate failure, but different error message here). Later, when you have a running system you could self route and have a local caching (or full) nameserver, but at this point you need to get off this system to the network mirror.

     
  • Scott

    Scott - 2007-09-26

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    My intention was to treat this like an appliance install but this is just not going to work. With varying networks there is no way I can hard code the IP information and have this work. It seemed like a good idea but ;)

     
  • leem

    leem - 2007-09-26

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    BTW, the preseed file above it for Ubuntu Dapper, for some reason I had Sarge in my brain. :/

    There are no problems with Static IP + Dapper.

    Is this the actual preseed file that generated your errors? If so, I was looking in the wrong places.

    THX!

     
  • Scott

    Scott - 2007-09-26

    Debian test preseed

     
  • Scott

    Scott - 2007-09-26

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    The problem is Debian 3.1, I must have pulled the wrong preseed file, I did a quick test with Unbuntu to see if the problem was only Debian or in a Debian varient. I have attached the preseed file from the Debian test.
    File Added: preseed

     
  • leem

    leem - 2007-11-05
    • status: open --> pending
     
  • SourceForge Robot

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    This Tracker item was closed automatically by the system. It was
    previously set to a Pending status, and the original submitter
    did not respond within 14 days (the time period specified by
    the administrator of this Tracker).

     
  • SourceForge Robot

    • status: pending --> closed
     

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