Messages

766

Installation and Upgrades / Re: System updates showing "Generic Linux Kernel", install or not?

« on: March 20, 2011, 03:12:07 am »

I hate to put "solved" on a topic title when in fact nothing has been solved.

After days I have wiped the disk and reinstalled from scratch.
For a change, i did NOT use LVM and I'm no longer in favor of using it at this point.
It adds another layer of complexity to the setup and it is a hassle in case of recovery. Sure it has its advantages but only for experienced linux peeps.

After installation I went trough the same update list as before, and the only clear difference was that this time the list offered me a different kernel image ending with version .32. Installed kernel was .28.
After carrying out the updates, the system booted just fine. At the moment the system as well as Zentyal is completely up to date and it boots.

Perhaps something went wrong updating the kernel. I remembered having carried out two kernel updates at the same time (from .24 to .28 and then to .29) and that could have borked the system. Annoying enough that it went south, but even more because in the end I still don't know what the troublemaker was.

I wish to describe my new setup and the partitioning without LVM in a different topic so others can learn from that.
Topic closed.

767

Installation and Upgrades / Re: System updates showing "Generic Linux Kernel", install or not?

« on: March 18, 2011, 02:49:44 pm »

I've got some updates on this. First off, thanks for your help Josep and Half Life.

I checked the Grub.cfg and there is an entry insmod lvm.
I also found all the entry's for the previous kernels, .24 and .28. The latest is .29.
All seemed to be ok and in place, so next try was to get to a Grub menu at boot to choose an older kernel.
Had a great time finding the proper key combination. Contrary to what can be found on the net, esc did not work, nor did shift, e or r.
Just kept hitting a combination shift+e+r together and that got me in the menu at last. If anybody knows the right keystroke and moment please share it.

The problem is definitely the updated kernel. When I choose to boot the old kernel .24 the server booted straight up. Neither the .28 nor the .29 kernel booted, same error.
Anyway booting the old kernel starts all services but it does not take me to a login prompt, and there is no desktop. It just sits at the end of the list "starting...." etc.
Probably the kernel update does something more to the system.

From what I read on the net it appears to be a bug. I found some information on google groups (will share it later) that suggest a timing error and a workaround could be the manual enabling of volume group so that it became accessible and the booting should continue.
So I got again to the initramfs prompt and did "vgchange -ay" but this command requires sudo privileges and it is not possible to do "sudo" from the initramfs.
So that was another dead end.

This is how my Grub.cfg looks.

Code: [Select]

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
  load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
  set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
  save_env saved_entry
  set prev_saved_entry=
  save_env prev_saved_entry
  set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
  if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
    saved_entry=${chosen}
    save_env saved_entry
  fi
}

function recordfail {
  set recordfail=1
  if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}
insmod lvm
insmod ext2
set root='(Server-root)'#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
  load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
  set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
  save_env saved_entry
  set prev_saved_entry=
  save_env prev_saved_entry
  set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
  if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
    saved_entry=${chosen}
    save_env saved_entry
  fi
}

function recordfail {
  set recordfail=1
  if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}
insmod lvm
insmod ext2
set root='(Server-root)'
!!!search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 27de3cd0-81db-4ab1-b72f-63415d280d47!!!
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=640x480
  insmod gfxterm
  insmod vbe
  if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
    # For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
    # understand terminal_output
    terminal gfxterm
  fi
fi
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-29-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32-29-generic root=/dev/mapper/Server-root ro   quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.32-29-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-29-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-29-generic ...'
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32-29-generic root=/dev/mapper/Server-root ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.32-29-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-28-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32-28-generic root=/dev/mapper/Server-root ro   quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.32-28-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-28-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-28-generic ...'
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32-28-generic root=/dev/mapper/Server-root ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.32-28-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=/dev/mapper/Server-root ro   quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-24-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-24-generic ...'
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=/dev/mapper/Server-root ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
linux16 /memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
linux16 /memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
if [ ${timeout} != -1 ]; then
  if keystatus; then
    if keystatus --shift; then
      set timeout=-1
    else
      set timeout=0
    fi
  else
    if sleep --interruptible 3 ; then
      set timeout=0
    fi
  fi
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 27de3cd0-81db-4ab1-b72f-63415d280d47
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=640x480
  insmod gfxterm
  insmod vbe
  if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
    # For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
    # understand terminal_output
    terminal gfxterm
  fi
fi
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-29-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32-29-generic root=/dev/mapper/Server-root ro   quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.32-29-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-29-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-29-generic ...'
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32-29-generic root=/dev/mapper/Server-root ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.32-29-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-28-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32-28-generic root=/dev/mapper/Server-root ro   quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.32-28-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-28-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-28-generic ...'
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32-28-generic root=/dev/mapper/Server-root ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.32-28-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=/dev/mapper/Server-root ro   quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-24-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-24-generic ...'
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=/dev/mapper/Server-root ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
linux16 /memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2b20a477-eea0-40a7-b24c-0ce079738a8f
linux16 /memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
if [ ${timeout} != -1 ]; then
  if keystatus; then
    if keystatus --shift; then
      set timeout=-1
    else
      set timeout=0
    fi
  else
    if sleep --interruptible 3 ; then
      set timeout=0
    fi
  fi
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
The only weird thing is the first lines where the UUID (marked with !!!) points to the /boot partition instead of the LVM volumes. That might be something. - No it's not, it was correct.

Furthermore, the insmod LVM is specified at the beginning but is not present in any of the menu entries.
Will try to add it and see what happens.

If this does not work, I'll rebuild the whole server from scratch. Sometimes you have to make a decision because three days troubleshooting is just too much.

Edit: Did not work, I only can get to the recovery options booting the old kernel, have a beautiful console with root. From there perhaps I can try to change/downgrade/upgrade something but I doubt it will work.
Kernel upgrades will bork Zentyal beyond repair.

Cheers.

768

Installation and Upgrades / Re: System updates showing "Generic Linux Kernel", install or not?

« on: March 17, 2011, 07:13:28 pm »

At the moment i'm booting off the ubuntu live cd because none of the things I tried worked to get my system back online.

Live CD booted, installed LVM2 because it is not included by default. After that activated the VG with
vgchange -ay and all 3 volumes were activated.
Checked /root with e2fsck and it did fix some orphaned entries and recovered a journal file.
Everything else seemed normal, all data seem to be present.
Rebooted but the same error showed up again.

ALERT! /dev/mapper/Server-root does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

So after that I tried the Zentyal recovery option. Got to the screen where you can choose the /root to execute a shell, LVM volumes were present all 3.
So I choose /dev/mapper/Server-root and got to a console.
Mounted /boot manually and I wanted to install the kernel from the zentyal cd, but it just downloaded the latest one off the Ubuntu repository. So that got me nowhere.

Like Josep I think the problem is with the LVM and not grub itself, but weird thing is that the Zentyal recovery option DOES recognize my LVM volumes without a problem.

I examined the grub.cfg and checked the volume ID's and it is a perfect match, what's more there are separate entries each with their own kernel. I'll try to do the "escape" trick to get in the menu and choose the old kernel that booted as a last resort.

I'm really lost here, already spend the whole night trying to fix this.
Guys if anyone can help me to get Zentyal up running again please do so.

edit: No I don't have backups. Zentyal was only installed a few weeks ago.

Cheers.

769

Installation and Upgrades / Re: System updates showing "Generic Linux Kernel", install or not?

« on: March 17, 2011, 02:38:12 pm »

I was hoping to do this without issues, unfortunately my server is now completely dead after the kernel upgrade.
This message shows:

Code: [Select]

ALERT! /dev/mapper/Server-root does not exist. Dropping to a shell!
Grub cannot find the root filesystem and the kernel won't boot. That teaches me not to mess with updates.
For anybody that likes to experiment with kernel upgrades, you have been warned.

Cheers.

770

Installation and Upgrades / Re: Manual partitioning on install

« on: March 17, 2011, 09:23:57 am »

I would do it differently. There is a topic on this elsewhere, it might give you some tips also.
http://forum.zentyal.org/index.php?topic=6055.0

First, LVM is a scheme. You do either LVM or you are doing fixed partitions. The latter will prove less flexible so go with LVM. That means that all 3 disks should be available to LVM except the /boot volume.
/Boot is not part of the LVM scheme, that's by design. Yours is way to big. You don't need more than 300MB.
Make the rest past of your LVM setup. This can be multiple disks.

/home - home dir of the user(s) on the system, I put these on a different large drive as I have networks users that save their stuff on the server.
/swap - is part of the LVM scheme and just set it twice your ram size at most.
/root - some 40GB should be ok for most installs.

Use a fast drive for frequently accessed data and the OS. Separate volumes for /usr /var /srv etc. might be more secure, that's up for you to decide.
 
Cheers.

771

Installation and Upgrades / Re: Port Forwarding and Virtual Interfaces

« on: March 15, 2011, 07:21:51 am »

I would like to have a clear cut answer for you - But my experience with Zentyal only goes as far as a few weeks.
When I was forwarding ports I set Zentyal as the original destination. A virtual interface is just an extra IP address assigned to the network card. So it has to work by putting the Virtual Interface IP address in the destination field.
But you might have already tried that.

 

772

Installation and Upgrades / Re: Zentyal admin user lost after resize operation.

« on: March 10, 2011, 02:31:18 am »

As a follow up and for the unfortunate among us I would like to explain that this is not something fatal.
What I did to get it more or less working again was creating the home dir with the same name as it had before it got borked.
I believe that some programs need this dir to save settings to. After creating the folder manually and rebooting I could once again login to Zentyal and things are more or less back to normal.
The menus are also in place.

There is however one important thing: Logging in as root in the GUI will screw with the permissions.
Working with the (by default disabled) root account is possible in a terminal, but remember avoid working with root in a desktop session. Sudo is really all you need. I had to learn that the hard way.
 
Cheers.

773

Installation and Upgrades / Re: System updates showing "Generic Linux Kernel", install or not?

« on: March 05, 2011, 09:34:21 am »

Thank you very much, a clear and precise answer.

Cheers.

774

Installation and Upgrades / [Solved] System updates showing "Generic Linux Kernel", install or not?

« on: March 03, 2011, 12:16:11 pm »

A while back there was a similar post about this issue:

Code: [Select]

http://forum.zentyal.org/index.php?topic=3126.0
And Zentyal was to be updated to no longer show these generic Linux kernel, if I'm correct.
After my Zentyal box has been up and running for some weeks, today these system updates started showing.
A lot of MySQL stuff, Java stuff, antivirus etc. well, nothing out of the ordinary.

But to upgrade the kernel is something to think about. Probably will loose the L7 filtering and voip conferencing.  
There was a comment about not booting. But a reboot sometimes seems to be inevitable.
I'd rather not upgrade, but would like to know what others say about this and most important what is the advice from Zentyal staff?

Cheers.

775

Installation and Upgrades / Re: Logs issue

« on: March 03, 2011, 12:00:45 pm »

Well that makes at least three of us. 
In my case the log issue seems to pop up at different moments, it does not happen on a specific moment.
As I said, at this point the log functionality is rather limited for me so i'll just wait for better times.
On the dashboard I can see users logged in to use Zentyal services, or DHCP leases, but static clients and traffic can only be retrieved from the Squid/Dansguardian logs.
This is what I mean by limited.
Coming from a Windows box with Softperfect BWM installed I had at all times an overview of the active users and bandwidth used.

Cheers.

776

Installation and Upgrades / Re: Xsession: warning: unable to write to /tmp

« on: March 03, 2011, 11:48:32 am »

Excelent post by organetic. That's the kind of howto we can go by. Thanks!

Sam is right. It is not a Zentyal bug. It is just the automatic partitioning future from Ubuntu.
What Zentyal staff can do perhaps is put up a warning to choose partition sizes carefully.
Anyway I've learned from this and with every new setup I will be skipping the auto-partitioning.

BTW Sam, those 9GB drives seem rather small to me, you might not have had all the modules installed/running. Or had the squid cache set very small? Purge logs frequently?
I'd be more happy with some 40GB partition, using 10GB for the Squid cache.

Cheers.

777

Installation and Upgrades / Re: Can anyone help in installing the zentyal 2.03 version.?

« on: March 03, 2011, 11:37:55 am »

Hi Chiyan,

It is very hard to give you some indication at this point. I would start by checking the system specs and the requirements for Zentyal/Ubuntu.
Start over again and see how it goes the second time.
Please post your system specs and a short description of what you are doing. Perhaps with a little more info we can give some tips.

Cheers.

778

Installation and Upgrades / Re: Logs issue

« on: February 23, 2011, 04:43:04 am »

Hi Steve,

Well Dansguardian is the content filter. If you enable the proxy, you have also the choice to filter request.
(see "always allow" or "allow and filter for example".
Dansguardian is part of the HTTP proxy, so if you have the http proxy enabled you can use the filtering options also, if you wish.

Downside of this method is that after filtering, all traffic appears to be coming from localhost. So there is no way to see (from the Zentyal web interface) who did what.
You just see total accepted/filtered traffic in one line for that day.
I did a test with some users, putting them on the "always allow" policy and this does in effect log the correct ip address for that client.

At this moment I'm looking up the dansguardian logs in /var/log and that logfile does register IP's so it gives me some information but it is not exactly convenient.

But on top of this there is the bug that sometimes the logs stop working without any reason. Sometimes I just miss a whole day!

Cheers.

779

Installation and Upgrades / Re: Block p2p

« on: February 22, 2011, 04:21:14 am »

The http proxy is for web traffic. You don't use it to block p2p.
Use the firewall to block all ports you don't need and only open ports for the active services on your network.
Besides that you can configure the traffic shaper to set low priority for p2p traffic.

Cheers. 

780

Installation and Upgrades / Re: Strange IE9 behaviour

« on: February 21, 2011, 08:55:47 am »

Perhaps its better to wait until the final version, as far as I know IE9 is still RC.

Cheers.