openSUSE / openSUSE/supportutils

supportconfig from rescue mode - boot.txt and lsinitrd

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enhancement
Dominant language
Shell
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35
Forks
70
Avg merge
5d 16h
Merged PRs (30d)
1

Description

Short story: a customer is struggling with multipath boot from SAN. He created supportconfig file after booting from a rescue media. But boot.txt does not show info about initramfs as the kernel booted (rescue media) is mostly not one present in /boot directory inside chroot.

Thinking loudly - are we somehow able to improve boot.txt if we would know that we booted from a rescue media?

Sep 08 10:56:13 rescue kernel: Linux version 4.12.14-120-default (geeko@buildhost) (gcc version 4.8.5 (SUSE Linux) ) #1 SMP Thu Nov 7 16:39:09 UTC 2019 (fd9dc36)
Sep 08 10:56:13 rescue kernel: Command line: initrd=initrd splash=silent rescue=1

^ this indicates booting from rescue media

#==[ Command ]======================================#
# /usr/bin/lsinitrd -k 4.12.14-120-default
No <initramfs file> specified and the default image '/boot/initrd-4.12.14-120-default' cannot be accessed!

Usage: lsinitrd [options] [<initramfs file> [<filename> [<filename> [...] ]]]
Usage: lsinitrd [options] -k <kernel version>

-h, --help                  print a help message and exit.
-s, --size                  sort the contents of the initramfs by size.
-m, --mod                   list modules.
-f, --file <filename>       print the contents of <filename>.
-k, --kver <kernel version> inspect the initramfs of <kernel version>.

^ this is useless, supportconfig was trying to check initramfs with version of rescue mode media.

Could we:

  1. detect if it is rescue mode?
  2. if so, take default from GRUB menu
  3. inspect initramfs of "default" GRUB entry?
  4. print info that this supportconfig is taken from rescue mode after chroot (are we sure we are inside chroot?)

Such info - valid lsinitramfs would help "me" to see if multipath is present inside initramfs.

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing how supportconfig produces boot.txt and invokes lsinitrd. Compare the rescue kernel command line with the GRUB default entry and determine how chroot context is identified. Done means rescue-mode collection selects an appropriate installed initramfs when possible and clearly reports rescue-mode status or limitations.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
shell
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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