ge-aerospace/pxe-server
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Actions Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Blancco: playbook now produces working Ubuntu-kernel initramfs out of the box

Browse Source 
Companion to the previous commit (4550d43). Three files that should have
been in the same commit but got left out of `git add`:

- .gitignore: negate rule for boot-tools/blancco/grub-blancco.cfg so the
  tracked cfg (source of truth for grubx64.efi rebuilds) survives
  the blanket boot-tools/ ignore.

- playbook/blancco-init.sh: rewritten for modprobe-with-deps, full NIC
  driver coverage, set -x trace to /dev/console, dmesg + PCI-device +
  /proc/modules dump + interactive shell on "no NIC after 60s".
  Replaces the narrow insmod-loop version that silently hung on
  unsupported NICs.

- playbook/pxe_server_setup.yml "Build Blancco PXE initramfs" task now
  sweeps the full drivers/net/ tree (ethernet + phy + mdio + usb + fddi
  + wan) plus overlay / squashfs / loop / ptp / libphy / mii deps, runs
  depmod to regenerate modules.dep inside the initramfs (required for
  modprobe dependency resolution), and symlinks the full applet list
  blancco-init.sh needs (modprobe, insmod, dmesg, find, env, etc).
  Result: ~20 MB initramfs vs the old 2 MB narrow build.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
cproudlock
2026-04-22 18:08:57 -04:00
parent 4550d43d9d
commit 70f176650b
3 changed files with 140 additions and 154 deletions
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

57
playbook/pxe_server_setup.yml
View File

@@ -700,42 +700,66 @@
# Boot Ubuntu kernel, download Blancco rootfs, overlay mount, switch_root.
- name: "Build Blancco PXE initramfs"
# The narrow hand-picked NIC driver list used before 2026-04-22 produced
# a 2 MB initramfs that hung on "waiting for network interface" for any
# hardware outside e1000e/igb/tg3/bnx2/bnxt_en/b44. This rewrite sweeps
# the full drivers/net/ tree (ethernet + phy + mdio + usb + fddi + wan)
# plus overlay / squashfs / loop / ptp / libphy / mii deps, runs depmod
# so blancco-init.sh can use modprobe with proper dependency resolution,
# and produces a ~20 MB initramfs. Size isn't a concern - HTTP loads it
# in under two seconds at gigabit, versus the many minutes of hangtime
# the narrow build cost us when a NIC was unsupported.
args:
executable: /bin/bash
creates: "{{ web_root }}/blancco/kexec-initrd.img"
shell: |
set -e
WORK=$(mktemp -d)
mkdir -p "$WORK"/{bin,lib/modules,lib64,sbin,usr/share/udhcpc}
KVER=$(uname -r)
mkdir -p "$WORK"/{bin,lib/modules/$KVER/kernel,lib64,sbin,usr/share/udhcpc,etc,run,proc,sys,dev}
# Busybox (static) - bundled on USB at playbook/busybox-static
if [ -f /bin/busybox ]; then
cp /bin/busybox "$WORK/bin/"
cp /bin/busybox "$WORK/bin/busybox"
elif [ -f "{{ usb_root }}/playbook/busybox-static" ]; then
cp "{{ usb_root }}/playbook/busybox-static" "$WORK/bin/busybox"
chmod +x "$WORK/bin/busybox"
else
echo "ERROR: No busybox available (not at /bin/busybox or on USB)"
exit 1
fi
for cmd in sh awk cat chmod echo grep gunzip ifconfig ip ln losetup ls mkdir mknod mount reboot route sed sleep switch_root tar udhcpc umount wget cpio; do
chmod +x "$WORK/bin/busybox"
# All applets blancco-init.sh uses: modprobe, insmod, dmesg, find, env
# and export added vs the old narrow list.
for cmd in sh ash awk cat chmod cp dd echo grep gunzip ifconfig ip insmod ln losetup ls mkdir mknod modprobe mount mv reboot rm rmdir route sed sleep switch_root tar udhcpc umount wget cpio dmesg env export find; do
ln -sf busybox "$WORK/bin/$cmd"
done
# NIC drivers (common server NICs)
KVER=$(uname -r)
KMOD="/lib/modules/$KVER/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet"
for drv in intel/e1000e/e1000e.ko.zst intel/igb/igb.ko.zst broadcom/tg3.ko.zst broadcom/bnx2.ko.zst broadcom/bnxt/bnxt_en.ko.zst broadcom/b44.ko.zst; do
if [ -f "$KMOD/$drv" ]; then
zstd -d "$KMOD/$drv" -o "$WORK/lib/modules/$(basename ${drv%.zst})" 2>/dev/null
# Full drivers/net/ tree - ethernet + phy + mdio + usb + fddi + wan.
# Preserve path under /lib/modules/$KVER so depmod can resolve deps.
NETDIR=/lib/modules/$KVER/kernel/drivers/net
for sub in ethernet mdio phy usb fddi wan; do
if [ -d "$NETDIR/$sub" ]; then
mkdir -p "$WORK/lib/modules/$KVER/kernel/drivers/net/$sub"
cp -r "$NETDIR/$sub/"* "$WORK/lib/modules/$KVER/kernel/drivers/net/$sub/" 2>/dev/null || true
fi
done
# Overlay + squashfs + loop + usb + hid + ptp + mii + net/core deps
for modpath in fs/overlayfs fs/squashfs drivers/block drivers/usb/core drivers/usb/host drivers/hid drivers/ptp drivers/net/mii.ko net/core; do
if [ -e "/lib/modules/$KVER/kernel/$modpath" ]; then
mkdir -p "$WORK/lib/modules/$KVER/kernel/$(dirname $modpath)"
cp -r "/lib/modules/$KVER/kernel/$modpath" "$WORK/lib/modules/$KVER/kernel/$modpath" 2>/dev/null || true
fi
done
# Overlay module
OVMOD="/lib/modules/$KVER/kernel/fs/overlayfs/overlay.ko.zst"
if [ -f "$OVMOD" ]; then
zstd -d "$OVMOD" -o "$WORK/lib/modules/overlay.ko" 2>/dev/null
fi
# Decompress zstd modules in-place (busybox insmod can't handle .zst)
find "$WORK/lib/modules" -name '*.ko.zst' -print0 | \
xargs -0 -I {} sh -c 'zstd -d --rm -o "${1%.zst}" "$1" 2>/dev/null' _ {} || true
# Preserve modules.builtin / modules.order, regenerate modules.dep so
# modprobe can resolve dependencies inside the initramfs.
cp /lib/modules/$KVER/modules.builtin "$WORK/lib/modules/$KVER/" 2>/dev/null || true
cp /lib/modules/$KVER/modules.order "$WORK/lib/modules/$KVER/" 2>/dev/null || true
(cd "$WORK" && depmod -b . $KVER) 2>/dev/null || echo "depmod warning (non-fatal)"
# Init script
cp "{{ usb_root }}/playbook/blancco-init.sh" "$WORK/init"
@@ -743,7 +767,8 @@
# Build CPIO
cd "$WORK"
find . | cpio -o -H newc 2>/dev/null | gzip > "{{ web_root }}/blancco/kexec-initrd.img"
find . | cpio -o -H newc --quiet | gzip -1 > "{{ web_root }}/blancco/kexec-initrd.img"
cd /
rm -rf "$WORK"
echo "Built kexec-initrd.img: $(stat -c %s '{{ web_root }}/blancco/kexec-initrd.img') bytes"
ignore_errors: yes