Debian Bug report logs - #666399
s390-dasd fails to work with >20 devices visible (mostly in LPAR mode)

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Philipp Kern <pkern@debian.org>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: s390-dasd fails to work with >20 devices visible (mostly in LPAR mode)

Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:52:58 +0200

Package: s390-dasd
Version: 0.0.27
Severity: important

s390-dasd has the following code snippet in dasd-config.c:

| static enum state_wanted get_channel (void)
| {
|         if (di_tree_size (channels) > 20)
|                 return get_channel_input ();
|         else if (di_tree_size (channels) > 0)
|                 return get_channel_select ();
|         return WANT_ERROR;
| }

I'm not sure about the rationale for this.  When removing the check, the
program segfaults upon hitting "Finish", despite listing the devices
correctly and allowing to configure them.  Sadly strace didn't help at all
and gdb was unable to generate traces.

If you've got a lot of devices visible, because you're in LPAR mode, you
cannot configure the disks because the state machine goes GET_CHANNEL ->
ENABLE -> FORMAT -> WRITE -> GET_CHANNEL and there's no way to exit the
GET_CHANNEL input field with a finished state.  So you're caught in an
endless loop instead.  An alternative to just showing the select widget all
the time would be to fix the state machine so that it's possible to exit with
sucess from the channel input when at least one device was brought online (or
is in configured).

Kind regards
Philipp Kern

Message #10 received at 666399@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Bastian Blank <waldi@debian.org>

To: Philipp Kern <pkern@debian.org>, 666399@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#666399: s390-dasd fails to work with >20 devices visible (mostly in LPAR mode)

Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2012 09:32:50 +0200

On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 02:52:58PM +0200, Philipp Kern wrote:
> I'm not sure about the rationale for this.

s390 system can have hundreds or thousands of DASD devices. With the
text frontend it is simply impossible to display such a long list, with
slang it is just not pretty. So this code should ask for the device id
instead of showing a list.

Bastian

-- 
It would seem that evil retreats when forcibly confronted.
		-- Yarnek of Excalbia, "The Savage Curtain", stardate 5906.5

Message #13 received at 666399@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Philipp Kern <pkern@debian.org>

To: Bastian Blank <waldi@debian.org>

Cc: 666399@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#666399: s390-dasd fails to work with >20 devices visible (mostly in LPAR mode)

Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2012 10:16:24 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Wed, Apr 04, 2012 at 09:32:50AM +0200, Bastian Blank wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 02:52:58PM +0200, Philipp Kern wrote:
> > I'm not sure about the rationale for this.
> s390 system can have hundreds or thousands of DASD devices. With the
> text frontend it is simply impossible to display such a long list, with
> slang it is just not pretty. So this code should ask for the device id
> instead of showing a list.

Aye.  Text is indeed a good reason.  As for the dialog interface you get via
the SSH installer I found it to be acceptable with two hundred devices.

So the device ID picker should get an option to Finish.  Can such a text input
field get an additional way out than Go Back and Ok?

Kind regards
Philipp Kern

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Message #18 received at 666399@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@linux.vnet.ibm.com>

To: Philipp Kern <pkern@debian.org>

Cc: Bastian Blank <waldi@debian.org>, 666399@bugs.debian.org, alkl@linux.vnet.ibm.com

Subject: Re: Bug#666399: s390-dasd fails to work with >20 devices visible (mostly in LPAR mode)

Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 14:15:10 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi Philipp,

Alexander (on CC) just reported ran into the same issue.  His system has more
than 20 DASDs and the dialog continues to show up.  The <Go Back> triggers the
special debconf return code and the "hardware-detection" dependency for this
module is not satisfied.  This reported when starting the partitioner.

On Wed, Apr 04, 2012 at 10:16:24AM +0200, Philipp Kern wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 04, 2012 at 09:32:50AM +0200, Bastian Blank wrote:
> > On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 02:52:58PM +0200, Philipp Kern wrote:
> > > I'm not sure about the rationale for this.
> > s390 system can have hundreds or thousands of DASD devices. With the
> > text frontend it is simply impossible to display such a long list, with

I agree that the list of DASDs can be large.

> > slang it is just not pretty. So this code should ask for the device id
> > instead of showing a list.

The dialog to enter the DASD makes sense... in the current implementation you
will not get out of it with having the "hardware-detection" dependency
fulfilled.  The other side effect is that you will never see a list of DASDs
which are currently online and configured.   Of course, you would see them
later in the partitioner.

> 
> Aye.  Text is indeed a good reason.  As for the dialog interface you get via
> the SSH installer I found it to be acceptable with two hundred devices.
> 
> So the device ID picker should get an option to Finish.  Can such a text input
> field get an additional way out than Go Back and Ok?

I do not think that another button is possible.  One solution would be to
literally enter "Finish" or something similar to complete the DASD module.

Honestly, I would propose a different approach to limit the DASD device
available to the Debian installer.   I believe that typical customer
environments have set up their LPARs (and z/VM guest virtual machines)
to limit the number of devices to those required/designated for the LPAR.

Of course, there can be the case where LPARs almost have access to (almost)
every device.  For this case, the solution is to use "cio_ignore" kernel
parameter.  With this kernel parameter you can control the devices that
are visible to the Linux instance.

For example,

	cio_ignore=all,!ipldev,!condev,!0.0.da00-0.0.da10

ignores all devices except the console device, the IPL device, and the
range of devices from 0.0.da00 to 0.0.da10 that might be DASDs or any
other devices.  Note that you can change the cio_ignore settings at runtime,
so you can later make additional devices visible.

With this solution, there is no hardcoded limit necessary and the user
can still see the list of DASDs to be configured.

What do you think?

P.S. For the FCP configuration module, I documented this approach already
in the README file.


Thanks and kind regards,
  Hendrik

[Message part 2 (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #21 received at 666399@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Philipp Kern <pkern@debian.org>

To: Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@linux.vnet.ibm.com>, 666399@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Bastian Blank <waldi@debian.org>, alkl@linux.vnet.ibm.com

Subject: Re: Bug#666399: s390-dasd fails to work with >20 devices visible (mostly in LPAR mode)

Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2016 17:46:39 +0100

Hi,

On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 02:15:10PM +0100, Hendrik Brueckner wrote:
> Honestly, I would propose a different approach to limit the DASD device
> available to the Debian installer.   I believe that typical customer
> environments have set up their LPARs (and z/VM guest virtual machines)
> to limit the number of devices to those required/designated for the LPAR.
> 
> Of course, there can be the case where LPARs almost have access to (almost)
> every device.  For this case, the solution is to use "cio_ignore" kernel
> parameter.  With this kernel parameter you can control the devices that
> are visible to the Linux instance.
> 
> For example,
> 
> 	cio_ignore=all,!ipldev,!condev,!0.0.da00-0.0.da10
> 
> ignores all devices except the console device, the IPL device, and the
> range of devices from 0.0.da00 to 0.0.da10 that might be DASDs or any
> other devices.  Note that you can change the cio_ignore settings at runtime,
> so you can later make additional devices visible.
> 
> With this solution, there is no hardcoded limit necessary and the user
> can still see the list of DASDs to be configured.
> 
> What do you think?

it'd be nice to see that in the installation manual, I think, so that
it's at least documented.

Kind regards and thanks
Philipp Kern

Message #26 received at 666399@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@linux.vnet.ibm.com>

To: Philipp Kern <pkern@debian.org>

Cc: Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@linux.vnet.ibm.com>, 666399@bugs.debian.org, Bastian Blank <waldi@debian.org>, alkl@linux.vnet.ibm.com

Subject: Re: Bug#666399: s390-dasd fails to work with >20 devices visible (mostly in LPAR mode)

Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2016 08:46:39 +0100

On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 05:46:39PM +0100, Philipp Kern wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 02:15:10PM +0100, Hendrik Brueckner wrote:
> > Honestly, I would propose a different approach to limit the DASD device
> > available to the Debian installer.   I believe that typical customer
> > environments have set up their LPARs (and z/VM guest virtual machines)
> > to limit the number of devices to those required/designated for the LPAR.
> > 
> > Of course, there can be the case where LPARs almost have access to (almost)
> > every device.  For this case, the solution is to use "cio_ignore" kernel
> > parameter.  With this kernel parameter you can control the devices that
> > are visible to the Linux instance.
> > 
> > For example,
> > 
> > 	cio_ignore=all,!ipldev,!condev,!0.0.da00-0.0.da10
> > 
> > ignores all devices except the console device, the IPL device, and the
> > range of devices from 0.0.da00 to 0.0.da10 that might be DASDs or any
> > other devices.  Note that you can change the cio_ignore settings at runtime,
> > so you can later make additional devices visible.
> > 
> > With this solution, there is no hardcoded limit necessary and the user
> > can still see the list of DASDs to be configured.
> > 
> > What do you think?
> 
> it'd be nice to see that in the installation manual, I think, so that
> it's at least documented.

How are installation manual changes are handled?

Thanks and kind regards,
  Hendrik

Message #31 received at 666399@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Holger Wansing <linux@wansing-online.de>

To: Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@linux.vnet.ibm.com>

Cc: Philipp Kern <pkern@debian.org>, 666399@bugs.debian.org, Bastian Blank <waldi@debian.org>, alkl@linux.vnet.ibm.com

Subject: Re: Bug#666399: s390-dasd fails to work with >20 devices visible (mostly in LPAR mode)

Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 17:34:02 +0100

Hi,

Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@linux.vnet.ibm.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 05:46:39PM +0100, Philipp Kern wrote:
> > > For example,
> > > 
> > > 	cio_ignore=all,!ipldev,!condev,!0.0.da00-0.0.da10
> > > 
> > > ignores all devices except the console device, the IPL device, and the
> > > range of devices from 0.0.da00 to 0.0.da10 that might be DASDs or any
> > > other devices.  Note that you can change the cio_ignore settings at runtime,
> > > so you can later make additional devices visible.
> > > 
> > > With this solution, there is no hardcoded limit necessary and the user
> > > can still see the list of DASDs to be configured.
> > > 
> > > What do you think?
> > 
> > it'd be nice to see that in the installation manual, I think, so that
> > it's at least documented.
> 
> How are installation manual changes are handled?

You can find the various manual formats in
https://d-i.debian.org/manual/

The source code is under 
http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/d-i/trunk/manual/
or via
svn co svn://anonscm.debian.org/svn/d-i/trunk/manual

Patches could be provided at debian-boot or as a wishlist bug 
against installation-guide.



Holger


-- 
============================================================
Created with Sylpheed 3.5.0 under
	D E B I A N   L I N U X   8 . 0   " J E S S I E " .

Registered Linux User #311290 - https://linuxcounter.net/
============================================================

Message #36 received at 666399@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@linux.vnet.ibm.com>

To: Holger Wansing <linux@wansing-online.de>

Cc: Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@linux.vnet.ibm.com>, Philipp Kern <pkern@debian.org>, 666399@bugs.debian.org, Bastian Blank <waldi@debian.org>, alkl@linux.vnet.ibm.com

Subject: Re: Bug#666399: s390-dasd fails to work with >20 devices visible (mostly in LPAR mode)

Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 18:22:30 +0100

On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 05:34:02PM +0100, Holger Wansing wrote:
> Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@linux.vnet.ibm.com> wrote:
> > On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 05:46:39PM +0100, Philipp Kern wrote:
> > > > For example,
> > > > 
> > > > 	cio_ignore=all,!ipldev,!condev,!0.0.da00-0.0.da10
> > > > 
> > > > ignores all devices except the console device, the IPL device, and the
> > > > range of devices from 0.0.da00 to 0.0.da10 that might be DASDs or any
> > > > other devices.  Note that you can change the cio_ignore settings at runtime,
> > > > so you can later make additional devices visible.
> > > > 
> > > > With this solution, there is no hardcoded limit necessary and the user
> > > > can still see the list of DASDs to be configured.
> > > > 
> > > > What do you think?
> > > 
> > > it'd be nice to see that in the installation manual, I think, so that
> > > it's at least documented.

Actually, this is already documented in the installation manual:

https://d-i.debian.org/manual/en.s390x/ch05s01.html

> > 
> > How are installation manual changes are handled?
> 
> You can find the various manual formats in
> https://d-i.debian.org/manual/
> 
> The source code is under 
> http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/d-i/trunk/manual/
> or via
> svn co svn://anonscm.debian.org/svn/d-i/trunk/manual


Thanks for pointing to the manual locations.

> 
> Patches could be provided at debian-boot or as a wishlist bug 
> against installation-guide.

Ok... good to know.


Thanks and kind regards,
  Hendrik

Message #41 received at 666399@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@linux.vnet.ibm.com>

To: 666399@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@linux.vnet.ibm.com>, Philipp Kern <pkern@debian.org>, Bastian Blank <waldi@debian.org>, alkl@linux.vnet.ibm.com, Holger Wansing <linux@wansing-online.de>

Subject: Re: Bug#666399: s390-dasd fails to work with >20 devices visible (mostly in LPAR mode)

Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2016 13:40:03 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Control: tags -1 + patch

On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 06:22:30PM +0100, Hendrik Brueckner wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 05:34:02PM +0100, Holger Wansing wrote:
> > Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@linux.vnet.ibm.com> wrote:
> > > On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 05:46:39PM +0100, Philipp Kern wrote:
> > > > > For example,
> > > > > 
> > > > > 	cio_ignore=all,!ipldev,!condev,!0.0.da00-0.0.da10
> > > > > 
> > > > > ignores all devices except the console device, the IPL device, and the
> > > > > range of devices from 0.0.da00 to 0.0.da10 that might be DASDs or any
> > > > > other devices.  Note that you can change the cio_ignore settings at runtime,
> > > > > so you can later make additional devices visible.
> > > > > 
> > > > > With this solution, there is no hardcoded limit necessary and the user
> > > > > can still see the list of DASDs to be configured.
> > > > > 
> > > > > What do you think?
> > > > 
> > > > it'd be nice to see that in the installation manual, I think, so that
> > > > it's at least documented.
> 
> Actually, this is already documented in the installation manual:
> 
> https://d-i.debian.org/manual/en.s390x/ch05s01.html

Because this is already documented, below a patch that removes the
get_channel() function to handle more than 20 DASDs.  If there are
numerous DASDs, the cio_ignore could be used to limit the list to
those that are required for the Linux instance / installer.

The patch also corrects a stack overflow for displaying DASDs which
similar to the one in s390-netdevice which was corrected few weeks
ago.

Thanks and kind regards,
  Hendrik

[0001-dasd-config-always-list-available-DASDs-for-selectio.patch (text/plain, attachment)]

Message #48 received at 666399-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Philipp Kern <pkern@debian.org>

To: 666399-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#666399: fixed in s390-dasd 0.0.34

Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2016 15:58:17 +0000

Source: s390-dasd
Source-Version: 0.0.34

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
s390-dasd, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 666399@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Philipp Kern <pkern@debian.org> (supplier of updated s390-dasd package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

Format: 1.8
Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2016 15:48:56 +0100
Source: s390-dasd
Binary: s390-dasd
Architecture: source s390x
Version: 0.0.34
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Debian Install System Team <debian-boot@lists.debian.org>
Changed-By: Philipp Kern <pkern@debian.org>
Description:
 s390-dasd  - Configure DASD (udeb)
Closes: 666399
Changes:
 s390-dasd (0.0.34) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   [ Colin Watson ]
   * Use HTTPS for Vcs-* URLs, and link to cgit rather than gitweb.
 .
   [ Hendrik Brueckner ]
   * dasd-config: always list available DASDs for selection and configuration
     (Closes: #666399)
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 e3d77e56d348f88a87cc037a495dc02d92ac996c 55624 s390-dasd_0.0.34.tar.xz
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 e193bcdbf153c523371b37d32cb3036f7c2f1540d1bce278aacff5969bebe90a 37654 s390-dasd_0.0.34_s390x.udeb
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