Debian Bug report logs - #668013
lamboot doesn't recognise 127.0.1.1 as a local address

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

From: Sergio Gelato <Sergio.Gelato@astro.su.se>

To: submit@bugs.debian.org

Subject: lamboot doesn't recognise 127.0.1.1 as a local address

Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2012 10:46:30 +0200

Package: lam-runtime
Version: 7.1.2-2

By default, the Debian installer sets up an entry in /etc/hosts mapping the
local host's name to the IP address 127.0.1.1. See Debian bug #316099.

This causes lamboot to fail with the following message when the hostfile
contains the name of the local host:

    The boot SSI rsh module found that your local host is not in the 
    hostfile "hostfile".

    The local host name *must* be in the list of hosts in the hostfile.
    In other words, you must boot LAM from a node that will be part of the
    universe.

Commenting out the 127.0.1.1 line in /etc/hosts makes the problem disappear,
as does replacing 127.0.1.1 with the external IP address of the local host.

Message #10 received at 668013@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Camm Maguire <camm@maguirefamily.org>

To: Sergio Gelato <Sergio.Gelato@astro.su.se>

Cc: 668013@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#668013: lamboot doesn't recognise 127.0.1.1 as a local address

Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:57:11 -0400

Greetings, and thanks for your report!  Is there a valid way lam could
work around this /etc/hosts breakage?  The report in 316099 appears to
indicate that the problem has been resolved by never associating
127.0.0.1 with the canonical name of the local host.  Does this solve
the issue?

Take care,

Sergio Gelato <Sergio.Gelato@astro.su.se> writes:

> Package: lam-runtime
> Version: 7.1.2-2
>
> By default, the Debian installer sets up an entry in /etc/hosts mapping the
> local host's name to the IP address 127.0.1.1. See Debian bug #316099.
>
> This causes lamboot to fail with the following message when the hostfile
> contains the name of the local host:
>
>     The boot SSI rsh module found that your local host is not in the 
>     hostfile "hostfile".
>
>     The local host name *must* be in the list of hosts in the hostfile.
>     In other words, you must boot LAM from a node that will be part of the
>     universe.
>
> Commenting out the 127.0.1.1 line in /etc/hosts makes the problem disappear,
> as does replacing 127.0.1.1 with the external IP address of the local host.
>
>
>
>
>
>

-- 
Camm Maguire			     		    camm@maguirefamily.org
==========================================================================
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  Baha'u'llah

Message #15 received at 668013@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Sergio Gelato <Sergio.Gelato@astro.su.se>

To: Camm Maguire <camm@maguirefamily.org>

Cc: 668013@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#668013: lamboot doesn't recognise 127.0.1.1 as a local address

Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2012 16:52:41 +0200

* Camm Maguire [2012-04-09 08:57:11 -0400]:
> Greetings, and thanks for your report!  Is there a valid way lam could
> work around this /etc/hosts breakage?  The report in 316099 appears to
> indicate that the problem has been resolved by never associating
> 127.0.0.1 with the canonical name of the local host.  Does this solve
> the issue?

LAM could for example treat any address in 127.0.0.0/8 as local. This
conforms with RFC 3330 so there is a chance that it will be valid even
for platforms other than Linux. I'm looking at the code for lamnet_findorig()
in share/boot/lamnet.c and see that for now it just does a straight
comparison of the 4-byte addresses; one could augment the test with a
	|| (ifaddr[i]>>24 == 127 && 
	    lamnet[i].lnd_addr.sin_addr.s_addr>>24 == 127)
or equivalent (instead of shifting one can mask with 0xff000000 and compare
to 0x7f000000).

Failing this, one should at least document the issue in README.Debian.
(Maybe debconf or postinst could detect the issue at installation time
and present a warning note too. But it's probably simpler to just patch
lamnet_findorig().)

Since this is really a matter of integration within Debian, it may be worth
discussing in a broader context than just this package. (I've noticed a
similar issue with the autofs package, although in that case the effect
is merely to force the use of loopback NFS mounts where bind mounts
would do so the impact is less severe.) As indicated in 316099, the 
long-term goal should be not to list the local host name in /etc/hosts
at all; the question is whether this can now be achieved without breaking
anything. (Is GNOME 3 better behaved than its predecessors in this regard?)

Message #20 received at 668013@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Camm Maguire <camm@maguirefamily.org>

To: Sergio Gelato <Sergio.Gelato@astro.su.se>

Cc: 668013@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#668013: lamboot doesn't recognise 127.0.1.1 as a local address

Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2012 11:22:38 -0400

Greetings!  And thanks again for your very helpful reports!

Here is the findorig() code in (uploaded) 7.1.4:

=============================================================================
int
lamnet_findorig(struct lamnode *lamnet, int nlamnet)
{
	int		i, j;
	int		nifaddr;	/* # of interface addresses */
	uint4		*ifaddr;

	nifaddr = getifaddr(&ifaddr);
	if (nifaddr < 0) 
          return(LAMERROR);

/*
 * Loop over the host entries, comparing their addresses to
 * our local host interface addresses.
 */
	for (i = 0; i < nlamnet; ++i) {

          /* Skip empty entries */

          if (lamnet[i].lnd_nodeid == NOTNODEID)
            continue;

	  if (inet_netof(lamnet[i].lnd_addr.sin_addr) == 127) {
            free(ifaddr);
            return(i);
	  }

          for (j = 0; j < nifaddr; ++j) {
            if (ifaddr[j] == lamnet[i].lnd_addr.sin_addr.s_addr) {
              free(ifaddr);
              return(i);
            }
          }
	}

        free(ifaddr);
	errno = EINVAL;
	return(LAMERROR);
}
=============================================================================

I think this should take care of it.  Do you agree?  If so, we can close
this one too, or tag it 7.1.2.

Take care,

Sergio Gelato <Sergio.Gelato@astro.su.se> writes:

> * Camm Maguire [2012-04-09 08:57:11 -0400]:
>> Greetings, and thanks for your report!  Is there a valid way lam could
>> work around this /etc/hosts breakage?  The report in 316099 appears to
>> indicate that the problem has been resolved by never associating
>> 127.0.0.1 with the canonical name of the local host.  Does this solve
>> the issue?
>
> LAM could for example treat any address in 127.0.0.0/8 as local. This
> conforms with RFC 3330 so there is a chance that it will be valid even
> for platforms other than Linux. I'm looking at the code for lamnet_findorig()
> in share/boot/lamnet.c and see that for now it just does a straight
> comparison of the 4-byte addresses; one could augment the test with a
> 	|| (ifaddr[i]>>24 == 127 && 
> 	    lamnet[i].lnd_addr.sin_addr.s_addr>>24 == 127)
> or equivalent (instead of shifting one can mask with 0xff000000 and compare
> to 0x7f000000).
>
> Failing this, one should at least document the issue in README.Debian.
> (Maybe debconf or postinst could detect the issue at installation time
> and present a warning note too. But it's probably simpler to just patch
> lamnet_findorig().)
>
> Since this is really a matter of integration within Debian, it may be worth
> discussing in a broader context than just this package. (I've noticed a
> similar issue with the autofs package, although in that case the effect
> is merely to force the use of loopback NFS mounts where bind mounts
> would do so the impact is less severe.) As indicated in 316099, the 
> long-term goal should be not to list the local host name in /etc/hosts
> at all; the question is whether this can now be achieved without breaking
> anything. (Is GNOME 3 better behaved than its predecessors in this regard?)
>
>
>
>
>

-- 
Camm Maguire			     		    camm@maguirefamily.org
==========================================================================
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  Baha'u'llah

Message #25 received at 668013-done@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Camm Maguire <camm@maguirefamily.org>

To: 668013-done@bugs.debian.org,Sergio Gelato <Sergio.Gelato@astro.su.se>

Subject: Re: Bug#668013: lamboot doesn't recognise 127.0.1.1 as a local address

Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:25:56 -0400

Package: lam-runtime
Version: 7.1.4-2

Thanks!

Sergio Gelato <Sergio.Gelato@astro.su.se> writes:

> * Camm Maguire [2012-04-09 11:22:38 -0400]:
>> Here is the findorig() code in (uploaded) 7.1.4:
>  
>> 	  if (inet_netof(lamnet[i].lnd_addr.sin_addr) == 127) {
>>             free(ifaddr);
>>             return(i);
>> 	  }
>  
>> I think this should take care of it.  Do you agree?  If so, we can close
>> this one too, or tag it 7.1.2.
>
> Yes, it looks good. Tag it fixed in 7.1.4, then.
>
>
>
>

-- 
Camm Maguire			     		    camm@maguirefamily.org
==========================================================================
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  Baha'u'llah

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