Root on NFS: Installing system using dnf --installroot

Ask Fedora
1

I am attempting to install Fedora to a directory on my server, so I can boot it over NFS. I got this successfully working with Debian:

sudo debootstrap --arch=amd64 bookworm ./debian http://deb.debian.org/debian/

It is bootable using iPXE:

kernel vmlinuz-6.1.0-25-amd64 root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=server:/path/to/debian,rw ip=dhcp
initrd initrd.img-6.1.0-25-amd64
boot

On Fedora, I’ve read I can do the equivalent with dnf:

sudo dnf -y --releasever=40 --installroot=/fedora groupinstall core

This seems to have worked for someone in F35, but I have a couple issues:

  • shadow-utils fails to install:

    unpacking of archive failed on file /usr/bin/newgidmap;66f539ca: cpio: cap_set_file failed - Operation not supported

  • iputils fails to install for the same reason
  • /proc is not available in the chroot, which makes many packages produce this warning:

    :warning: /proc/ is not mounted. This is not a supported mode of operation. Please fix
    your invocation environment to mount /proc/ and /sys/ properly. Proceeding anyway. Your mileage may vary.

What is the recommended approach for installing on NFS nowadays? Is it even possible still?

The end goal is to provide a single “golden” installation to many computers at once, mounted read-only. With an overlayfs backed by local disk or tmpfs to allow writing unimportant data, and a second NFS mount for any important user files.