Trying "How to Build a Netboot Server, Part 1"

I am trying to follow How to Build a Netboot Server, Part 1 - Fedora Magazine as close as possible:

  • I am using FC33 instead of FC28
  • I am using a KVM guest as the NFS server, instead of a baremetal
  • I am using virt-manager trying to boot the uefi.img created instead of " Testing with QEMU"

Result: I got the login prompt, but cannot login liveuser
Detail: after entering liveuser in login prompt, it hangs for a while, and got a new login prompt again.

What I should do next to find out what went wrong?

Hi Sampson

I just saw your post on discussion.fedoraproject.org. Sorry that I vary rarely visit ask fedoraproject org and I didn’t see your question until now.

I don’t know why liveuser would hang on login, but I just had a quick look at the post on fedoramagazine.org and I see that the account is being created in a locked state:

# echo 'liveuser:!::' >> /fc28/etc/gshadow

It’s been a while since I wrote it, so I cannot be sure, but I don’t think that was what I originally wrote. I thought I had set that account to have a blank password like so:

# echo 'liveuser:::' >> /fc28/etc/gshadow

It is possible that a later editor “fixed” the text. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have access to any sort of revision history, so I cannot tell for sure.

Anyway, my best guess based on the problem you are reporting and the current text of the article is that the password for the liveuser needs to be set (or blanked).

Alternatively, you might be able to configure the liveuser to autologin on tty1 by putting the following in /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/override.conf:

[Service]
ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty -o '-p -- \\u' --noclear --autologin liveuser %I $TERM

Hope that helps,
Greg Bartholomew

2 Likes

No worries.

The Fedora ecosystem is huge and it is naturally hard to keep a close watch to every part of the ecosystem.

Thank you very much for looking into this and your suggestions.

I will try again and report back here.