[Bug 1542389] Re: ubuntu-installer drops network connection when trying to configure a second network device

[Dimitri John Ledkov]

Hello,

Installation is meant to only configure one network, the one needed to
complete the installation. Configuring all other connections should be
done at post install.

Expert mode is actually quite a miss-label. Expert mode is to debug bugs
in the debian-installer itself, for debian-installer developers who are
comfortable breaking and recovering installer when it reaches
incompatible and wrong states. It is not meant to be used on day to day
basis, even if one is an otherwise a computing expert. This mode does
not automatically skip over any questions, and allows one to re-enter
and re-configure things mid-flight, and reach dead-ends in the installer
state machine.

Do not use expert mode for installation. It is a debugging facility /
step-by-step installer execution.

I some obscure situations one may need to preseed certain keys, or
temporarily raise priority of the questions asked, or configure things
from the provided shell. But even in those rare situations, it doesn't
warrant use of the expert mode.

Going back and re-configuring network, means that the first time around
incorrect network settings were provided, and one wishes to re-do the
step. Re-doing a step will wipe old answers, and use the new answers.
This is expected behavior for every step of d-i that is reversible.

So it is correct behavior to strip existing network settings, and
take/apply newly supplied ones. Which is what the user requested the
expert installer to do.

Are two network connections required to complete the installation? Can
the installation complete with just one network connection to an archive
mirror?

Regards,

Dimitri.

** Changed in: debian-installer (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Incomplete

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1542389

Title:
  ubuntu-installer drops network connection when trying to configure a
  second network device

Status in debian-installer package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  == Comment: #0 - Thorsten Diehl <thorsten.diehl at de.ibm.com> - 2016-02-03 12:52:53 ==
  I IPLed a system (version 20101020ubuntu416), started the installer, configured a first network device with static IPv4 and connected via ssh to the installer.
  I chose "expert mode" and selected "Configure the network device" instead of continuing at "Choose language".
  I selected my second OSA device and accepted this configuration.
  Consequently I chose "Configure a network using static addressing" instead of continuing at the proposed "Choose language".
  And immediatedly this session wasn't reachable any more. A parallel ping to this session did stall at the moment, when I pressed "Configure a network using static addressing". Obviously this action dropped the default gateway - here the result when entereing a shell to debug the situation:
  ~ #>ip a s
  ip a s  
  1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue   
      link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00  
      inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo  
         valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever  
      inet6 ::1/128 scope host   
         valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever  
  2: enccw0.0.f5f0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000  
      link/ether 02:a2:0f:00:00:99 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff  
      inet 9.152.162.103/22 brd 9.152.163.255 scope global enccw0.0.f5f0  
         valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever  
  3: enccw0.0.b1c6: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop qlen 1000  
      link/ether 02:00:00:5b:9f:69 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff  
  ~ #>ip r l
  ip r l  
  ~ #>
  The network interfaces are both down, and thus all routes were lost!!
  When I bring up the first interface manually
  ip link set enccw0.0.f5f0 up
  and add the route and the default gw:
  ip route add 9.152.160.0/22 via 9.152.160.1
  ip route add default via 9.152.160.1
  I can continue with the IP configuration of the second network interface

  == Comment: #4 - Thorsten Diehl <thorsten.diehl at de.ibm.com> -
  2016-02-04 08:34:29 ==

  
  == Comment: #5 - Thorsten Diehl <thorsten.diehl at de.ibm.com> - 2016-02-04 08:36:21 ==
  I revived the first network interface as described above to get access to the system and to collect the data.

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