Bug 65717 – sys-apps/partimage-0.6.4-r1: Various Significant Problems

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Description FieldySnuts 2004-09-28 13:00:42 UTC]

I am using sys-apps/partimage-0.6.4-r1. I have encountered several significant problems both with the way it was installed, and the application itself. Most of the problems appear to be due to the application. These problems have prevented me from using it in the way it was intended.

Merging with the ssl USE flag set, partimage is compiled with SSL support. Trying to start partimaged results in errors in it's logs about the key file, which isn't even found. It wants mkservercert or some such script, which is no where to be found. In the docs (which are very poorly done and old), there is no mention of disabling SSL. I was able to google around and found people who for some reason thought -n or --nossl would turn off SSL support, but it never worked for any of them. The logs also mentioned reading the partimagedusers man page, but there isn't one. There is also no document talking about it in /usr/doc/. To sum this part up, the documentation on partimage is very old and lacking, and in some cases wrong. The program sometimes points users at documents or man pages that don't even exist, or weren't installed by the ebuild.

What I had to do was pass -ssl as a USE flag and remerge. Now it no longer complains about SSL, but of course, the data is in the clear.

Other issues are that running partimaged --help lists some flags, here's one for example:

sys-apps/partimage-0.6.4-r1

Yet running partimage -d /some/existing directory results in:

(null): Bad address

And then it exits. On partimage's own forums there are a lot of confused people with various other documented options that do not work, and UNdocumented options, which DO work. For the most part their issues on that forum weren't solved.

I was finally able to get partimaged working by passing it --dest /some/existing/directory . In the users file from earlier, it had no hints at all as to it's format so I just stuck "badger" in there. Running the client elsewhere, I connect to the server and it wants a username and also a password. Users are left completely in the dark as to the format of the username file. I could not figure it out.

And two final notes, the server has no clear indication as how to exit it, so it has to be killed off manually (which may also leave the terminal trashed). Also, there was no init.d script for the server, which was mentioned in bug #59873.

Is upstream still working on this software? It's very frustrating trying to use software with such poor documentation. The software looks promising, but I am unable to use it with all of these issues combined.



Portage 2.0.50-r11 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.2.3, glibc-2.3.4.20040808-r0, 2.6.7)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.7 i686 Pentium III (Katmai)
Gentoo Base System version 1.4.3.8p1
distcc 2.17 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled]
ccache version 2.3 [enabled]
Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59
Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.5
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CFLAGS="-mcpu=pentium3 -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -mmmx -msse -mfpmath=sse,387"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
COMPILER=""
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/env /usr/kde/3.3/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/fax /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /var/bind /var/qmail/control /var/spool/fax/etc"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-mcpu=pentium3 -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -mmmx -msse -mfpmath=sse,387"
DISTDIR="/var/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoaddcvs buildpkg ccache notitles sandbox"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://gentoo.mirrors.pair.com/ http://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo http://open-systems.ufl.edu/mirrors/gentoo ftp://gentoo.netnitco.net/pub/mirrors/gentoo/source/ ftp://gentoo.ccccom.com"
MAKEOPTS="-j3"
PKGDIR="/var/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/var/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY=""
SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X apache2 apm avi berkdb bitmap-fonts cdr chroot crypt cups dvdr encode esd foomaticdb gdbm gif gnome gpm gtk gtk2 imlib java jpeg kde kerberos ldap libg++ libwww mad mikmod mmx motif mozilla mpeg mysql ncurses nls oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl png python qt quicktime readline sdl slang snmp spell sse ssl svga tcpd tiff truetype x86 xml2 xmms xprint xv zlib"

[Comment 1 FieldySnuts 2004-09-29 06:25:29 UTC]

While using the forums, I got a rather detailed reply which is supposed to get partimage working properly. I haven't tried this so I don't know if it's going to help at all.

The 12th posting, from BCC at http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=229785

[Comment 2 FieldySnuts 2004-09-30 09:23:10 UTC]

In my original post I made a mistake, the line just after

"Other issues are that running partimaged --help lists some flags, here's one for example:"

Is wrong, but I can't remember what I meant to put there.

[Comment 3 FieldySnuts 2004-10-30 12:08:54 UTC]

Is this going anywhere?

[Comment 4 Sven Vermeulen (RETIRED) 2005-01-13 09:16:35 UTC]

To generate the ssl certificates, you need to run "ebuild $(portageq portdir)/sys-apps/partimage/partimage-0.6.4-r1.ebuild config".

[Comment 5 FieldySnuts 2005-01-13 09:33:46 UTC]

Okay, looks like that was spit out by the ebuild at the end so that one's my fault.

[Comment 6 Sven Vermeulen (RETIRED) 2005-01-13 09:34:42 UTC]

The bug with "-d " returning (null) is an UPSTREAM bug. I've reported it and gave the same fix as I did here. (http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=106212&group_id=6212&func=browse)

[Comment 7 Sven Vermeulen (RETIRED) 2005-01-13 09:35:24 UTC]

Created attachment 48408 [details, diff]
Patch for the server/partimaged-main.cpp file

[Comment 8 Sven Vermeulen (RETIRED) 2005-01-13 09:36:11 UTC]

Created attachment 48409 [details, diff]
Lazy patch for the ebuild to apply the abovementioned patch

assume that the patch is called partimage-0.6.4-fixserverargs.diff

[Comment 9 Sven Vermeulen (RETIRED) 2005-01-13 09:37:51 UTC]

And, regarding upstream documentation, there's not much I can do about that, apart from starting to write a partimage guide for gentoo. But that should probably be a different bugreport (this one already focusses on the "-d" error).

[Comment 10 Christian Zoffoli (RETIRED) 2005-01-16 07:32:50 UTC]

fixed in cvs, please test partimaged-0.6.4-r2.ebuild

[Comment 11 SpanKY 2005-01-16 11:54:59 UTC]

closing bug then ... please file a new bug for any issues that come up