lts.conf File edit debacle

[Barry R Cisna]

Hello All,

Just wanted to share,this hoping it may help someone down the road.
A couple days ago,,on a fairly new install of CentOS 6.x / SL6.1 ltsp5,
I was adding three usb printers for three TC's.

Later that afternoon all TC's on this server would fail on boot,,at
"dracut: starting plymouth daemon". I had also updated several packages
on the server itself as well. I didn't know if possibly a server package
had caused something to change in a conf file for whatever reason?

After many attempts to pinpoint the problem, I reinstalled ltsp-server.
Of course this ploped a new lts.conf file into place. Now the TC's once
again bootup as expected. In hindsight I should have known the prob was
in fact the lts.conf file.

I had edited the file in Webmin editor. I was able to reproduce the
problem again be editing the lts.conf file in the same manner(after
saving a backup).The file itself appears to be correct in the format. If
I done a side by side file compare with meld,using webmin on one,and vi
on the second they compare identical,although the webmin edited file
kills the TC's booting.

All i can figure is a white space is placed in the file,,maybe?
Ownership,and perms looks identical.

From now on I will take the extra time to edit with vi.

Take Care,
Barry

[Jomegat]

That sounds like a line-ending problem to me. If you want to find out
if that's it, open it with vi, and then type ":ff=dos<enter>" and then
save the file. That will save the file with <cr><lf> line endings
instead of the more compact unix-ish <lf>.. Not all programs can parse
alternate line endings properly (parsing text is /hard/).

To change the <cr><lf>'s back to just <lf>'s again, open it with vi and
type :ff=unix then save.

If you ever open a file in vi and a lot of ^M's show up, that means it
has mixed line endings.

Post by Barry R Cisna
Hello All,
Just wanted to share,this hoping it may help someone down the road.
A couple days ago,,on a fairly new install of CentOS 6.x / SL6.1 ltsp5,
I was adding three usb printers for three TC's.
Later that afternoon all TC's on this server would fail on boot,,at
"dracut: starting plymouth daemon". I had also updated several packages
on the server itself as well. I didn't know if possibly a server package
had caused something to change in a conf file for whatever reason?
After many attempts to pinpoint the problem, I reinstalled ltsp-server.
Of course this ploped a new lts.conf file into place. Now the TC's once
again bootup as expected. In hindsight I should have known the prob was
in fact the lts.conf file.
I had edited the file in Webmin editor. I was able to reproduce the
problem again be editing the lts.conf file in the same manner(after
saving a backup).The file itself appears to be correct in the format. If
I done a side by side file compare with meld,using webmin on one,and vi
on the second they compare identical,although the webmin edited file
kills the TC's booting.
All i can figure is a white space is placed in the file,,maybe?
Ownership,and perms looks identical.

From now on I will take the extra time to edit with vi.

Take Care,
Barry
_______________________________________________
K12OSN mailing list
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
For more info see<http://www.k12os.org>

[Jomegat]

That sounds like a line-ending problem to me. If you want to find out if
that's it, open it with vi, and then type ":ff=dos<enter>" and then save

Ugh. That should have been

:set ff=dos
:set ff=unix

Hope that didn't throw you. Seems my fingers know this but my brain
apparently does not.

the file. That will save the file with <cr><lf> line endings instead of
the more compact unix-ish <lf>.. Not all programs can parse alternate
line endings properly (parsing text is /hard/).
To change the <cr><lf>'s back to just <lf>'s again, open it with vi and
type :ff=unix then save.
If you ever open a file in vi and a lot of ^M's show up, that means it
has mixed line endings.

Post by Barry R Cisna
Hello All,
Just wanted to share,this hoping it may help someone down the road.
A couple days ago,,on a fairly new install of CentOS 6.x / SL6.1 ltsp5,
I was adding three usb printers for three TC's.
Later that afternoon all TC's on this server would fail on boot,,at
"dracut: starting plymouth daemon". I had also updated several packages
on the server itself as well. I didn't know if possibly a server package
had caused something to change in a conf file for whatever reason?
After many attempts to pinpoint the problem, I reinstalled ltsp-server.
Of course this ploped a new lts.conf file into place. Now the TC's once
again bootup as expected. In hindsight I should have known the prob was
in fact the lts.conf file.
I had edited the file in Webmin editor. I was able to reproduce the
problem again be editing the lts.conf file in the same manner(after
saving a backup).The file itself appears to be correct in the format. If
I done a side by side file compare with meld,using webmin on one,and vi
on the second they compare identical,although the webmin edited file
kills the TC's booting.
All i can figure is a white space is placed in the file,,maybe?
Ownership,and perms looks identical.

From now on I will take the extra time to edit with vi.

Take Care,
Barry
_______________________________________________
K12OSN mailing list
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
For more info see<http://www.k12os.org>

[Jeff Siddall]

Post by Barry R Cisna
I had edited the file in Webmin editor. I was able to reproduce the
problem again be editing the lts.conf file in the same manner(after
saving a backup).The file itself appears to be correct in the format. If
I done a side by side file compare with meld,using webmin on one,and vi
on the second they compare identical,although the webmin edited file
kills the TC's booting.

Maybe possible end of line terminator differences? Sometimes vi will
detect an correctly display DOS files (CR/LF). When you edit the file
in vi look at the bottom line for [dos] when you open the file.

Jeff

[Joseph Bishay]

Hello,

I had a problem similar to this before -- the issue for me was the
last line in the file. I believe you must have an extra enter for it
to be read correctly.

I ended up reformatting the entire server because of this. Wish I had known! :)

Joseph

Post by Barry R Cisna
I had edited the file in Webmin editor. I was able to reproduce the
problem again be editing the lts.conf file in the same manner(after
saving a backup).The file itself appears to be correct in the format. If
I done a side by side file compare with meld,using webmin on one,and vi
on the second they compare identical,although the webmin edited file
kills the TC's booting.

Maybe possible end of line terminator differences?  Sometimes vi will detect
an correctly display DOS files (CR/LF).  When you edit the file in vi look
at the bottom line for [dos] when you open the file.
Jeff
_______________________________________________
K12OSN mailing list
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>

[Jan Middelkoop]

Hey,

It would really help if you guys filed bugs upstream, with LTSP, about
these problems. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ltsp/

Kindest regards,

Jan Middelkoop
Recreatie en Zorg Groep B.V.
--
Website: http://www.recreatie-zorg.nl/
E-mail: ***@recreatie-zorg.nl
Telefoon: [phone]

Post by Joseph Bishay
Hello,
I had a problem similar to this before -- the issue for me was the
last line in the file. I believe you must have an extra enter for it
to be read correctly.
I ended up reformatting the entire server because of this. Wish I had known! :)
Joseph

Post by Barry R Cisna
I had edited the file in Webmin editor. I was able to reproduce the
problem again be editing the lts.conf file in the same manner(after
saving a backup).The file itself appears to be correct in the format. If
I done a side by side file compare with meld,using webmin on one,and vi
on the second they compare identical,although the webmin edited file
kills the TC's booting.

Maybe possible end of line terminator differences? Sometimes vi will detect
an correctly display DOS files (CR/LF). When you edit the file in vi look
at the bottom line for [dos] when you open the file.
Jeff
_______________________________________________
K12OSN mailing list
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
For more info see<http://www.k12os.org>

_______________________________________________
K12OSN mailing list
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
For more info see<http://www.k12os.org>

[Barry Cisna]

Hello All,

Just for completeness to the initial post here.
The problem that caused the lts.conf file editing to make the TC's
unbootbale was in fact as Joseph had mentioned.

All that was needed was to add an additional line break, AKA: ENTER
after the last entry in the lts.conf file.
Once the line break was done,regardless of editor, the file become
'good' and the TC's boot as expected.

Bottom line when editing the lts.conf file,scroll to the very bottom of
the file and hit ENTER at least once.

Hope this may help someone in the future

Barry

[Jan Middelkoop]

Hi,

If you really want to help someone in the future, please file a bug
about this with the LTSP developers. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ltsp/

Kindest regards,

Jan Middelkoop
Recreatie en Zorg Groep B.V.
--
Website: http://www.recreatie-zorg.nl/
E-mail: ***@recreatie-zorg.nl
Telefoon: [phone]

Post by Barry R Cisna
Hello All,
Just for completeness to the initial post here.
The problem that caused the lts.conf file editing to make the TC's
unbootbale was in fact as Joseph had mentioned.
All that was needed was to add an additional line break, AKA: ENTER
after the last entry in the lts.conf file.
Once the line break was done,regardless of editor, the file become
'good' and the TC's boot as expected.
Bottom line when editing the lts.conf file,scroll to the very bottom of
the file and hit ENTER at least once.
Hope this may help someone in the future
Barry
_______________________________________________
K12OSN mailing list
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
For more info see<http://www.k12os.org>