8e84ef10c1
This adds support for installing to a filesystem image instead of a partitioned disk image. It requires Anaconda's --dirinstall support. Also re-organized the code to break it up into smaller methods. This speeds up iso creation in no-virt mode by removing the need to copy the filesystem from the partitioned disk image to the filesystem image that is used to make the squashfs image.
238 lines
8.8 KiB
Plaintext
238 lines
8.8 KiB
Plaintext
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INTRO
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-----
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livemedia-creator uses Anaconda, kickstart and Lorax to create bootable media
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that use the same install path as a normal system install. It can be used to
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make live isos, bootable (partitioned) disk images and filesystem images for
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use with virtualization.
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The general idea is to use virt-install to install into a disk image and then
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use the disk image to create the bootable media.
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livemedia-creator --help will describe all of the options available. At the
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minimum you need:
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--make-iso to create a final bootable .iso
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--iso to specify the Anaconda install media to use with virt-install
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--ks is the kickstart to use to install the system
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QUICKSTART
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----------
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sudo livemedia-creator --make-iso \
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--iso=/extra/iso/Fedora-18-x86_64-netinst.iso --ks=./docs/fedora-livemedia.ks
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If you are using the lorax git repo you can run it like so:
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sudo PATH=./src/sbin/:$PATH PYTHONPATH=./src/ ./src/sbin/livemedia-creator \
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--make-iso --iso=/extra/iso/Fedora-18-x86_64-netinst.iso \
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--ks=./docs/fedora-livemedia.ks --lorax-templates=./share/
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If you want to watch the install you can pass '--vnc vnc' and use a vnc
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client to connect to localhost:0
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This is usually a good idea when testing changes to the kickstart. It tries
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to monitor the logs for fatal errors, but may not catch everything.
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HOW IT WORKS
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------------
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There are 2 stages, the install stage which produces a disk or filesystem
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image as its output, and the boot media creation which uses the image as
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its input. Normally you would have it run both stages, but it is possible
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to have it stop after the install stage, using --image-only, or to have it
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skip the install stage and use a previously created disk image by passing
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--disk-image or --fs-image
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When creating an iso virt-install boots using the passed Anaconda installer iso
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and installs the system based on the kickstart. The %post section of the
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kickstart is used to customize the installed system in the same way that
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current spin-kickstarts do.
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livemedia-creator monitors the install process for problems by watching the
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install logs. They are written to the current directory or to the base
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directory specified by the --logfile command. You can also monitor the install
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by passing --vnc vnc and using a vnc client. This is recommended when first
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modifying a kickstart, since there are still places where Anaconda may get
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stuck without the log monitor catching it.
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The output from this process is a partitioned disk image. kpartx can be used
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to mount and examine it when there is a problem with the install. It can also
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be booted using kvm.
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When creating an iso the disk image's / partition is copied into a formatted
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disk image which is then used as the input to lorax for creation of the final
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media.
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The final image is created by lorax, using the templates in /usr/share/lorax/
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or the directory specified by --lorax-templates
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Currently the standard lorax templates are used to make a bootable iso, but
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it should be possible to modify them to output other results. They are
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written using the Mako template system which is very flexible.
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KICKSTARTS
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----------
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Existing spin kickstarts can be used to create live media with a few changes.
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Here are the steps I used to convert the XFCE spin.
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1. Flatten the xfce kickstart using ksflatten
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2. Add zerombr so you don't get the disk init dialog
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3. Add clearpart --all
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4. Add swap and biosboot partitions
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5. bootloader target
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6. Add shutdown to the kickstart
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7. Add network --bootproto=dhcp --activate to activate the network
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This works for F16 builds but for F15 and before you need to pass
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something on the cmdline that activate the network, like sshd.
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livemedia-creator --kernel-args="sshd"
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8. Add a root password
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rootpw rootme
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network --bootproto=dhcp --activate
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zerombr
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clearpart --all
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bootloader --location=mbr
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part biosboot --size=1
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part swap --size=512
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shutdown
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9. In the livesys script section of the %post remove the root password. This
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really depends on how the spin wants to work. You could add the live user
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that you create to the %wheel group so that sudo works if you wanted to.
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passwd -d root > /dev/null
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10. Remove /etc/fstab in %post, dracut handles mounting the rootfs
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cat /dev/null > /dev/fstab
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11. Don't delete initramfs files from /boot in %post
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12. Have grub-efi, memtest86+ and syslinux in the package list
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One drawback to using virt-install is that it pulls the packages from
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the repo each time you run it. To speed things up you either need a local
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mirror of the packages, or you can use a caching proxy. When using a proxy
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you pass it to livemedia-creator like so:
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--proxy=http://proxy.yourdomain.com:3128
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You also need to use a specific mirror instead of mirrormanager so that the
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packages will get cached, so your kickstart url would look like:
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url --url="http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/17/x86_64/os/"
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You can also add an update repo, but don't name it updates. Add --proxy to
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it as well.
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ANACONDA IMAGE INSTALL
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----------------------
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You can create images without using virt-install by passing --no-virt on the
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cmdline. This will use Anaconda's directory install feature to handle the install.
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There are a couple of things to keep in mind when doing this:
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1. It will be most reliable when building images for the same release that the
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host is running. Because Anaconda has expectations about the system it is
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running under you may encounter strange bugs if you try to build newer or
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older releases.
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2. Make sure selinux is set to permissive or disabled. It won't install
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correctly with selinux set to enforcing yet.
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3. It may totally trash your host. So far I haven't had this happen, but the
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possibility exists that a bug in Anaconda could result in it operating on
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real devices. I recommend running it in a virt or on a system that you can
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afford to lose all data from.
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The logs from anaconda will be placed in an ./anaconda/ directory in either
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the current directory or in the directory used for --logfile
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Example cmdline:
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sudo livemedia-creator --make-iso --no-virt --ks=./fedora-livemedia.ks
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AMI IMAGES
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----------
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Amazon EC2 images can be created by using the --make-ami switch and an appropriate
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kickstart file. All of the work to customize the image is handled by the kickstart.
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The example currently included was modified from the cloud-kickstarts version so
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that it would work with livemedia-creator.
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Example cmdline:
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sudo livemedia-creator --make-ami --iso=/path/to/boot.iso --ks=./docs/fedora-livemedia-ec2.ks
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This will produce an ami-root.img file in the working directory.
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At this time I have not tested the image with EC2. Feedback would we welcome.
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APPLIANCE CREATION
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------------------
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livemedia-creator can now replace appliance-tools by using the --make-appliance
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switch. This will create the partitioned disk image and an XML file that can be
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used with virt-image to setup a virtual system.
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The XML is generated using the Mako template from
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/usr/share/lorax/appliance/virt-image.xml You can use a different template by
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passing --app-template <template path>
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Documentation on the Mako template system can be found here:
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http://docs.makotemplates.org/en/latest/index.html
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The name of the final output XML is appliance.xml, this can be changed with
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--app-file <file path>
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The following variables are passed to the template:
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disks A list of disk_info about each disk.
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Each entry has the following attributes:
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name base name of the disk image file
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format "raw"
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checksum_type "sha256"
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checksum sha256 checksum of the disk image
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name Name of appliance, from --app-name argument
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arch Architecture
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memory Memory in KB (from --ram)
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vcpus from --vcpus
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networks list of networks from the kickstart or []
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title from --title
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project from --project
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releasever from --releasever
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DEBUGGING PROBLEMS
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------------------
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Cleaning up an aborted (ctrl-c) virt-install run (as root):
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virsh list to show the name of the virt
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virsh destroy <name>
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virsh undefine <name>
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umount /tmp/tmpXXXX
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rm -rf /tmp/tmpXXXX
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rm /tmp/diskXXXXX
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The logs from the virt-install run are stored in virt-install.log,
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logs from livemedia-creator are in livemedia.log and program.log
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You can add --image-only to skip the .iso creation and examine the resulting
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disk image. Or you can pass --keep-image to keep it around after lorax is
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run.
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Cleaning up aborted --no-virt installs can sometimes be accomplished by running
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the anaconda-cleanup script. As of f18 anaconda is multi-threaded and it can
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sometimes become stuck and refuse to exit. When this happens you can usually
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clean up by first killing the anaconda process then running anaconda-cleanup.
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HACKING
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-------
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Development on this will take place as part of the lorax project, and on the
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anaconda-devel-list mailing list.
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Feedback, enhancements and bugs are welcome.
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You can use http://bugzilla.redhat.com to report bugs.
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