Bug 1167920

Summary:	installer bug report instructions rely on virtual consoles
Product:	[SUSE Linux Enterprise Server] Public Beta SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2	Reporter:	Michal Suchanek <msuchanek>
Component:	Installer	Assignee:	E-mail List <yast2-maintainers>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED	QA Contact:	E-mail List <qa-bugs>
Severity:	Normal
Priority:	P3 - Medium	CC:	msuchanek, shundhammer, snwint
Version:	Beta	Flags:	mvidner: needinfo? (msuchanek)
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	Other
OS:	Other
Whiteboard:
Found By:	---	Services Priority:
Business Priority:		Blocker:	---
Marketing QA Status:	---	IT Deployment:	---

Description Michal Suchanek 2020-03-27 15:46:34 UTC

Virtual consoles are not present when the machine does not have a graphics card.

Virtual consoles are not accessible when machine is accessed over serial console/IPMI even if it does not have a graphics card.

The above two scenarios are typical for server setups.

Please update the bug report instructions to not rely on virtual consoles. They may be a fallback but not the primary way to obtain the required information.

Please do not request use of virtual consoles in installer bug reports unless the setup is known to use them.

Comment 1 Martin Vidner 2020-03-30 13:25:41 UTC

Thanks for the report!

Please be more specific: I assume that you mean the instructions for collecting the logs at https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Report_a_YaST_bug 
Do you have examples of bug reports?
Was it simply not possible to collect the logs, or only were the instructions misleading?

Comment 2 Martin Vidner 2020-04-02 09:24:00 UTC

I will make this report public to enable more feedback.

Comment 3 Steffen Winterfeldt 2020-04-02 09:38:00 UTC

BTW, here's the blob I use as bug maintainer (which covers the serial line
case):

Please attach yast logs.

To collect log files run 'save_y2logs' and attach the log file archive this
command creates (usually named /tmp/y2log-SOMETHING.tar.xz).

If the installation (more or less) succeeded and you can access the
installed system, you can collect the logs there.

Else you have these options to collect the logs from the installation
environment:

 - there's a shell running on consoles 5 and 6 during installation

 - get a console window by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Alt-x in the installer's
   graphical UI

 - if you can't reach neither or you're on a serial line or you're doing
   autoyast: boot with 'startshell=1' which will give you a shell before and
   *after* the installer runs; to continue the regular installation workflow
   just exit this shell

If you're unsure what to do, please have a look at

https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Report_a_YaST_bug#logfiles

Comment 4 Stefan Hundhammer 2020-04-02 09:38:58 UTC

Right; virtual consoles are the easiest way for most users.

The second best option is the Ctrl-Shift-Alt-X key combination that opens an xterm on top of an existing graphical installer.

If you can't do a graphical installation, there is ssh. The "startshell" linuxrc parameter is useful for cases that would otherwise terminate the installation and dump you back to the red "an error has occurred" linuxrc popup; with that "startshell" parameter, you will end up in a shell where you can still use "save_y2logs" and "scp".

With a serial console, things are indeed difficult.
Steffen, I recall you had a solution for that, right?

Comment 5 Steffen Winterfeldt 2020-04-02 09:41:46 UTC

Yes, 'startshell'. :-)

Comment 6 Martin Vidner 2020-04-02 12:34:21 UTC

That is, the boot parameter startshell=1

"Boots into the installation system and starts a shell. Waits until user exits the shell. User can modify the installation system, mount or remount partitions or start YaST installation manually by running yast.

It also stops again after YaST has finished the installation."

https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Linuxrc

Comment 7 Michal Filka 2020-05-05 05:54:04 UTC

In my POV, many other possibilities where explained and we can close this. In case of additional questions please reopen.