Ubuntu On a ZFS Root File System for Ubuntu 15.04

January 1, 2015 admin

Start Update 03.18.15:
This is untested but I suspect if you are upgrading the kernel to 3.19.0 and you have issues you may need to change to the daily Vivid ppa. In my initial post I used stable and Utopic since Vivid was very new.
End Update 03.18.15:

This is what I did to make an Ubuntu 15.04 virtualbox guest (works for Ubuntu 14.10 also) boot with the ZFS file system.

Previous articles:
http://blog.ls-al.com/ubuntu-on-a-zfs-root-file-system-for-ubuntu-14-04/
http://blog.ls-al.com/booting-ubuntu-on-a-zfs-root-file-system/

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
64-bit Ubuntu Live CD. (Not the alternate or 32-bit installer)
AMD64 or EM64T compatible computer. (ie: x86-64)
15GB disk, 2GB memory minimum, Virtualbox
Create new VM. I use bridged networking in case I want to use ssh during the setup.
Start the Ubuntu LiveCD and open a terminal at the desktop. I used the 15.04 64-bit alpha CD.
Control-F1 to first text terminal.

1. Setup repo.

$ sudo -i
# /etc/init.d/lightdm stop
# apt-add-repository --yes ppa:zfs-native/stable

** Change /etc/apt/sources.list.d/... down to trusty. Or utopic possibly. I did not test.

2. Install zfs.

# apt-get update
# apt-get install debootstrap ubuntu-zfs
# dmesg | grep ZFS:
[ 3900.114234] ZFS: Loaded module v0.6.3-4~trusty, ZFS pool version 5000, ZFS filesystem version 5

** takes a long time to compile initial module for 3.16.0-28-generic

3. Install ssh.

Using a ssh terminal makes it easier to copy and paste for both command execution and documentation. However with this bare bones environment at this point openssh might not install very clean. I played with it a little to get at least sshd to run.

# apt-get install ssh
# /etc/init.d/ssh start
# /usr/sbin/sshd

** check with ps if ssh process is running
** edit sshd_config and allow root login
** set root passwd

4. Setup disk partitions.

# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/loop0: 1 GiB, 1103351808 bytes, 2154984 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/sda: 15 GiB, 16106127360 bytes, 31457280 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xc2c7def9
 
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 2048 411647 409600 200M be Solaris boot
/dev/sda2 411648 31457279 31045632 14.8G bf Solaris

5. Format partitions.

# mke2fs -m 0 -L /boot/grub -j /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBf3c0d5ba-e6881c52-part1
# zpool create -o ashift=9 rpool /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBf3c0d5ba-e6881c52-part2

6. ZFS Setup and Mountpoints.

# zpool create -o ashift=9 rpool /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBf3c0d5ba-e6881c52-part2
# zfs create rpool/ROOT
# zfs create rpool/ROOT/ubuntu-1
# zfs umount -a
# zfs set mountpoint=/ rpool/ROOT/ubuntu-1
# zpool set bootfs=rpool/ROOT/ubuntu-1 rpool
# zpool export rpool
# zpool import -d /dev/disk/by-id -R /mnt rpool
# mkdir -p /mnt/boot/grub
# mount /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBf3c0d5ba-e6881c52-part1 /mnt/boot/grub

7. Install Ubuntu 15.04 on /mnt

# debootstrap vivid /mnt
I: Retrieving Release
...
I: Base system installed successfully.
 
# cp /etc/hostname /mnt/etc/
# cp /etc/hosts /mnt/etc/
# vi /mnt/etc/fstab
# cat /mnt/etc/fstab
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBf3c0d5ba-e6881c52-part1 /boot/grub auto defaults 0 1
 
# cat /mnt/etc/network/interfaces
# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
# Include files from /etc/network/interfaces.d:
source-directory /etc/network/interfaces.d
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
 
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

8. Setup chroot to update and install ubuntu-minimal

# mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
# mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
# mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
# chroot /mnt /bin/bash --login
# locale-gen en_US.UTF-8
 
# apt-get update
# apt-get install ubuntu-minimal software-properties-common

9. Setup ZOL repo

# apt-add-repository --yes ppa:zfs-native/stable

** leave grub repo off for now.

# cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zfs-native-ubuntu-stable-vivid.list
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/zfs-native/stable/ubuntu trusty main
# deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/zfs-native/stable/ubuntu vivid main
# apt-get update
# apt-get install --no-install-recommends linux-image-generic linux-headers-generic
 
# apt-get install ubuntu-zfs

** skipped grub stuff for this pass

# apt-get install zfs-initramfs
# apt-get dist-upgrade

10. Make sure root has access

# passwd root

11. Test grub

# grub-probe /
bash: grub-probe: command not found

12. Use older patched grub from ZOL project

# apt-add-repository --yes ppa:zfs-native/grub
gpg: keyring `/tmp/tmp5urr4u7g/secring.gpg' created
gpg: keyring `/tmp/tmp5urr4u7g/pubring.gpg' created
gpg: requesting key F6B0FC61 from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: /tmp/tmp5urr4u7g/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key F6B0FC61: public key "Launchpad PPA for Native ZFS for Linux" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1 (RSA: 1)
OK
 
# cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zfs-native-ubuntu-grub-vivid.list
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/zfs-native/grub/ubuntu raring main
 
# apt-get install grub2-common grub-pc
Installation finished. No error reported.
/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: failed to get canonical path of `/dev/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBf3c0d5ba-e6881c52-part2'.

** As you can see grub has issues with dev path.

# ln -s /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBf3c0d5ba-e6881c52-part2 /dev/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBf3c0d5ba-e6881c52-part2
# apt-get install grub2-common grub-pc
 
# grub-probe /
zfs
# ls /boot/grub/i386-pc/zfs*
/boot/grub/i386-pc/zfscrypt.mod /boot/grub/i386-pc/zfsinfo.mod /boot/grub/i386-pc/zfs.mod

** Note at the end I show a udev rule that can help work around this path issue.

# update-initramfs -c -k all
 
# grep "boot=zfs" /boot/grub/grub.cfg
linux /ROOT/ubuntu-1@/boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-28-generic root=ZFS=rpool/ROOT/ubuntu-1 ro boot=zfs quiet splash $vt_handoff
 
# grep "boot=zfs" /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash boot=zfs"
 
# update-grub
Generating grub configuration file ...
Warning: Setting GRUB_TIMEOUT to a non-zero value when GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT is set is no longer supported.
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-28-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-28-generic
done
 
# grub-install $(readlink -f /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBf3c0d5ba-e6881c52)
Installing for i386-pc platform.
Installation finished. No error reported.
 
# exit
logout

13. unmount chroot and shutdown

# umount /mnt/boot/grub
# umount /mnt/dev
# umount /mnt/proc
# umount /mnt/sys
# zfs umount -a
# zpool export rpool
# init 0

14. Cleanup and finish
** Create snapshot
** bootup
** install ssh and configure root to login in sshd_config, restart ssh

15. udev rule for grub bug

# cat /etc/udev/rules.d/70-zfs-grub-fix.rules
ENV{DEVTYPE}=="partition", IMPORT{parent}="ID_*", ENV{ID_FS_TYPE}=="zfs_member", SYMLINK+="$env{ID_BUS}-$env{ID_SERIAL} $env{ID_BUS}-$env{ID_SERIAL}-part%n"
 
# /etc/init.d/udev restart

16. install desktop software

# apt-get install ubuntu-desktop