Bug#798376: debian-installer: configuring the network device fails on s390x if network devive is virtio_net and not qeth

[Gerhard Stenzel <gstenzel@linux.vnet.ibm.com>]

Package: debian-installer
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,

I would like to bring the following problem with the debian-installer to your attention:


I tried to install Debian 8.0/8.1i/8.2 in a virtual machine on "KVM on IBM System z". The installation can not completed, because the network device can not be configured and the following message is displayed:


[!!] Configure a network using static addressing 

                     Installation step failed                      
 An installation step failed. You can try to run the failing item  
 again from the menu, or skip it and choose something else. The    
 failing step is: Configure a network using static addressing      

                            <Continue>                             


Further analysis shows that the installer insists on having a qeth network device, which is obivously not there because the VM has a virtio_net device.

Sep  4 13:24:37 netcfg-static[183]: INFO: Found link on eth0
Sep  4 13:24:37 netcfg-static[183]: ERROR **: no qeth found: virtio_net
Sep  4 13:24:37 main-menu[159]: WARNING **: Configuring 'netcfg-static' failed with error code 1
Sep  4 13:24:37 main-menu[159]: WARNING **: Menu item 'netcfg-static' failed.
Sep  4 13:24:39 main-menu[159]: INFO: Modifying debconf priority limit from 'high' to 'medium'
Sep  4 13:24:39 debconf: Setting debconf/priority to medium


Looking at the source code of the installer it seems in case of a s390x it is assumed that the network driver should be "qeth".


"./packages/netcfg/netcfg-common.c" 1736L, 49379C  

#if defined(__s390__)
// Layer 3 qeth on s390(x) cannot do arping to test gateway reachability.
int is_layer3_qeth(const char *iface)
{
.....

    if (strcmp(driver, "qeth") != 0) {
        di_error("no qeth found: %s", driver);
        goto out;
    }


This assumption is no longer true with a VM for "KVM on IBM System z" and prevents installing a Debian VM from ISO. There are workarounds to get a Debian VM up and running, but the simple way to install from ISO is not working.


Please let me know if I can be of further help, 

Regards, Gerhard Stenzel