#931838 fai-server: support bootstrapping via mmdebstrap

Package:
fai-server
Source:
fai
Submitter:
Michael Prokop
Date:
2026-07-24 20:43:01 UTC
Severity:
wishlist
#931838#5
Date:
2019-07-11 08:16:25 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

FAI currently hardcodes usage of debootstrap/qemu-debootstrap.
Would be nice if we could add support for mmdebstrap, since
it's *way* faster (debootstrap takes >2mins, while mmdebstrap takes
only ~20 seconds).

regards
-mika-
#931838#10
Date:
2019-07-11 09:19:08 UTC
From:
To:
    > it's *way* faster (debootstrap takes >2mins, while mmdebstrap takes
    > only ~20 seconds).
In my environment debootstrap only takes 31 sec and mmdebstrap
14 sec. So, the absolute gain is not that big. In debootstrap 1.0.112
my patches for a speedup of 2 where applied, so maybe you are still
using debootstrap from stretch.
#931838#15
Date:
2019-07-11 14:08:29 UTC
From:
To:
* Thomas Lange [Thu Jul 11, 2019 at 11:19:08AM +0200]:

I tested this with the version from Debian/buster back then.
But even if it's "only" 31 vs 14 secs, that's still a speedup of >2.

regards
-mika-
#931838#20
Date:
2021-07-01 22:08:41 UTC
From:
To:
The easiest way to implement this it to create a base.tar file using
mmdebstrap and then call fai-make-nfsroot -B base.tar .....

Then no deboostrap is called.
#931838#23
Date:
2021-07-01 22:08:41 UTC
From:
To:
The easiest way to implement this it to create a base.tar file using
mmdebstrap and then call fai-make-nfsroot -B base.tar .....

Then no deboostrap is called.
#931838#28
Date:
2026-07-24 20:41:42 UTC
From:
To:
For fai-make-nfsroot his is fixed in
https://github.com/faiproject/fai/commit/4642ba92b9e9cf850351f80f73433dc2186d6ee9

for using mmdebstrap during the installation, this should work for now:

class/DEFAULT.var:
alias debootstrap=mmdebstrap

But I will also fix this for the installation on the client