Bug 103541

Summary: Installation terminates abnormally on first HDD write attempt (package installation).
Product: [Retired] Red Hat Linux Reporter: Roy Hensley <obie_123>
Component: partedAssignee: Matt Wilson <msw>
Status: CLOSED RAWHIDE QA Contact: Brock Organ <borgan>
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: high    
Version: 9CC: jkeating, mattdm, zanfur
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: i686   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2004-06-25 19:23:07 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On: 116289    
Bug Blocks:    
Attachments:
Description Flags
anaconda dump immedately following errors/termination none

Description Roy Hensley 2003-09-02 02:47:21 UTC
===============================================================================

Description of problem:
Installation terminates abnormally on first HDD write attempt (package 
installation).

===============================================================================

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

===============================================================================

How reproducible:
Every Time.

===============================================================================

Steps to Reproduce:
During a clean install (clean drives, no other OS), I used defaults throughout 
the install with the following exceptions:
1) install everything
2) set up as a server

There was nothing abnormal in the partitioning section.  Following package 
selection however, just as write to disk launches, I get the message:

"Error informing the kernel about modifications to partition /dev/sda2 - 
Invalid argument.  This means that Linux won't know about any changes you made 
to /dev/sda2 until you reboot, so you shouldn't mount it or use it in any way 
nefore restarting."

This is followed by related messages, including an identical  complaint about 
sda3.

Rebooting and going back through the install process results in the same 
problem.

My system employs a 3ware 7506-8 RAID controller.  I have 8 160GB drives in 
RAID5 (1.1TB), and the array is built.  Everything else is rather basic.  All 
hardware appears to be functioning normally.  

I've tried reducing the partition size on the root, and also using LILO as the 
boot loader since I read that those can be factors.  Still no resolution, so I 
think it's the software.
    
===============================================================================

Actual results:
Installation terminates with error messages.

===============================================================================

Expected results:
Packages would be written to disk
===============================================================================

Additional info:
Here is an excerpt the log (anacdump).....

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 936, in handleRenderCallback
    self.currentWindow.renderCallback()
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/iw/progress_gui.py", line 155, in renderCallback
    self.intf.icw.nextClicked()
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 761, in nextClicked
    self.dispatch.gotoNext()
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/dispatch.py", line 157, in gotoNext
    self.moveStep()
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/dispatch.py", line 225, in moveStep
    rc = apply(func, self.bindArgs(args))
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/packages.py", line 462, in turnOnFilesystems
    diskset.savePartitions ()
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/partedUtils.py", line 595, in savePartitions
    disk.commit()
error: Error: Error adding partition 3: Success

Local variables in innermost frame:
self: <partedUtils.DiskSet instance at 0x88a6ba4>
disk: <PedDisk object at 0x8375208>

Comment 1 Roy Hensley 2003-09-02 02:52:56 UTC
Created attachment 94130 [details]
anaconda dump immedately following errors/termination

Comment 2 Roy Hensley 2003-09-02 03:02:28 UTC
Exception Occured
=================
An unhandled exception has occured.  This is most likely a bug. 
yadda yadda yadda... file a detailed bug report against anaconda...

...
install exited abnormally
sending termination signals...done.
.
.
you may safely reboot your system

Comment 3 Michael Fulbright 2003-09-02 21:48:11 UTC
Matt could this be a 3ware/parted interaction?

Comment 4 Roy Hensley 2003-09-03 04:08:43 UTC
Michael and Matt- I just checked partition status, and found something 
interesting...  Following the crash described above, the partitions are 
actually recognized as having been created, but not formatted.  

How this was determined: <Step 1> I ran through an install session all the way 
to termination as described, but used some very customized (non-default) 
partition settings.  <Step 2> I then came and did another install as a second 
pass, but selected to partition manually; Disk Druid was then used to inspect 
the results.  The partition configuration was there, and it simply asked if I'd 
like to format my swap partition as such since it was not formatted.  This 
happens to be my last partition if that's of any significance.


Comment 5 Roy Hensley 2003-09-04 17:37:14 UTC
Guys- Please help.  I'm at a dead end and will have to switch to SuSE if I 
don't get resolution.

Thanks, 
Roy

Comment 6 Roy Hensley 2003-09-10 23:45:06 UTC
SuSE is no good, so I've decided to stick with RedHat.  

Any ideas yet why the install is crashing?  
Is it a parted problem?  
No response from Michael yet, and it's been a full week.  
Thanks.

Comment 7 Roy Hensley 2003-09-13 16:17:09 UTC
No problems with Red Hat 8.0.  The install went flawlessly.
This confirms that Red Hat 9.0 is broken.
When are you guys going to *at least* comment?  I've been at this 2 weeks.


Comment 8 Ning 2003-11-29 04:50:01 UTC
Ug-QfVvE


Comment 9 Ning 2003-11-29 04:52:17 UTC
Hi, I met the same problem while I tried to install it in a PII 
computer, it has a onboard video card (not work), another S3 vedio 
card, and got follwing error, alway failed:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 936, in handleRenderCallback
    self.currentWindow.renderCallback()
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/iw/progress_gui.py", line 155, in 
renderCallback
    self.intf.icw.nextClicked()
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 761, in nextClicked
    self.dispatch.gotoNext()
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/dispatch.py", line 157, in gotoNext
    self.moveStep()
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/dispatch.py", line 225, in moveStep
    rc = apply(func, self.bindArgs(args))
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/packages.py", line 583, in doPreInstall
    method.mergeFullHeaders(id.hdList)
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/image.py", line 50, in mergeFullHeaders
    hdlist.mergeFullHeaders(self.tree + "/RedHat/base/hdlist2")
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/comps.py", line 180, in mergeFullHeaders
    rpm.mergeHeaderListFromFD(self.hdlist, fd, 1000004)
error: match tag mismatch

Local variables in innermost frame:
self: <comps.HeaderListFromFile instance at 0x8a2a174>
fd: 37
file: /mnt/source/RedHat/base/hdlist2


Comment 10 Matthew Miller 2004-01-09 15:41:43 UTC
I've got a report from someone here with an IBM ServeRAID controller
getting the same thing. (Or similar -- text based install, my slightly
modified anaconda but I didn't touch this part.) I'll have him post
more details.

Comment 11 Jesse Keating 2004-02-23 21:01:05 UTC
This is a parted/kernel bug.  Parted makes a call to a kernel ioctl
that has a bug in it that blocks partitions at 1TB.  There is use of a
long when it should be an unsigned long.  Please see bug 116289 for
the fix.  I can state that applying the patch and rebuilding the BOOT
kernel used for RHL9 installer (and FC1 installer) resolves this issue
and allows parted to create partitions larger than 1TB.

Comment 12 Robin Battey 2004-02-23 23:59:08 UTC
I believe redhat 8 uses fdisk.  The fdisk program uses a different 
(non-broken) ioctl, BLKRRPART; parted uses the broken (but more 
flexible) ioctl, BLKPG:BLKPG_ADD_PARTITION.  When parted attempts to 
make a partition between 1TB and 2TB, the partition gets written to 
the partition table on disk, so you'll see it upon a reboot, but the 
ioctl to inform the kernel about the change returns with an error due 
to bug 116289.  Anaconda sees this error and quits.

Comment 13 Jeremy Katz 2004-06-25 19:23:07 UTC
This is fixed with the current devel tree.