Bug 1874430

Summary: Fail to use partition not chosen to be deleted (for /boot) when testing "Testcase partitioning guided delete partial" during installation
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Freeman Zhang <zhanggyb>
Component: anacondaAssignee: Anaconda Maintenance Team <anaconda-maint-list>
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 33CC: anaconda-maint-list, bugzilla, jkonecny, jonathan, kellin, vanmeeuwen+fedora, vponcova, wwoods
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: x86_64   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2020-09-04 16:21:23 UTC Type: Bug
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Attachments:
Description Flags
Select the default automatic storage configuration
none
Delete the existing btrfs in the second installation
none
An additional partition for '/boot' was created after second installation none

Description Freeman Zhang 2020-09-01 10:44:41 UTC 
Description of problem:

Hi, I'm testing btrfs support (https://testdays.fedorainfracloud.org/events/92) in the coming Fedora 33.

This may be a bug I found when testing Guided Delete Partial (https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Testcase_partitioning_guided_delete_partial): the installer fail to use partition not chosen to be deleted and create a new one for '/boot' mountpoint during the installation.


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

- The Fedora 33 net-install image from: https://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org/compose/branched/latest-Fedora-33/compose/Everything/x86_64/iso/
- The Fedora 33 workstation live image from: https://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org/compose/branched/latest-Fedora-33/compose/Workstation/x86_64/iso/


How reproducible:

You can reproduce this issue on a bare metal system or virtual machine.
You need to install the same Fedora 33 image twice.


Steps to Reproduce:

1. Install Fedora 33, if there're already some partitions exist, follow https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Testcase_partitioning_guided_delete_all to delete them all and install Fedora 33 with automatic storage configuration. This will create 3 partitions: 1 vfat for '/boot/efi', 1 ext4 for '/boot', 1 btrfs for root file system.

2. Follow https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Testcase_partitioning_guided_delete_partial to re-install the Fedora 33. During the installation, delete the existing btrfs partition and reclaim space.

3. After installation, reboot the system and check the partitions by 'lsblk' or the gui 'gnome-disks'


Actual results:

There's 1 additional partition is created for mountpoint '/boot', 1GiB size allocated.


Expected results:

No additional partition for 'boot' should be created, it should use the existing ext4 partition which was not deleted in the second installation.


Additional info:
Comment 1 Freeman Zhang 2020-09-01 10:45:53 UTC 
Created attachment 1713278 [details]
Select the default automatic storage configuration
Comment 2 Freeman Zhang 2020-09-01 10:46:51 UTC 
Created attachment 1713279 [details]
Delete the existing btrfs in the second installation
Comment 3 Freeman Zhang 2020-09-01 10:47:57 UTC 
Created attachment 1713280 [details]
An additional partition for '/boot' was created after second installation
Comment 4 Chris Murphy 2020-09-04 01:48:25 UTC 
>No additional partition for 'boot' should be created, it should use the existing ext4 partition which was not deleted in the second installation.


If the partition is not explicitly deleted in the Reclaim Space interface, it will not be used. For space to be reclaimed, and thus available for an installation, it must be deleted.
Comment 5 Vladimír Slávik 2020-09-04 16:21:23 UTC 
Hello Freeman, thank you for reporting this. The instructions you linked leave some space for misreading them. The /boot left over from previous installation does not automatically become /boot for the new one, you would have to explicitly set it to be used as /boot again in manual partitioning. So the result falls under this point:

> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Testcase_partitioning_guided_delete_partial
> 2. The storage volumes on the target disk that were not chosen to be deleted should not be deleted.

So it isn't a bug in the installer after all. The root cause of this report can be fixed by editing the line quoted above and adding something along the lines of "these volumes will not be mounted, either". Still, thank you for taking the time to test and report it :)