Bug 49259

Summary:	Installer can't re-read partition table after changing a partition's size
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Linux	Reporter:	Don Smith <sdonald>
Component:	anaconda	Assignee:	Jeremy Katz <katzj>
Status:	CLOSED RAWHIDE	QA Contact:	Brock Organ <borgan>
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	7.3
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	i386
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2001-07-17 21:10:19 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:

Description Don Smith 2001-07-17 14:52:05 UTC

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT 5.0)

Description of problem:
While performing a server install to an IDE hard drive, I allowed the 
installer to auto-partition the drive. At the package selection screen I 
selected all packages, and proceeded to the Install Packages screen. The 
installer informed me that the /usr partition was too small, so I went 
back to the partitions screen and increased the size of the /usr 
partition. I then went forward to the Install Packages screen, and the 
installer displayed the message:

"The kernel was unable to re-read the partition table on /tmp/hda (device 
or resource busy). This means that Linux knows nothing about any changes 
you have made. You should reboot before doing anything with /tmp/hda." 

After clicking "Ignore" a few times, the installer displayed the 
message "Error enabling swap device /dev/hda2" and I had to reboot.

How reproducible:
Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Perform a server installation with a /usr partiton that is too small 
(900MB is what the auto-partitioner gave me)
2. Select all packages at the package selection screen.
3. After being notified that the /usr partition is too small, go back and 
re-size it (I made it 2GB).
4. Proceed to the installation screen.
5. Installer should produce the error message described above - 
click "Ignore" a few times until the next one appears.
	

Actual Results:  Installation fails and the server must be rebooted.

Expected Results:  Installation does not fail after changing partition 
sizes.

Additional info:

Sometimes when I go back to resize the partition, I get a message 
saying "too many primary partitions" and the installer crashes, which is 
why I said I can only reproduce the error sometimes.

Comment 1 Don Smith 2001-07-17 18:00:28 UTC

I have encountered the same problem installing on a SCSI hard drive.

Comment 2 Glen Foster 2001-07-17 19:00:24 UTC

This defect considered SHOULD-FIX for Fairfax gold-release.

Comment 3 Don Smith 2001-07-17 21:07:26 UTC

This problem has also been seen in the IA64 beta 2.

Comment 4 Jeremy Katz 2001-07-17 21:10:15 UTC

This has been the case for a while.  Unfortunately, turning off swap isn't
generally a safe thing to do and so we back out and can't reread the partition
table as the swap is still in use.

Comment 5 Matt Wilson 2001-07-20 21:27:45 UTC

fixed in CVS, there is now a dialog saying that you can't edit partitioning
after swap is on.