Bug 507068

If you can still reproduce this failure, please attach the files /tmp/storage.log, /tmp/anaconda.log, and /tmp/program.log to this bug report. Thanks.

How do I get those files copied to another partition, so I can attach them afterwards?

From what I remember there are no terminals that I can use in that state of the installation.

I only have one try to get these logs, as the slash partition have been formatted at this point of the installation.

So when I try, I at least want to be sure that I can get the logs files out =)

Well, you can copy them onto a usb thumbdrive or over the network using scp. I suppose you could also mount /dev/sda2 and copy them there, but you will need a shell to do any of that.

Do you not see a shell on tty2?

It would also be useful to know the exact message you are seeing that indicates a failure to find the install media.

Ok, I think that's the problem is.

My hard disk looks like this:

/dev/sda1 swap
/dev/sda2 slash
/dev/sda3 /home

and I have the installation files in /home/maj/fedora

I select Custom partition layout:

Format: /dev/sda2 as ext3 with mount point /

and setting /dev/sda3 with mount point /home

Anaconda then unmounts all partitions before format, which means that /home/maj/fedora is no longer available.

Created attachment 359120 [details]
anaconda log

grep for "fedora12a". The install files are in /home/maj/fedora12a

Created attachment 359121 [details]
df -h # mounted partitions in tty2. Notice no /home

Created attachment 359122 [details]
program.log

Created attachment 359123 [details]
storage.log

Created attachment 359124 [details]
output from "mount"

In anaconda the error window says:

Missing ISO 9660 Image

The installer has tried to mount the image #1, cannot find it
on the harddrive.

Please copy this image to the drive and click Retry. Click
Exit to abort the installation.

You must include the actual ISO images in the fedora12a directory. Anaconda will not use an unpacked tree, except for install.img.

See the section on repo= in the anaconda command line options guide:

    http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Options


If you are trying to use the contents of the ISOs instead of the actual ISOs it will not work.

> You must include the actual ISO images in the fedora12a directory.

anaconda doesn't find the DVD iso, if I place it in fedora12a. It works on RHEL5, but not in fedora.

> If you are trying to use the contents of the ISOs instead of the actual ISOs it
> will not work.

I think that should be written in anaconda, because I am sure many thinks the ISO should be extracted just like it have to when installing from http or nfs.

And it is a pretty bad situation the user are now in. No slash or boot loader. No way back.

(In reply to comment #12)
> > You must include the actual ISO images in the fedora12a directory.
> 
> anaconda doesn't find the DVD iso, if I place it in fedora12a. It works on
> RHEL5, but not in fedora.

You have to put install.img somewhere, too. We won't look for it in the iso images. So you would extract install.img, then pass both 
stage2=<url to install.img> and repo=<url to iso directory>.

> 
> > If you are trying to use the contents of the ISOs instead of the actual ISOs it
> > will not work.
> 
> I think that should be written in anaconda, because I am sure many thinks the
> ISO should be extracted just like it have to when installing from http or nfs.

We used to support this, years ago, but we removed it. I know that part of the reason was that it had so few users that it was not worth the maintenance effort.

> 
> And it is a pretty bad situation the user are now in. No slash or boot loader.
> No way back.  

This is unfortunate, but it is a risk for anyone who is reinstalling their system. Next time you should create a rescue cd or a live image as a way in before reinstalling. Also, it's worthwhile to read the documentation before installation to make sure what you are attempting is supported.

> You have to put install.img somewhere, too. We won't look for it in the iso
> images. So you would extract install.img, then pass both 
> stage2=<url to install.img> and repo=<url to iso directory>.

Ok, that is way too complicated that I want to install Fedora using a hard disk =)

When I can select it in the menu, I (and I think many others) expect it to work seamlessly.

Wouldn't Fedora be better of with "Install from hard disk" completely removed?


> We used to support this, years ago, but we removed it. I know that part of the
> reason was that it had so few users that it was not worth the maintenance
> effort.

When you say "remove", does that mean "moved into 'askmethod'" as kernel parameter?

I would seriously miss "Install from NFS", if it was removed. I don't like optical medias =)

(In reply to comment #14)
> > You have to put install.img somewhere, too. We won't look for it in the iso
> > images. So you would extract install.img, then pass both 
> > stage2=<url to install.img> and repo=<url to iso directory>.
> 
> Ok, that is way too complicated that I want to install Fedora using a hard disk
> =)

I have always thought the harddrive methods were too difficult to use. I prefer to do network-based installs, but use a dvd when the network is not an option. Other people like the harddrive method, however, so it remains.

> > We used to support this, years ago, but we removed it. I know that part of the
> > reason was that it had so few users that it was not worth the maintenance
> > effort.
> 
> When you say "remove", does that mean "moved into 'askmethod'" as kernel
> parameter?

I mean that we removed the old way of doing harddrive installs, with an unpacked tree. We removed it completely.

We did not remove http or nfs install methods.


Since this is not a bug but rather a misunderstanding of the documented install method I am going to close this as such.