Bug 652

Summary: hard drive install fails
Product: [Retired] Red Hat Linux Reporter: John Waalkes <jwaalkes>
Component: installerAssignee: David Lawrence <dkl>
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE QA Contact:
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: 5.2   
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: 1998-12-31 19:49:55 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 John Waalkes 1998-12-30 07:08:05 UTC
This bug is in the hard drive install procedure.

For systems that are forced to install from a hard drive,
i.e. Linux doesn't recognize the SCSI card, the install
fails when the installer asks for the dos directory and path
where the Redhat files were installed. Redhat reports that
it can't find the files. Just a guess, but it could be
because the installer is trying to mount the partition in
vfat rather than msdos. Who knows?

Workaround:

Follow the instructions provided in the appendix of the
install guide. Create the directories on a dos partition,
copy the files from your CD in dos (or Windows).

Then download the 5.1 installer (boot.img & supp.img) from
the update directory. This works, but fails as it trys to
read the packages from the 5.2 distribution.

Once it tells you that it can't find the packages, select
'menu' and select the next step. I suppose this happens
because the 5.1 installer can't read the 5.2 package table.

You will have to select many more packages than normal as
the pre-picked ones (i.e. the kernel) won't be selected.

Finish the installation as normal.

Have fun! (as they say over at S.u.S.E. :)

Comment 1 Jay Turner 1998-12-30 15:38:59 UTC
What utility did you use to copy the files from the CD to the dos
drive?  You will need to xcopy (or xcopy32 if you have it) the files
from the CD or the install will indeed fail as you described.

Comment 2 David Lawrence 1998-12-31 19:49:59 UTC
This problem has been observed to be bug with the 5.2 installer. We
have a new boot.img and supp.img for download to help alleviate the
problem.

The new images can be downloaded from

ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.2/images/i386/boot.img
ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.2/images/i386/supp.img