Bug 744488

Summary: Anaconda should not fail on RAM size test
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: jiimz00 <bugred>
Component: anacondaAssignee: Anaconda Maintenance Team <anaconda-maint-list>
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 15CC: anaconda-maint-list, jonathan, robatino, vanmeeuwen+fedora
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Target Release: ---   
Hardware: i386   
OS: Linux   
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Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
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Last Closed: 2011-10-09 02:25:54 UTC Type: ---
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description jiimz00 2011-10-09 00:14:39 UTC 
Description of problem:
Anaconda tests for physical RAM and fails if the machine does not contain some minimum.  This test does NOT belong in Anaconda.

If Anaconda guesses correctly then the user is prevented from an unexplained failure.  If Anaconda guesses wrong then an installation fails.  Anaconda always guesses wrong when swaps are enabled!

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
Fedora 15 (but other versions also)

How reproducible:
Every time.

Steps to Reproduce:
Run F15 Anaconda on a machine with 256MB of RAM

Additional info:
If the RAM test is disabled (needed_ram=0) in anaconda (line 335) the install is successful.  I had a small swap space enabled.

The RAM test does not belong in Anaconda.
Comment 1 Chris Lumens 2011-10-09 02:25:54 UTC 
It absolutely is necessary in anaconda.  Testing for this prevents large numbers of seemingly random bugs where mysterious crashes result halfway through package installation, resulting in a completely unusable system.  You got lucky, based on your package selections.  We will err on the side of preventing crashes and bug reports if at all possible.
Comment 2 jiimz00 2011-10-11 03:38:06 UTC 
I did *not* get lucky.  I had virtual memory enabled (a swap partition).

If Anaconda is going to check memory then it should test for the minimum amount of VM available instead of physical memory.

Do we want to say that running Anaconda with swap space enabled is unsupported?