Bug 77030

Summary:	Installer won't modify an existing install, will only start over or do upgrade of existing packages
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Linux	Reporter:	Joseph Shraibman <jks>
Component:	anaconda	Assignee:	Michael Fulbright <msf>
Status:	CLOSED DUPLICATE	QA Contact:	Brock Organ <borgan>
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	8.0
Target Milestone:	---
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Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
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Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
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Last Closed:	2002-10-31 20:15:54 UTC	Type:	---
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oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description Joseph Shraibman 2002-10-31 04:17:50 UTC

From Bugzilla Helper:
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Description of problem:
If an installation of redhat is messed up (see bug 77020), or you somehow didn't
install any text editors and can't modify the config files on your machine, the
installer can't fix the installation.  All it will do is perform an automatic
upgrade, or make you start from scratch by deleting all existing partitions.

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


How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Reproduce bug 77020, then try to fix it.


Actual Results:  I had to wipe away the install and start over. Luckily I had
only put in an hour's worth of setup. If this had been in production use sever
data loss would have resulted.

Why does the installer insist on blowing away all existing partitions? Why can't
the installer add/remove packages from an existing installation?

Expected Results:  The installer should
a) let you use existing partitions
b) let you modify an existing install
c) let you resintall the kernel/boot loader

Comment 1 Michael Fulbright 2002-10-31 19:51:20 UTC

Mostly a dupe of bug 76947.

You will want to use redhat-config-packages to handle an existing installation.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 76947 ***

Comment 2 Joseph Shraibman 2002-10-31 20:15:47 UTC

In what way is this a dupe of bug 76947?  That bug is about how an upgrade
fouled up the boot loader. This is about how the install/upgrade disks don't let
you install over an existing install.  And redhat-config-packages only works if
a) it is installed and b) you can use X and c) I don't think installing a boot
loader should be a part of redhat-config-packages, whereas it already is part of
the installer.

BTW what does redhat-config-kickstart do?  I can't tell because I can't run X.

Comment 3 Michael Fulbright 2002-10-31 20:20:57 UTC

It is a dupe because the other bug is about the fact that you are not given a
chance to rewrite a bootloader if you do an upgrade and the kernel is not
installed (because you're running it on an upgraded system).

If you installed such a stripped down system you cannot run our userland tools
then you're only option is to reinstall or do it manually.

If you would like to open a bug against redhat-config-packages that it should
have a text-mode interface that might address your concerns.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 76947 ***