Bug 1147974 - unhelpful error message when ESP can't be created because of insufficient disk space
Summary: unhelpful error message when ESP can't be created because of insufficient dis...
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: anaconda
Version: 21
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Brian Lane
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2014-09-30 12:58 UTC by Kamil Páral
Modified: 2015-02-27 22:41 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2015-02-27 22:41:20 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
video demonstration (1.73 MB, video/webm)
2014-09-30 13:00 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details
anaconda.log (24.57 KB, text/plain)
2014-09-30 13:01 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details
program.log (45.36 KB, text/plain)
2014-09-30 13:01 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details
storage.log (584.27 KB, text/plain)
2014-09-30 13:01 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details
rpm -qa output (46.08 KB, text/plain)
2014-09-30 13:02 UTC, Kamil Páral
no flags Details

Description Kamil Páral 2014-09-30 12:58:13 UTC
Description of problem:
When installing an UEFI system alongside an existing installation, I let anaconda create the partitions automatically, but wanted a separate ESP partition. If I do everything from scratch, it works OK. But if I let anaconda create the partitions automatically, it reuses the existing ESP. Once I cancel that and try to create my own ESP, anaconda fails to do that and reports a very unhelpful error:

"Unable to allocate requested partition scheme."

Two problems:
1. It should work. It even works when doing the steps a bit differently (see above).
2. The error message should be helpful. I had a hard time figuring out what the problem was. Please tell me something understandable and actionable.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
F21 Alpha Workstation Live x86_64
anaconda-21.48.6-1.fc21.x86_64
python-blivet-0.62-1.fc21.noarch


How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. have an existing UEFI installation with some free space
2. in manual partitioning, choose anaconda to create the partitions automatically
3. cancel mounted ESP
4. create new ESP

See the attached video to see exact reproduction steps.

Actual results:
anaconda fails to create new ESP

Expected results:
anaconda creates new ESP

Comment 1 Kamil Páral 2014-09-30 13:00:02 UTC
Created attachment 942692 [details]
video demonstration

Comment 2 Kamil Páral 2014-09-30 13:01:02 UTC
Created attachment 942693 [details]
anaconda.log

Comment 3 Kamil Páral 2014-09-30 13:01:04 UTC
Created attachment 942694 [details]
program.log

Comment 4 Kamil Páral 2014-09-30 13:01:09 UTC
Created attachment 942695 [details]
storage.log

Comment 5 Kamil Páral 2014-09-30 13:02:11 UTC
Created attachment 942696 [details]
rpm -qa output

Comment 6 Kamil Páral 2014-09-30 13:07:43 UTC
This probably violates:
"The installer must be able to create and install to any workable partition layout using any file system and/or container format combination offered in a default installer configuration. "
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_21_Final_Release_Criteria#Disk_layouts

Comment 7 Brian Lane 2014-10-01 01:18:16 UTC
You don't have enough free space to create it:

08:03:48,659 DEBUG anaconda: requested size = 100 MiB  ; available space = 1462.5 KiB

Also, you are not going to be able to dual boot 2 copies of Fedora on UEFI. It isn't supported. eg. the UEFI entry is 'Fedora' so it will remove the previous one and create a new one.

Comment 8 Kamil Páral 2014-10-03 11:38:51 UTC
(In reply to bcl from comment #7)
> You don't have enough free space to create it:
> 
> 08:03:48,659 DEBUG anaconda: requested size = 100 MiB  ; available space =
> 1462.5 KiB

Oh, silly me! In that case I change this bug from "can't create partition" to "can't understand the error message". Please tell me I don't have enough space left. The existing error message does not make any sense to me.

Removing the blocker nomination, obviously.

> 
> Also, you are not going to be able to dual boot 2 copies of Fedora on UEFI.
> It isn't supported. eg. the UEFI entry is 'Fedora' so it will remove the
> previous one and create a new one.

Yes, I know. But I was trying to recreate a scenario I hit with a student who had an existing ESP with Windows and I didn't want to touch it (because the filesystem was corrupted, but Windows managed to boot, so I didn't wanted to break anything and rather decided to create a new ESP). The purpose was not to install 2 Fedora releases. I wonder whether the original problem was also caused by insufficient disk space, I'll probably never know. Let's fix at least the error message so that it won't confuse anybody else.

Comment 9 Brian Lane 2015-02-27 22:41:20 UTC
It ends up that blivet can't be more clear about what went wrong.


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