Created attachment 1169468 [details] kickstart file, modified, original http://people.centos.org/arrfab/CentOS6/LiveCD-DVD/ Description of problem: When an image is generated with /etc/mtab symlink to /proc/self/mounts, it is not possible to install the image to the hard drive. I get an anaconda exception. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): livecd-tools-13.4.9-1.el6.x86_64. How reproducible: Steps to Reproduce: 1. Generate a LiveDVD using attached centos6-liveDVD-desktop.cfg (variation of files found in https://arrfab.net/posts/2011/Jul/28/centos-6-livecd-and-livedvd-tools/ and http://people.centos.org/arrfab/CentOS6/LiveCD-DVD/ ) LANG=C LC_ALL=C livecd-creator --config=centos6-liveDVD-desktop.cfg --fslabel=CentOS-6.8-TestA-LiveDVD 2. Boot the created LiveDVD in a virtual machine. GNOME desktop appears. 3. Open a terminal. Run commands: sudo -i passwd (set root password to something) 4. Launch the "Install to Hard Drive" icon 5. Follow all the steps of the installation wizard Actual results: At the post-install filesystem changes step, anaconda will generate the exception, as shown in anaconda-exception-mtab-symlink.tar.gz Expected results: Installation is completed successfully. Additional info: The change was brought in version livecd-tools 13.4.8. Attached patch to livecd-tools (no-etc-mtab-symlink-688277.patch) fixes the problem for me. The installed system has /etc/mtab as a regular file, and this matches the installation of CentOS 6 from installation DVD, CentOS-6.8-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso. Making /etc/mtab a symlink to /proc/self/mounts makes drastic changes to the output of mount command. I attached an example that I ran on a system where /etc/mtab is a regular file. The new mount output breaks kdump initrd generation in /sbin/mkdumprd (kexec-tools), who expects "/" mountpoint to appear once in the mount output. It is also possible to fix the issue in anaconda and kexec-tools, but patches for these components need to be submitted separately. There may be other packages affected by this.
Created attachment 1169469 [details] anaconda exception report
Created attachment 1169470 [details] patch to livecd-tools that solves the problem for me
Created attachment 1169471 [details] output of mount command on EL6, /etc/mtab is regular file
Created attachment 1169472 [details] output of mount command on EL6, /etc/mtab is symlink to /proc/self/mounts
Created attachment 1169473 [details] my modification of livecd-tools.spec to integrate no-etc-mtab-symlink-688277.patch
Thanks. I think I pulled that in originally to remove the relative symlink and should have left the unlink for the rhel6 branch. PR for others to comment on is here: https://github.com/rhinstaller/livecd-tools/pull/30
Looks like it was added for bug 1214621, but I'm not sure of exactly why.
I spotted the problem a few months ago because I have been using livecd-tools from EPEL. CentOS 6 may have used livecd-tools version 0.3.6 to build the official LiveDVDs - that version does not have the problem. https://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=11031 Source RPM for livecd-tools used for creating Scientific Linux 6 LiveDVDs is: http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6x/addons/i386/live-creator/livecd-tools-13.4.7-17.sl6.src.rpm with this changelog entry: * Thu Aug 25 2015 Urs Beyerle <urs.beyerle.ch> - 13.4.7-17 - update to 13.4.7. Note that 13.4.8 seems to be broken with SL6x.
livecd-tools-13.4.10-1.el6 has been submitted as an update to Fedora EPEL 6. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-EPEL-2016-caa9c3788d
livecd-tools-13.4.10-1.el6 has been pushed to the Fedora EPEL 6 testing repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report. See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for instructions on how to install test updates. You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-EPEL-2016-caa9c3788d
livecd-tools-13.4.10-1.el6.x86_64 from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/testing/6/x86_64/ produces LiveDVDs that have /etc/mtab as regular read-write file. Install to hard drive works, no exception from anaconda. Also, initrd for kdump is generated on first boot of the installed system, as expected.
livecd-tools-13.4.10-1.el6 has been pushed to the Fedora EPEL 6 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.