Description of problem: During install, if the hard drive is failing to write or read, the install does not stop. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): FC3 Gold How reproducible: Attempt installing on failing hard drive. When drive blocks are failing the writes the install does not report an error to the user. Steps to Reproduce: 1. use faulty disk i.e. /dev/hda 2. watch syslog for io errors on device 3. watch installer not report error to the user Actual results: eventual crash of installer and reboot requested when X exits Expected results: a message telling the user that anaconda was not able to install packages due to excessive IO errors on the destination. Additional info: Write errors should be trapped and returned to the user as a simple to read error. i.e. Hey look, I was trying to write to your drive and it told me it was unable to do so. or check the S.M.A.R.T. drive registers to do predictive failure (idea)
Unfortunately, the kernel doesn't really pass this information up in any sort of useful way for userspace to get at. And parsing logs isn't good enough (since there are cases with empty drives where you get read errors that look just like bad drives. *sigh*)