Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 217399
USB floppy/key seen as valid storage devices during CD install.
Last modified: 2007-11-16 20:14:54 EST
======================= Description of problem: ======================= USB Floppy/key are seen as valid storage devices during RHEL 4 CD install. ======================= Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): ======================= RHEL 4 Gold, Kernel 2.6.9-5 RHEL 4.4, Kernel 2.6.9-42 ======================= How reproducible: ======================= Disable virtual media on DRAC and disable local storage (remove disks or disable storage controller on BIOS). Attach a USB floppy or USB key. Perform OS installation via CD. ======================= Steps to Reproduce: ======================= 1. Disable storage controller on BIOS or remove all drives from server. 2. Disable virtual media on DRAC. 3. Connect a USB key or USB floppy drive (with or without floppy) to server. 4. Begin RHEL 4 installation via CD. Boot with default paramaters (just hit Enter). 5. Go through installation process. Skip media check. 6. Anaconda runs. Select language (English), select keyboard (US English). 7. During disk partitioning setup, select auto-partitioning. ======================= Actual results: ======================= Anaconda runs and starts the OS install process, thinking there is a valid storage device to install the OS onto. When it gets to the partitioning section, it detects that there are no valid devices to create file systems and displays the following message: "An error has ocurred - no valid devices were found on which to create new file systems. Please check your hardware for the cause of this problem." At this point, all I can do is reboot the system *** This is a problem because I do not get an option to load device drivers *** ======================= Expected results: ======================= The system should not detect any hard drives and ask the user to manually choose device drivers. The exact message is: --- Warning --- No hard drives have been found. You probably need to manually choose device drivers for the installation to succeed. Would you like to select drivers now? -- yes -- -- no -- This is the message I get when I DO NOT have a USB key or USB floppy attached to the system. In this case, I am able to manually load device drivers that are not native to RHEL 4. ======================= Additional info: ======================= The way this problem came about was when we tried to install RHEL 4 to SAN (with all local storage disabled), using a newer Qlogic HBA. The driver for this HBA is not on the RHEL 4 install CD, and we did not get the option to load the driver manually (because it just so happened that we had a USB floppy attached to the system). When we detached the floppy drive and tried the install again, we got the warning above and then were able to load device drivers manually.
You can say you need to load drivers with 'linux dd'. If you know your device isn't supported, this is the recommended way; not counting on the dialog not detecting other drives.
*** Bug 218783 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***