Description of problem: Activity was to install Fedora 7t4 x86_64 (or i386 32 - same problem) on external Maxtor USB 465Gb drive attached to Dell 9150 2Gb RAM Raid1:2x235Gb SATA loaded with Windo$e MCE, which is to be kept (no accounting for taste is there). I knew a mkinitrd was needed after install and before USB reboot, but the post install boot failed anyway. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):Anaconda F7t4 How reproducible: 100% Steps to Reproduce: 1.Boot from network and FTP install f7t4 in the usual way 2.mkinitrd to tweak the init file to load USB drivers at correct time 3.Reboot from USB: fails.. Actual results: Can't have a partition outside the disk! Unable to access resume device (LABEL=SWAP-sdc2) followed by several more consequential errors and a final kernel panic and freeze. Expected results: Good boot. Additional info: I dismantled the initrd (gunzip, cpio -i) and realised the boot was failing at the end of these nash lines: rmparts sdb rmparts sda dm create isw_bgddbdcicc_ARRAY 0 488275968 mirror core 2 131072 nosync 2 8:0 0 8:16 0 dm partad isw_bgddbdcicc_ARRAY I hashed out those 4 lines and altered sdc references to the USB drive to sda, did cpio -o and gzip to reassmble the initrd, and rebooted OK. Fun learning! Using fdisk and parted (below), I could not see any apparent faults in the partitioning that Windows had done, so I saw no grounds for the "Can't..." message, which had immediately followed: device-mapper: ioctl: 4.11.0-ioctl (2006-10-12) initialised: dm-devel presumably in response to the above two dm commands. (parted) print Model: ATA WDC WD2500JS-75N (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 488281250s Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 63s 80324s 80262s primary fat16 2 80325s 488247479s 488167155s primary ntfs boot /dev/sdc identical fdisk print: Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250000000000 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30394 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 5 40131 de Dell Utility /dev/sdb2 * 6 30392 244083577+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sdc identical More needed? Please ask.
katzj removed component 'anaconda' and added instead 'parted' I am just wondering; is that because the seemingly failing nash line (dm: aka device-mapper?) is quitely invoking parted to do some or all of its work? Of course, it is possible that the Windo$e install DID make a hidden mess of the partition table, and parted is spotting that. I am ready to try any non-destructive tests.
I loaded Fedora 7 final release on the USB external drive, and found that the ONLY problem with booting it was this bug. It seems (:-)) that the installer is now installing all relevant kernel modules to boot from USB. I am happy to try and do any suggested diagnostics to help determine why the installer seems to be setting the dm command to a wrong value. I would also be pleased to learn more about the nash interpreter. It's MAN page does not cover either the rmparts or the dm commands which are relevant to this bug. I cannot find nash's source anywhere, not that I would necessarily have any skills to read it!
So partitioning and installing to the disk is working as of Fedora 7 for you? If so, I think this is now a mkinitrd bug (the component that has nash).
Changing version to '9' as part of upcoming Fedora 9 GA. More information and reason for this action is here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping
Since there are insufficient details provided in this report for us to investigate the issue further, and we have not received feedback to the information we have requested above, we will assume the problem was not reproducible, or has been fixed in one of the updates we have released for the reporter's distribution. Users who have experienced this problem are encouraged to upgrade to the latest update of their distribution, and if this issue turns out to still be reproducible in the latest update, please reopen this bug with additional information. Closing as INSUFFICIENT_DATA.