Bug 242542 - unlabeled filesystem in /etc/fstab aborts upgrade
Summary: unlabeled filesystem in /etc/fstab aborts upgrade
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED CANTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: anaconda
Version: 7
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
low
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Anaconda Maintenance Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2007-06-04 18:58 UTC by Tom Wood
Modified: 2007-11-30 22:12 UTC (History)
0 users

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2007-06-04 19:07:16 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:


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Description Tom Wood 2007-06-04 18:58:38 UTC
Description of problem:
Having an unlabeled swap partition on an IDE drive (/dev/hdX) aborts anaconda.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):  Initial release.


How reproducible:  Every time.


Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Have /dev/hda7, for example, as filesystem (not label) in /etc/fstab for swap.
2.  Run anaconda
3.  Watch for popup box "Error enabling swap device hda7:  No such file or
directory.  The /etc/fstab on your upgrade partition does not reference a valid
swap partition.  Press OK to reboot your system.
  
Actual results:  Upgrade to F7 from FC6 aborted.


Expected results:  Upgrade to continue.


Additional info:

This machine has been upgraded sequentially over several years from IIRC FC4. 
Somewhere along the way, the swap partition wasn't labeled and the change wasn't
made in /etc/fstab.  The real cause for excitement here is that nowhere that I'm
aware of is /etc/fstab required to have filesystem labels.  Yet anaconda depends
upon them now with F7 on IDE drives as a result of the new unified IDE driver
that calls all IDE drives sd.  anaconda should not merely rely upon filesystem
labels.

Comment 1 Jeremy Katz 2007-06-04 19:07:16 UTC
The problem is that without referencing the partitions by label, there is no way
at all to map from the old device name to the new device name.  All we can do is
catch the case and tell you that you need to use labels or something else that
is actually persistent to the disk/filesystem.

Comment 2 Tom Wood 2007-06-04 23:27:25 UTC
CANTFIX?  Odd.  The labeling was added at some point in Fedora's evolution. 
That required some search and replace logic...

I've also found another machine that's been around for a while with the same
issue, namely all filesystems labeled except for swap.  I'll have to "mkswap -L"
it too before upgrading.

And what's so hard about substituting sd for hd references in the
/mnt/sysimage/etc/fstab file once anaconda gets to it?  Or looking for swap
partitions?  That's not so hard I'd think.  I'll freely admit that there may be
edge cases here, but...

Also, documentation needs to be updated to disallow the use of non-labeled
filesystems for any and all filesystems that will be touched by anaconda.

Ironic, isn't it, that anaconda can't eat its own dog food.


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