Description of problem: Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): anaconda included with RHEL4 Update 5 and earlier (likely RHEL5 as well) How reproducible: Every time Steps to Reproduce: 1. Set up new system with one or multiple disks with Windows XP already installed on the system either occupying all or part of all available disk space. 2. Boot RHEL4 installation using kickstart using the 'autopart' keyword to automatically set up a partition layout. 3. Once anaconda reaches the partitioning portion of the setup, observe a partition error where the only option is to click OK to reboot. Actual results: System must be rebooted. Partition table must be cleared out by hand for Kickstart to work or a non-kickstart install must be done at which point you can work around the pre-existing Windows partitions just fine from the partitioning tool in Anaconda. Expected results: Anaconda should deal with existing Windows partitions better and/or allow the user to modify via the partition tool instead of only being given the option to reboot. Additional info: This pops up often in situations where we want to provision a dual booted system with both XP and RHEL. XP is installed first and then we attempt to do a kickstart install for the RHEL portion allowing the installer to override options as necessary. As long as the XP partitions are on the system though, a kickstart install results in the error described above.
Created attachment 199921 [details] Error message seen in anaconda
Created attachment 199931 [details] Disk layout on example system.
Should note that this also happens when we have an existing system with Windows XP on it where we want to overwrite everything with RHEL4. Using kickstart + autopart (not using clearpart --all). There should be an alternate option for user intervention other than having to reboot.
re: comment #3, If you want to clear the existing partitions from kickstart, you will need to use clearpart. That is what it's there for. Basically kickstart is for unattended installs, which means you have to know what you want to do before you start it up. If you don't know what you're going to do (eg: whether or not you're going to clear the disks), you should use interactive installation. If you want to do interactive partitioning in a kickstart install, you can leave out the partitioning section completely. You will be presented with the partitioning screens as if you were doing an interactive install. Another option is to use %pre scripting and %include to dynammically generate your partitioning specs based on the initial state of the disk(s).
Alright, so I should probably just remove the 'autopart' line from our KS scripts. It would be nice to be able to continue to use autopart for scenarios in which the machine is indeed empty/fresh, and also be able to use the same kickstart script for when there is already an OS installed. I guess this could be achieved with some scripting as you suggest. At the very least an option here other than to reboot the system (perhaps drop back to manual partition mode?) would do the trick. Any reason why this couldn't be done? Would it impact negatively unattended installs?
Even if I remove autopart from my Kickstart configuration, I still get the above error. Relevant portions of kickstart config: #autopart bootloader --location=mbr --append="rhgb quiet" #clearpart --all This behavior doesn't seem right?
It works for me. (I *just* tried it with RHEL4-U5.) Perhaps there are other relevant lines in your ks.cfg?
Hmm... same results for me after double checking everythign. I will attach my Kickstart file. Note that this is on a system with a disk containing only one partition that fills up the entire disk -- so there is no free space at all on it. I will try on another system with existing Windows partitions but some unallocated space as well. Appreciate your responses on this.
Created attachment 200261 [details] ESRI Kickstart file for RHEL4
Created attachment 200271 [details] Support script for KS config.
If you don't put any partitioning statements in ks.cfg (it appears to be the case) it should not be attempting to partition before you run through the partitioning screens. Wait -- are you getting the error before or after going through the partitioning screens?
I get the error before going through the partitioning screens. Right after clicking Next on the initial welcome screen in fact. I understand you can't fix something you can't reproduce. :) I will try this on another machine tomorrow as well.
It turns out that adding "interactive" introduces the failure for me as well. I don't suppose you can remove that from your ks.cfg?
Interesting. I can remove it for testing purposes, but part of our goal here is for Kickstart to provide the "defaults" but allow the installer to override as necessary as they move through the process -- and to still automatically run post-install setup scripts. So for "live", no, interactive is important.... any thoughts on why "interactive" is triggering this?
I can also confirm that the error does not occur once I remove "interactive" from my Kickstart configuration.
After a quick look at the code, it appears that this is not an issue in RHEL5. I don't know how useful that is to you, but I thought it worth mentioning. If you like, I can provide you with an updates.img (you put it in RedHat/base/ in your installation tree) that might alleviate the problem. Note that this would not be an official or supported fix. If you would like to get an official, supported fix you should go through Red Hat Support.
Sure, I'll give the .img file a try. If that does indeed do the trick I'll open a request with support and mention this bug. We're seeing more RHEL5 showing up here, but RHEL4 won't be going away anytime soon either. Would be nice to see a "fix" for both Update 4 and Update 5, but an Update 5 and later fix would be good enough. Thanks again for your assistance.
Created attachment 201561 [details] updates for RHEL4-U5 This is completely untested, unsupported, and unofficial. It is supposed to prevent attempts to autopartition interactive kickstart installs that have no partition specs in kickstart config. Rename to updates.img, put it in RedHat/base/ in your RHEL4-U5 tree and it should get picked up and used. Please let me know how it goes.
This appears to work fine for our needs. Allows us to choose manual partition and at least continue the install. If someone does select Automatic Partition using free space however, the same error still does pop up and the only option is to reboot the system. Any way to make it fail a little more gracefully here? An option to go back would be nice. I will open a support request for an "official" fix. Thanks!
Dave a couple questions: 1. Your fix above will not work with 64-bit RHEL4U5 correct? 2. Is this fix in place in RHEL4U6?
The fix should work for 32-bit or 64-bit installs. This is not fixed in RHEL4.6.
Would it be possible to get an updates.img for this that works with RHEL 4.6? I broke open the updates.img and tried merging in the changes from kickstart.py to the kickstart.py in RHEL 4.6 but didn't seem to do the trick.
Product Management has reviewed and declined this request. You may appeal this decision by reopening this request.
Created attachment 295831 [details] unsupported/unofficial RHEL-4.6 updates This is untested but functionally identical to the 4.5 updates that worked.
Created attachment 314361 [details] Obviously unofficial fix that we are using for RHEL 4.7 here at ESRI. Don't blame me if it doesn't work for you! :-)