Note: This bug is displayed in read-only format because the product is no longer active in Red Hat Bugzilla.

Bug 35798

Summary:	Installer doesn't mention the total disk space req.
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Linux	Reporter:	Helge Deller <hdeller>
Component:	anaconda	Assignee:	Brent Fox <bfox>
Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX	QA Contact:	Brock Organ <borgan>
Severity:	low	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	7.1	CC:	jbj, thomas.hiller
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	i386
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2001-05-09 19:11:25 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Helge Deller 2001-04-12 11:33:14 UTC

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.77 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.17-14 i686)


I just upgraded from 6.2 to seawolf yesterday and found that the stage
"preparing to install" doesn't check the total amount of disk space needed.
Instead I had to go three times through this stage until all requirements
were met. It was every time on the same partition (/).

Reproducible: Didn't try
Steps to Reproduce:
1. start the upgrade with 60 MB of free disk space
2.
3.

Comment 1 Brent Fox 2001-04-13 06:17:55 UTC

So does the installer crash?  What exactly is the behavior?

Comment 2 SAP LinuxLab 2001-04-17 16:09:21 UTC

The installer doesn't crash, I have to go through the screens multiple times.
The installer wanted 13 MB in / during the first prepare to install,
10 MB in / during the second prepare to install and another 18 MB in the third
run of prepare to install. (Original numbers were different).

Comment 3 Brent Fox 2001-04-21 23:15:10 UTC

I don't understand...what do you mean that "Original numbers were different"?

Comment 4 Helge Deller 2001-04-25 08:01:11 UTC

I've added Thomas Hiller to the CC list, since the original bugreport came from
him and he only used my bugzilla-account to enter it.

AFAIK his main problem is, that anaconda doesn't calculate the needed disk-size
for installation correctly at the first step. 
Example (don't trust my numbers here - I've in no way verified them!):
If anaconda starts, it seems to calculate a needed space of 1GB, then it tries
to install some packages and finds, that this initial calculated size won't fit.
So it calculates again (step A) and says it will need more 13MB free space. The
user switches to another console (step B), frees 14MB of the disk and continues
the installation in the hope all remaining packages will now fit on the disk.
But: anaconda continues and finds again, that it will need more space -this time
it says it will need 18MB - huh?   Why the heck did anaconda said 13MB in the
first round ?

So, why can't anaconda calculate directly from the beginning the needed space
correctly ? 
In the end it's frustrating for the user to free space from his disk, just to
see that it won't fit this time either, esp. when you have to do this (step B)
three times.

Comment 5 Brent Fox 2001-05-01 19:32:19 UTC

The calculation takes place in RPM, as far as I know.  Jeff, does this make
sense to you?

Comment 6 Jeff Johnson 2001-05-01 20:01:58 UTC

The calculation in rpm is nominal, accurate to only +/- 5%, because there's no
way to get an accurate handle on the root reserved disk space (rpm "guesses"
5%, there's no attempt to read the parameters from the disk). So, you're
bouncing
around near the edge, making changes of +/- 1%, and failing because the
calculation is not that accurate. In addition, rpm's calculation is only for
files within
packages, there's no attempt (nor should there be in rpm) to account for
temporary space used by the installer, that can be significant as well.

Yes the calculation is done during transaction set processing in rpm.