Description of Problem: abnormal termination of custom install of linux; gave me option to dump to diskette which I did - said submit to BUZILLA. I am a novice at this, and used disk druid to create the partitions Linux needed on a disk that already had Win2000 installed, as I need to eventually get to a dual boot machine. After using disk druid, I was allowed to hit NEXT. The install seemed to blow up either during disk formatting, or in an attempt to start loading the system on disk. How Reproducible: I've not attempted to reproduce Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3. Actual Results: Expected Results: Additional Information:
Created attachment 20075 [details] text dump file from abnormal end of install
What partitions did you make and how big were they?
You requested partitions: Partition 0 - a primary parition created prior to the linux install to hold WIN200, size is 4.77 GB The follwoing partitions were created with disk druid during linux install attempt: Parititon 1 - primary partition for linux - /boot - size 32 meg requested, ended up with 39 meg for some reason, linux native Partition 2 - extended partition into which disk druid put the other partitions Extended Partitions: Exteneded Partition 1 - requested 10000 meg (10 gb), got 10001 - linux native - mountpoint / - this was to hold the rest of the linux file system. Extended Partition 2 - linux swap - requested 256 meg, got 258 Extended Partition 3 - Fat 16 < 32 meg - size 31 meg - tried to define as /temp I think, and disk druid added it successfully (the system subsequently lost this name) I was going to use this paritition to be able to exchange files between win2000 and linux, and this was the only paritiion that was not "standard". The remaining free space on the disk was put in the extended partition by disk druid, which was not what I wanted, as I inteneded to create another partition for use by WIN2000. The total disk size is 40 gb, and there is only one harddisk. additional comments: I ran install again up to disk druid, and disk druid sees the partitions, but seems to have lost the /boot, /, and /temp definitions. It's not clear that the partitons got to the point of being formated, although I think it was trying to format when the error occured.
I tried the install again, redefining the names of the already set up partitions and got the same error every time. I removed the partitions using a combination of partition magic, and windows fdisk, and am now trying to re-create them using partition magic as a test. I note that partiton magic is talking an hour to format the 10 gb partition I want to use as "/" in linux format. The error message came up after disk druid after only 5 minutes, which suggest to me that linux did not manage to get through a full format of all defined partitons before attempting the mounts and installs. Even if native linux format is faster, it still seems like it would take 10 minutes or more to format 10 gb.
I was able to use partition commander to create and format the following: /boot - 39 meg swap - 128 meg / - 10 gb The formatting of "/" took over an hour. There were three changes to what I had tried when the problem occured with disk druid: 1. I created a single extended partition, and put all 3 linux paritions in as logical partitions 2. I changed the swap size from 256 to 128, based on what one of the manuals seemed to say (although I can't beleive swap size would be limited to 128, since a real server would have 10 times this amount of RAM) 3. I did not create a /temp directory at this time, but left space in the extended partition to create additional logical partitions I used parition commander to create and format the partitions, then did the linux install. When I installed linux, the install did not hang up like it did before, but proceeded to load all the packages. It seems to be working, althought I'm no expert on UNIX. One odd thing, SHUTDOWN does nothing, but HALT will stop the system... The linux install took about 1 hour and 20 minutes, as I loaded all packages. Linux will boot off a floppy, but it is not clear that I can make it boot through WIN2000 - that's the next step to fool around with...maybe I'll have to put /boot in a primary partition. Right now, I am doing these installs as a test to see what the optimum layout is for a dual boot win2000 and linux system. I'm taking time to continue to report these results over the weekend, so you will have all the information. I think that Linux and Disk druit should not hang up as happened to me originally - this would appear to be some kind of install bug.
I'm a little confused. Number one, I can't explain why Partition Magic would take a hour to format a 10GB partition. Perhaps it was checking for bad blocks...that takes a loooooong time. But just doing a regular format of a 10GB partition during the Red Hat Linux install (provided that you didn't check the "check for bad blocks" button) should not take very long. I can't explain why Disk Druid didn't work. I've seen a few reports in the past where Disk Druid had problems reading partition tables that other programs (like Partition Magic) wrote...but it usually works. As an aside, the limit to the size of a swap file (or swap partition) is 2 GB, so that was not the problem. Also, for a dual boot system, you need to add a section to your /etc/lilo.conf file that looks like this: other=/dev/hda1 ##replace /dev/hda1 with whatever partition win2k is on optional label=win2000 Then, make sure to run the /sbin/lilo command again. Then, when you reboot, you should have the option of booting into Red Hat Linux or Win2k.
Thanks for the reply. I should add that Disk Druid and the install failed before I ever used partition magic on the system. The only thing that was on the system when I attempted the install was WIN2000 partition 0 with 4.77 GB. Disk Druid created all the linux partitions and then the install failed.
I'm curious if you would see this bug with Red Hat Linux 7.1. It is quite possible that this problem has been fixed in the current version. Do you have the ability to download it?
Well yes and no. I am connected to the internet via cablemodem, but the linux PC is stand alone. I could download 7.1 easily from the redhat site to my WIN98 PC, but I would have no easy was of getting this over to the linux PC. If I did get the linux PC on the internet, what would I do?....download 7.1 to the linux file system? How would I then install it? If I had a CD burner, I could try to make a CD or two with the install. Unless you see some magic mechanism to do this, it would take some work and time to make this happen right now.
If you could get the linux box on the net, you could make a partition on the drive (big enough to hold two ISO images, so about 1.5 GB) and download both the 7.1 ISO images to that partition. Then, you would need to make a boot disk from the boot.img file from ftp://ftp.redhat.com/redhat/linux/7.1/en/os/i386/images/boot.img. Then boot with that floppy, and then pick the partitions that the ISO images are stored on. The install will then proceed. I know that's kind of complicated, but that's the best way I can think of to do it.
Thnaks for your suggestion... Now that I have thought about this proposal, I believe the only test that is valid is to install from CDs to the disk with just the WIN2000 partition as before. When DISK DRUID paritioned the disk in the original problem senario, it saw a disk with just one primary partition, and then put two more primary partitions on it and an extended partition. This uses up all the partition slots on the disk. If I put an additional parition on the disk to WIN2000 to hold the install image, then this will force DISK DRUID to partition the disk differenly, if it will work at all. I think the situation would be sufficiently different to make duplicating the problem unlikely. Maybe if I had a 2nd disk sitting around, I could download the install image on one machine, then move it to the other, and install on the first hard disk. This could be a second method that does not change the structure of the original hard disk. If REDHAT could sent me the two CDs, I could try it right now. Otherwise, I will have to wait till I get or get access to a CD burner, or get a spare harddisk. Let me know what you think, and whether I have made an error in my reasoning. I would like to try to carry out your request - I'm eagar to do ASAP if it can be done in the financial confines I am currently experiencing.
I forgot to mention that you can download the ISO images to a FAT partition...provided that you have the free space in Windows to do that. That would avoid the problem you mentioned above.
Any luck with this issue?
I've not yet made an attempt to reload the machine yet, as other of lifes chores have taken priority. If Disk Druid is always going to map out the disk the same way, then it will take up all the remaining partition slots - regardless of whether the install error occurs - and I don't want that.... However, I am willing to make a test install again for you guys, even though I may need to take that off. I'd like an install solution that gave me some control over physical partitioning in Red Hat, a problem I seem to only be able to solve with Partition Commander.
Well, I'd hate for you to mess up an already running system. The partitioning section of the installer is being replaced with something better, so you should not have these problems in the future. Thanks for your report.