Description of problem: Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Try installing to HDD again (I've tried this three times now) Steps to Reproduce: 1.Start installer from live CD 2.Specify configuration 3.Launch installer Actual results: unhandled exception after 15+ minutes. Significant messages: /dev/sda5: read failed after 0 of 2048 at 0: Input/output error ... Unable to add physical volume '/dev/sda5' to volume group 'VolGroup00'. Expected results: A working Linux system... Additional info: Summary: trying to install to free space on HDD, anaconda gets an unhandled exception after 15+ minutes. Significant messages: /dev/sda5: read failed after 0 of 2048 at 0: Input/output error ... Unable to add physical volume '/dev/sda5' to volume group 'VolGroup00'. Here briefly what I tried. Machine in five lines: - Alienware Area-51 7500 R5 PC: 2 GB RAB, Intel Core duo E4500 @ 2.2 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT (512 MB). - NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard - Disk: ST325041 0AS SCSI Disk Device. - 206.09 GB NTFS (C:) - 19.53 GB (unallocated, size of C: reduced from within Vista) - 7.26 GB RAW (E:) - Vista Home Premium, 32-bit OS (which I want to keep!). - Bios: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG, version: ALWARE - 42302e31 Fdisk reports: Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x7a591861 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 26904 216101537 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda2 29454 30401 7611392 7 HPFS/NTFS Using Fedora-8-Live-x86_64 live DVD downloaded a few weeks ago. No USB or firewire devices attached. The live CD works fine for everything I tried. Double-clicked installer, with following choices: - Use free space on disk (the 19 GB), review layout - In VG00, removed the swap partition (pretty useless with 2G RAM) - So the setup looked like this: sda sda1 ntfs 211037 MB (Vista C:) (free) 5 MB sda3 /boot 196 MB format checkmark sda4 extended 19799 MB sda5 VG00 19799 MB format checkmark (free) 3 MB sda2 ntfs 7433 MB (Vista E:) - Selected no GRUB (I want to use NeoGRUB from Vista) - Selected eth2 Started the install at 7:46 PM No progress in progress bar Ten minutes later, ctrl-atl-F1, ps -aux shows one task started at 7:46, /live/udev/vol_d --export /dev/.tmp-8-5 A bit later, at 20:02, I see a new task, lvm vgscan -v A bit later, at 20:04, I see a new task, lvm vgcreate ... Then back on ctrl-atl-F7, I see the exception attached. The main problem seems to be (from lvmout): /dev/sda5: read failed after 0 of 2048 at 0: Input/output error Wiping cache of LVM-capable devices /dev/sda5: read failed after 0 of 2048 at 0: Input/output error /dev/sda5: read failed after 0 of 2048 at 0: Input/output error No physical volume label read from /dev/sda5 /dev/sda5 not identified as an existing physical volume Unable to add physical volume '/dev/sda5' to volume group 'VolGroup00'. As a side note, on rebooting Vista, the system is verry slow. Cleaning up the new partitions fixes things (as I learned in an earlier attempt).
Created attachment 298171 [details] anacdump.txt + anaconda.log
OUPS, forgot to put a DESCRIPTION: Trying to install to free space on HDD, anaconda gets an unhandled exception after 15+ minutes. Significant messages: /dev/sda5: read failed after 0 of 2048 at 0: Input/output error ... Unable to add physical volume '/dev/sda5' to volume group 'VolGroup00'.
There are read errors from your drive here. Are you sure your hard drive isn't failing?
Well, that HDD works fine with Vista, has never given trouble. Yes it does suggest drive problems, but not plain failure, rather some kind of incompatibility. I've browsed the web, but haven't found a conclusive answer. Linux does have drivers for SATA, but is the chipset I have supported? Maybe that's the root problem. The anaconda unhandled exception asked me to open a bug report, perhaps that will get me closer to an answer... Side question. I was surprised that 15+ minutes into the install, we were just beginning to do lvm vgcreate. What happened before?
Have you encountered the same problem with Fedora 9?
I have not tried with Fedora 9. I haven't read anything in the release notes that suggests this problem might have been fixed, and there hasn't been much action on this bug. Do you think it is worth a try?
It probably is worth a try, at the very least so we know if it's still happening or if it got fixed (either deliberately or incidentally). Since there are read issues, it could also be a problem with your harddrive.
Well, notwithstanding my doubts, it was a disk problem. Two months after the above attempts, the HDD died in Vista, and refused to let Vista be re-installed. I finally got a replacement drive, and installing Fedora 9 on it was a breeze. So I guess that closes this ticket. I suspect the disk problems were in the area where Linux tried to install, whereas Vista was at the bottom of the disk, far away from the trouble area. But eventually, the disease spread...