Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 584839
DeviceError: ('cannot replace active format', 'sda5')
Last modified: 2010-05-15 00:07:44 EDT
The following was filed automatically by anaconda: anaconda 13.21.20.5 exception report Traceback (most recent call first): File "/usr/lib/anaconda/storage/devices.py", line 697, in _setFormat raise DeviceError("cannot replace active format", self.name) File "/usr/lib/anaconda/storage/devices.py", line 1171, in _setFormat StorageDevice._setFormat(self, format) File "/usr/lib/anaconda/storage/devices.py", line 705, in <lambda> lambda d,f: d._setFormat(f), File "/usr/lib/anaconda/storage/deviceaction.py", line 259, in __init__ self.device.format = format File "/usr/lib/anaconda/iw/partition_dialog_gui.py", line 285, in run actions.append(ActionCreateFormat(usedev, format)) File "/usr/lib/anaconda/iw/partition_gui.py", line 1676, in editPartition actions = parteditor.run() File "/usr/lib/anaconda/iw/partition_gui.py", line 1640, in editCB self.editPartition(device) DeviceError: ('cannot replace active format', 'sda5')
Created attachment 408344 [details] Attached traceback automatically from anaconda.
I've burned RHEL6.0-20100414.0-AP-i386-DVD1.iso onto DVD and am installing from it onto an IBM model 8187T9U desktop system. This has two physical drives, one of which is only data. The other drive is partitioned for multi-boot, already having 4 flavors of Linux, each rooted on one partition. Anaconda is failing when selecting one of these to format as ext4 and mount on /. This partition currently has RHEL4 on it, formatted in ext3. The partition is Number 5 on hda below: # parted --list Model: Maxtor 6Y120L0 (ide) Disk /dev/hda: 120GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 32.3kB 419MB 419MB primary ext3 boot 2 419MB 120GB 120GB extended 5 420MB 42.4GB 41.9GB logical ext3 6 42.4GB 84.3GB 41.9GB logical ext3 7 84.3GB 88.5GB 4195MB logical linux-swap 8 88.5GB 104GB 15.7GB logical ext3 9 104GB 120GB 15.8GB logical ext3 Model: MAXTOR 6L040L2 (ide) Disk /dev/hdd: 40.0GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 32.3kB 2097MB 2097MB primary linux-swap boot 2 2097MB 32.7GB 30.6GB primary ext3 3 32.7GB 40.0GB 7337MB primary ext3 Here are the steps leading to the failure: ---------------------------------------- Boot from DVD. Chose "Install system with basic video driver" (The default path fails on hardware detection, but that's another matter). Language: English Keyboard: us Installation Method: installation image is on Local CD/DVD Media tested OK. In Anaconda, I selected: * Basic Storage Devices, Next. I have two ATA drives and both were listed, looking correct. I chose one. Next. I entered the FQDN Hostname when prompted. Next. Allowed default of New York time. Next. Provided a root password. Next. "Which type of installation would you like?" I chose Create Custom Layout. This selected "Review and modify partitioning layout" for me. Next. On the "Please Select a Device" pane, my drive looked correct. I selected existing sda5 and clicked Edit. In the dialog, I selected: - Format as ext4 - Mount point: / I clicked OK. A dialog reported that the unexpected exception has occurred.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 563526 ***
This defect was reproducible (e.g. it happened twice in a row). To get around it, I: - Rebooted into the RHEL5 partition - installed the package for ext4 support, then formatted the target partition, taking defaults: mkfs -t ext4 /dev/hda5 I then rebooted into the DVD install and selected that partition and clicked Edit. Given that it was already formatted for ext4, I could have left the "Format as: checkbox cleared, but I selected it as in the failing case, then chose / as the mount point. Upon clicking OK, I did NOT get the exception, so it appears to be an issue with the ext3 that had been on that partition. I can't be confident that the failure I experienced would happen with *any* other ext3 in such a disk layout or whether it was due to some corruption on my partition. I plan to smoke-test some things on RHEL6 next, but might be able to circle back to this soon - reformatting to ext3 and trying again to repro the failing case here. In the meantime, what was likely a corner case has become more so here.
Created attachment 414206 [details] Attached traceback automatically from anaconda.