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Bug 605544 - 2-disk install to sdb can fail due to no boot record in sda
Summary: 2-disk install to sdb can fail due to no boot record in sda
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Classification: Red Hat
Component: anaconda
Version: 6.0
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
low
high
Target Milestone: rc
: ---
Assignee: Hans de Goede
QA Contact: Release Test Team
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2010-06-18 08:38 UTC by Jim Meyering
Modified: 2013-03-13 20:41 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

Fixed In Version: anaconda-13.21.61-1
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2010-11-10 19:48:31 UTC
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Jim Meyering 2010-06-18 08:38:30 UTC 
Description of problem:

When installing RHEL6.0 on a system with two or more disks, if the user, wanting to protect their first disk, does not select /dev/sda in the device filter interface, then they will have no way to install a boot record in /dev/sda.  Thus, they will not be able to reboot into the just-installed system on /dev/sdb.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
rhel 6.0.  I installed from this DVD:
RHEL6.0-20100615.0-Workstation-x86_64-DVD1.iso

How reproducible: at least once


Steps to Reproduce:
1. install from the above DVD on a system with 2 or more disks
2. select only /dev/sdb in the filter interface
3. proceed with installation
4. there is no way to make grub install a boot record on /dev/sda
  
Actual results:
upon reboot, the MBR from /dev/sda is used, and we do not reboot into the just-installed system.

Expected results:
At a minimum, there should be a warning that not selecting /dev/sda may render the new system unbootable.


Additional info:
Here is the proposed solution for Fedora:
  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=598420
IMHO, while it seems late for RHEL6.0, applying that change may be justified.
A poor first-time experience is very hard to overcome when the result is an unbootable system.  We want to avoid such bad PR.

The following bugs were caused by similar confusion:
  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=592184
  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=585327
  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=592605
Comment 2 RHEL Program Management 2010-06-18 08:55:12 UTC 
This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for inclusion in a Red
Hat Enterprise Linux major release.  Product Management has requested further
review of this request by Red Hat Engineering, for potential inclusion in a Red
Hat Enterprise Linux Major release.  This request is not yet committed for
inclusion.
Comment 4 Jim Meyering 2010-07-13 14:43:36 UTC 
Filtering can be useful when you want to ensure that no partition will be used from a certain physical device.  Otherwise, it is too easy to forget that an existing swap partition on an otherwise-unused disk will still end up being used.  And that might result in unnecessarily spinning up a disk that was intended to be spun down most of the time.

Yes, this happened to me.
Comment 5 Hans de Goede 2010-07-13 14:57:50 UTC 
(In reply to comment #4)
> Filtering can be useful when you want to ensure that no partition will be used
> from a certain physical device.  Otherwise, it is too easy to forget that an
> existing swap partition on an otherwise-unused disk will still end up being
> used.  And that might result in unnecessarily spinning up a disk that was
> intended to be spun down most of the time.
> 
> Yes, this happened to me.    

If we skip the filtering UI in basic storage mode people who still need it can always get it by using the advanced storage dialog, that will work fine for people without advanced storage too.
Comment 7 Hans de Goede 2010-07-23 12:54:24 UTC 
A patch skipping the filter UI in basic mode has been committed to anaconda's rhel6-branch and will be in anaconda-13.21.61-1, moving to modified.
Comment 9 Alexander Todorov 2010-08-06 15:40:24 UTC 
With 0805.0 tree I can confirm that anaconda doesn't show the filtering screen when Basic storage is selected and system has 2 disks. Moving to VERIFIED.
Comment 10 releng-rhel@redhat.com 2010-11-10 19:48:31 UTC 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 is now available and should resolve
the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed
with a resolution of CURRENTRELEASE. You may reopen this bug report if the
solution does not work for you.
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