The option use entire hard disks causes python exception.
The option use linux partitions cause "there is no room on the discs" message.
The manual partitioning shows the discs and enable select among them, but they are unknown  type and cannot be modified.

currently the discs are in raid1 array running centos 5.

This issue has been proposed when we are only considering blocker
issues in the current Red Hat Enterprise Linux release.

** If you would still like this issue considered for the current
release, ask your support representative to file as a blocker on
your behalf. Otherwise ask that it be considered for the next
Red Hat Enterprise Linux release. **

Please attach the complete /tmp/anaconda-tb-* file you are seeing to this bug report.  In addition, titles like "anaconda still unusable" are highly subjective and downright incorrect.  Plenty of people are using anaconda every day to do installs of RHEL6.

Also please note that upgrades from RHEL5 to RHEL6 are not supported, let alone from Centos 5 to RHEL6.  But without the exact details of what you are trying to do and how it's failing, it's impossible for me to be any more specific than this.

I've tried to install rhel6 into a box known running rhel5-like system.

Created attachment 433886 [details]
tracebak in the case of use entiere disc

Created attachment 433888 [details]
attached discs

Created attachment 433889 [details]
automatic partititioning

Created attachment 433890 [details]
manual partitioning

fdisk -l from the running system


Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          32      257008+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2              33      121601   976502992+  fd  Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1          32      257008+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb2              33      121601   976502992+  fd  Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/md0: 999.9 GB, 999938981888 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 244125728 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes

Disk /dev/md0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Hi Jan,

When anaconda backtraces it writes a file with all the logs we need to the ramdisk from which anaconda is running. This file can be found under the name of
/tmp/anaconda-tb-*

Please try another install and when anaconda backtraces switch to the shell at tty2 (ctrl + alt + F2) and collect the logfile (you can for example scp it out of the installer environment), then attach the logfile here.

The screenshots are of limited use as they contain only a very small subset of all the information we need.

Created attachment 433922 [details]
anaconda log

this is only one cas of failure, there are still 2 another with no backtrace...

Jan,

Thanks for the logs!

I see the following in the logs:
11:17:00,959 DEBUG   : type detected on 'sda' is 'hpt45x_raid_member'
11:17:00,959 DEBUG   : type detected on 'sdb' is 'hpt45x_raid_member'

So these 2 disks were once part of a BIOS RAID / firmware RAID set. From there on things start falling apart. Part of the problem is that anaconda does not properly
recognize 'hpt45x_raid_member' as meaning the disks are (were ?) part of a BIOS RAID set.

Let me try to explain:

1) When choosing use entire disk, anaconda will replace the hpt45x_raid_member "format" with a normal partition table, so this option should work but you get the attached backtrace, this is a bug. I'll clone this bug for this part of the issues you are seeing.

2) When choosing remove linux partitions, no linux partitions to remove are found hence the no no freespace message, this is ok.

3) When doing manual partitioning, you cannot edit the disks as they have what we call a whole disk format (the entire disks are recognized as raid set members), thus you cannot edit them.

So summarizing I see 2 issues here:

1) anaconda does not recognize hpt45x_raid_member as meaning BIOS RAID member
2) anaconda backtraces when choosing use entire disk and all disks in the system have a whole disk using format

I'll post an updates.img for you to test to fix 1, and clone this bug for 2.

Jan,

Before I move forward with the "anaconda does not properly recognize 'hpt45x_raid_member'" part of this, can you please start the RHEL-6 installer again on this system, switch to tty2 and then run:
dmraid -ay -t -vvv &> log.txt

And attach the resulting logfile ?

Thanks,

Hans

Created attachment 433963 [details]
dmraid .... output same for installed rhel6 and for old system

Created attachment 433964 [details]
dmesg from the old system

There is no hpt raid adapter in the computer at all. The recognition as a raid member of hpt... is an error which does not disturb the old system, nor run, nor installation, but crashes the rhel6 installation.

The real problem is not crash in "use whole disc" selection... this is usual result of this selection...

The problem is that it cannot recognize the existing linux partitions and cannot handle them in the other menus (use linux partitions, manual install)...

I think that recognition as a raid member without the appropriate hardware should be displayed as a warning and can be overriden.  I did not remember when the discs were attached to the hpt controller....

The missing recognition of hpt45x_raid_member is fixed in anaconda-13.21.61-1, moving to modified.

Jan,

This fix does not directly help you, as the raid metadata on your disks is stale.
We have had the whole discussion about what to do with stale / invalid firmware RAID metatdata a number of times already, and come to the conclusion that the best thing what we can do is warn the user and ignore the disks. It is then up to the user to remove the stale BIOS RAID metatdata.

So with this patch in place, you will get 2 dialogs, first a warning that
sda and sdb will be ignored as they contain Firmware RAID metadata, but are not part of any recognized disks. And then an error that no usable disks have been found and the install cannot continue.

To remove the stale BIOS RAID metadata, you can do:
dmraid -rE /dev/sda
dmraid -rE /dev/sdb

Regards,

Hans

Hans,
thaks a lot, this solution completely fulfill my needs.
Jan

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.