Bug 789 - Flaw in install program prohibits most FTP installs
Summary: Flaw in install program prohibits most FTP installs
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Linux
Classification: Retired
Component: installer
Version: 5.2
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Matt Wilson
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 1999-01-12 07:25 UTC by mobrien
Modified: 2018-04-04 08:37 UTC (History)
0 users

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 1999-01-12 17:17:40 UTC
Embargoed:


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System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Certification Workflow Engine(Live) 789 0 None None None 2018-04-04 08:37:18 UTC

Description mobrien 1999-01-12 07:25:06 UTC
The redhat install program has a problem which makes it very
difficult to do FTP installs.  The install sequence is

partition disks
download some files from the FTP site
CHOOSE PACKAGES
FORMAT PARTITIONS
download RPMS

The two steps shown in all-caps together take so much time
that FTP servers will disconnect the computer due to lack of
activity!  One cannot simply bypass the format step because
the install program builds a broken RPM database on the
partition, which causes install to crash on a second install
attempt when it tries to write the RPMs to disk in the last
step.

A workaround is to format two partitions in a first run of
install, with the smaller one assigned to the / mound point.
 This partition gets a corrupted RPM database when install
crashes.  The second formatted partition can be used at the
/ mount point in a second install attempt.  It has no broken
RPM database.  Since the user doesn't have to format the
partition, the FTP server doesn't disconnect the computer
due to inactivity.

This flaw should be very easy to fix.

Comment 1 Jay Turner 1999-01-12 17:01:59 UTC
This has been verified and will hopefully be fixed in the next release
of Red Hat.

Comment 2 Matt Wilson 1999-01-12 17:17:59 UTC
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 583 ***


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