Bug 855471 - Anaconda does not create a new disklabel
Summary: Anaconda does not create a new disklabel
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: anaconda
Version: 17
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Anaconda Maintenance Team
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2012-09-07 22:37 UTC by Andrew McNabb
Modified: 2012-09-11 03:25 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2012-09-11 00:02:10 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
storage.log (137.85 KB, text/x-log)
2012-09-07 22:37 UTC, Andrew McNabb
no flags Details
storage.log with no existing partition table (78.81 KB, text/plain)
2012-09-07 23:01 UTC, Andrew McNabb
no flags Details

Description Andrew McNabb 2012-09-07 22:37:49 UTC
Created attachment 610852 [details]
storage.log

With `clearpart --all --drives=sda --initlabel` in the kickstart script, Anaconda removes existing partitions but does not create a new disklabel. This machine has an existing msdos partition table on sda, so `clearpart --all --drives=sda --initlabel` would be expected to create a new GPT disklabel. I have also tried `clearpart --all --initlabel` to rule out `--drives=sda` as a potential cause.

I am attaching storage.log.

Comment 1 Andrew McNabb 2012-09-07 23:01:43 UTC
Created attachment 610855 [details]
storage.log with no existing partition table

Hmm. I don't seem to get a new GPT disklabel even if I zero out the existing partition table (see the newly attached storage.log-2).

I dug up a mailing list message hinting that the default might be msdos again in Fedora 17 (http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2012-May/107665.html), but I carefully rechecked the Fedora 17 Release Notes and found no mention of disklabels.

So now I'm not sure whether there was an undocumented change or if this bug is somehow hardware-specific. In any case, there doesn't seem to be any way to force the disklabel to be GPT (see bug #647810 and bug #834709) if msdos disk labels are the new default.

Comment 2 Brian Lane 2012-09-11 00:02:10 UTC
Pass gpt on the kernel cmdline to force it to use GPT. Beware that some BIOS's won't boot this, even with the boot flag set on the PMBR.

For F18 we are changing the behavior so that if it removes all partitions it will also create a new disklabel.

Comment 3 Andrew McNabb 2012-09-11 03:25:34 UTC
This stuff should seriously be in the release notes. These are major changes in behavior, and it's extremely frustrating to spend hours tracking down undocumented changes.


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