From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20021003 Description of problem: The anaconda installer crashed during installation of RHL 9 The traceback indicated that LVM was at fault. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Didn't try Steps to Reproduce: 1.Manually partition 2.Create an LVM partition containing /var /data and some free space 3.Select packages and continue Actual Results: Anaconda crashed Expected Results: Partitioning and formatting. Additional info: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 936, in handleRenderCallback self.currentWindow.renderCallback() File "/usr/lib/anaconda/iw/progress_gui.py", line 155, in renderCallback self.intf.icw.nextClicked() File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 761, in nextClicked self.dispatch.gotoNext() File "/usr/lib/anaconda/dispatch.py", line 157, in gotoNext self.moveStep() File "/usr/lib/anaconda/dispatch.py", line 225, in moveStep rc = apply(func, self.bindArgs(args)) File "/usr/lib/anaconda/packages.py", line 464, in turnOnFilesystems thefsset.createLogicalVolumes(instPath) File "/usr/lib/anaconda/fsset.py", line 1130, in createLogicalVolumes entry.device.setupDevice(chroot) File "/usr/lib/anaconda/fsset.py", line 1641, in setupDevice raise SystemError, "pvcreate failed for %s" % (volume,) SystemError: pvcreate failed for <fsset.PartitionDevice instance at 0x8a67f4c> Local variables in innermost frame: volume: <fsset.PartitionDevice instance at 0x8a67f4c> node: /dev/sda5 chroot: /mnt/sysimage devPrefix: /tmp nodes: [] rc: 1280 self: <fsset.VolumeGroupDevice instance at 0x89a6274> For full dump see attachment.
Created attachment 90814 [details] Anaconda dump
What did you select to do for your partitioning?
Created attachment 91189 [details] kickstart file produced during installation
Created attachment 91190 [details] parted view of partition table
The server was a new Dell Poweredge 2650 with two SCSI drives running hardware RAID. Dell factory install a vfat partition at the beginning of the disk. I chose to automatically partition the existing structure and review changes. I kept the vfat partition and then created a large LVM partition containing /var and /data. I went through the rest of the installation options and when the installer began to format the system it crashed with the traceback shown above. I initialized the raid array to remove any existing data (including the vfat partition) and began a new installation choosing auto-partitioning again. I modified the results to give / /boot and swap with an LVM containing /var/spool/postfix /home and /var This time the installer finished and rebooted - the problem was that it had mixed the sizes of the / and swap partitions - I wanted a 2Gb swap and 7Gb / but it gave me a 7Gb swap and a 2Gb /. I have attached the kickstart file produced along with a copy of the parted view of the partition table. This shows that a 7Gb / was selected but a 2Gb / was produced. I have been through the installation a third time, selecting manual partitioning and not adding any LVM - I left enough space to add the LVM after the installation. The installation went smoothly and the machine is now in use.
Added some additional checks to prevent this from happening.