From scottej23 at gmail.com Thu Aug 9 23:55:47 2012 From: scottej23 at gmail.com (Scott Johnson) Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2012 16:55:47 -0700 Subject: F17 kickstart network ethtool options not working Message-ID: During kickstart installation I need to disable auto-negotiation and manually set the interface settings to speed 100 and duplex full. Otherwise the install ends up with 100-half duplex because the switches are not using auto negotiation. I don't have control of the configuring the switches. In CentOS 6.3 kickstart installation, the following kickstart line works to change the interface settings even before the squashfs install.img is downloaded. Works like a charm. network --onboot yes --device eth0 --bootproto dhcp --noipv6 --ethtool="autoneg off duplex full speed 100" But in Fedora 17, that line no longer seems to work. I even switched the eth0 interface name to the new naming convention of p3p1. It still ends up with painfully slow half duplex. network --onboot yes --device p3p1 --bootproto dhcp --noipv6 --ethtool="autoneg off duplex full speed 100" In a related note, ethtool command isn't available in a pseudo-terminal during anaconda install in Fedora 17. The mii-tool was there so I was able to manually use that to change the interface settings. But what happened to ethtool? I confirmed that it is available during anaconda install with CentOS 6.3. Thanks. -Scott From Claude.Durocher at sct.gouv.qc.ca Fri Aug 10 02:01:33 2012 From: Claude.Durocher at sct.gouv.qc.ca (Claude Durocher) Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2012 22:01:33 -0400 Subject: AUTO : Claude Durocher est absent(e) Message-ID: Je suis absent(e) entre Sam 04/08/2012 et Dim 19/08/2012. Je vous contacterai d?s mon retour. Remarque?: ceci est une r?ponse automatique ? votre message "F17 kickstart network ethtool options not working" envoy? le 2012-08-09 19:55:47. C'est la seule notification que vous recevrez pendant l'absence de cette personne. From hawk at tbi.univie.ac.at Fri Aug 10 19:57:26 2012 From: hawk at tbi.univie.ac.at (Richard Neuboeck) Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2012 21:57:26 +0200 Subject: how to tell when biosboot partition is needed? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <502567A6.3020607@tbi.univie.ac.at> Hi List, I'm in the same predicament as Steve. My manual test installs of Fedora 17 result in msdos and gpt partition table labels. Since I'm using kickstart and a pre install script to partition the disc I would also like to find a way to determine if a biosboot partition is necessary or not. The only sure reason to install a biosboot partition I could find was a disc >= 3TB. The UEFI test system I'm using definitely has UEFI enabled and since the disc has 3TB should use EFI. But I couldn't find efi in sysfs like anaconda tries to do to determine if it's an EFI capable system. However this system gets a gpt label in my tests. But I don't know how anaconda comes to that conclusion. So right now I'm only relying on the disk size to choose the partition layout in my preinstall script. Any pointers where I can find more details or information on how to make an educated guess on how to partition would be very welcome. Thanks! Richard On 09.06.12 01:00, Steve Rikli wrote: > Is there some programmatic way within Kickstart %pre to determine > if a "biosboot" partition is needed, or at least if it is an > available option/fstype? > > Like many folks, we create a "/tmp/partitions.inc" sort of > %include file in %pre, to partition the disk. > > Starting in Fedora16 a "part biosboot ..." partition is required, > and ideally we'd like to be able to use the same %pre script to > setup partitions on all the different Linux versions we need. > > We would be okay with "wasting" 1MB and always creating a biosboot > partition for any Linux, but it's not a supported type prior to > Fedora16, so that isn't an option. > > Thanks, sr. > > _______________________________________________ Kickstart-list > mailing list Kickstart-list at redhat.com > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/kickstart-list > From sr at genyosha.net Fri Aug 10 21:41:59 2012 From: sr at genyosha.net (Steve Rikli) Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2012 14:41:59 -0700 Subject: how to tell when biosboot partition is needed? In-Reply-To: <502567A6.3020607@tbi.univie.ac.at> References: <502567A6.3020607@tbi.univie.ac.at> Message-ID: <20120810214159.GA73156@os.powerdrain.net> On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 09:57:26PM +0200, Richard Neuboeck wrote: > Hi List, > > I'm in the same predicament as Steve. My manual test installs of > Fedora 17 result in msdos and gpt partition table labels. Since I'm > using kickstart and a pre install script to partition the disc I would > also like to find a way to determine if a biosboot partition is > necessary or not. > > The only sure reason to install a biosboot partition I could find was > a disc >= 3TB. > > The UEFI test system I'm using definitely has UEFI enabled and since > the disc has 3TB should use EFI. But I couldn't find efi in sysfs like > anaconda tries to do to determine if it's an EFI capable system. > However this system gets a gpt label in my tests. But I don't know how > anaconda comes to that conclusion. I never heard/found any tips or other ideas, and I couldn't follow how Anaconda decides what to do either; so I simply started grep'ing around during a live %pre session to see what I could find. I came across /tmp/storage.log , which among many other things had a line like this: storage: registered device format class BIOSBoot as biosboot which was about the only reference I could find to "biosboot" in the live Kickstart session. I was thinking there might be something in /proc/ or /sys/ or thereabouts, but found nothing I could make use of. In any case, my %pre disk partitioning script looks for that string, and if found then it adds an entry for a biosboot partition similar to: part biosboot --size 1 --fstype biosboot This method has the advantage of being independent of disk size, and also doesn't perform additional partitioning actions on older releases where /tmp/storage.log reports nothing about biosboot. So I can keep using the same %pre script to partition old & new Fedoras, CentOS, etc. The obvious peril is Fedora may change/move/etc. the string in some future version of Anaconda, so I still occasionally keep an eye out for something a bit more programmatic/definitive; we'll see how well it holds up. Cheers, sr. > So right now I'm only relying on the disk size to choose the partition > layout in my preinstall script. > > Any pointers where I can find more details or information on how to > make an educated guess on how to partition would be very welcome. > > Thanks! > Richard > > > On 09.06.12 01:00, Steve Rikli wrote: > > Is there some programmatic way within Kickstart %pre to determine > > if a "biosboot" partition is needed, or at least if it is an > > available option/fstype? > > > > Like many folks, we create a "/tmp/partitions.inc" sort of > > %include file in %pre, to partition the disk. > > > > Starting in Fedora16 a "part biosboot ..." partition is required, > > and ideally we'd like to be able to use the same %pre script to > > setup partitions on all the different Linux versions we need. > > > > We would be okay with "wasting" 1MB and always creating a biosboot > > partition for any Linux, but it's not a supported type prior to > > Fedora16, so that isn't an option. > > > > Thanks, sr. > > From hawk at tbi.univie.ac.at Sat Aug 11 09:36:11 2012 From: hawk at tbi.univie.ac.at (Richard Neuboeck) Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2012 11:36:11 +0200 Subject: how to tell when biosboot partition is needed? In-Reply-To: <20120810214159.GA73156@os.powerdrain.net> References: <502567A6.3020607@tbi.univie.ac.at> <20120810214159.GA73156@os.powerdrain.net> Message-ID: <5026278B.1010101@tbi.univie.ac.at> Thanks! I mulled over the sources but didn't find the indicators for the final selection of gpt over msdos as partition table label. I'm not giving up yet :-) Richard On 10.08.12 23:41, Steve Rikli wrote: > On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 09:57:26PM +0200, Richard Neuboeck wrote: >> Hi List, >> >> I'm in the same predicament as Steve. My manual test installs of >> Fedora 17 result in msdos and gpt partition table labels. Since I'm >> using kickstart and a pre install script to partition the disc I would >> also like to find a way to determine if a biosboot partition is >> necessary or not. >> >> The only sure reason to install a biosboot partition I could find was >> a disc >= 3TB. >> >> The UEFI test system I'm using definitely has UEFI enabled and since >> the disc has 3TB should use EFI. But I couldn't find efi in sysfs like >> anaconda tries to do to determine if it's an EFI capable system. >> However this system gets a gpt label in my tests. But I don't know how >> anaconda comes to that conclusion. > > I never heard/found any tips or other ideas, and I couldn't follow how > Anaconda decides what to do either; so I simply started grep'ing around > during a live %pre session to see what I could find. > > I came across /tmp/storage.log , which among many other things had a line > like this: > > storage: registered device format class BIOSBoot as biosboot > > which was about the only reference I could find to "biosboot" in the > live Kickstart session. I was thinking there might be something in > /proc/ or /sys/ or thereabouts, but found nothing I could make use of. > > In any case, my %pre disk partitioning script looks for that string, and > if found then it adds an entry for a biosboot partition similar to: > > part biosboot --size 1 --fstype biosboot > > This method has the advantage of being independent of disk size, and > also doesn't perform additional partitioning actions on older releases > where /tmp/storage.log reports nothing about biosboot. So I can keep > using the same %pre script to partition old & new Fedoras, CentOS, etc. > > The obvious peril is Fedora may change/move/etc. the string in some future > version of Anaconda, so I still occasionally keep an eye out for something > a bit more programmatic/definitive; we'll see how well it holds up. > > Cheers, > sr. > > >> So right now I'm only relying on the disk size to choose the partition >> layout in my preinstall script. >> >> Any pointers where I can find more details or information on how to >> make an educated guess on how to partition would be very welcome. >> >> Thanks! >> Richard >> >> >> On 09.06.12 01:00, Steve Rikli wrote: >>> Is there some programmatic way within Kickstart %pre to determine >>> if a "biosboot" partition is needed, or at least if it is an >>> available option/fstype? >>> >>> Like many folks, we create a "/tmp/partitions.inc" sort of >>> %include file in %pre, to partition the disk. >>> >>> Starting in Fedora16 a "part biosboot ..." partition is required, >>> and ideally we'd like to be able to use the same %pre script to >>> setup partitions on all the different Linux versions we need. >>> >>> We would be okay with "wasting" 1MB and always creating a biosboot >>> partition for any Linux, but it's not a supported type prior to >>> Fedora16, so that isn't an option. >>> >>> Thanks, sr. >>> > > _______________________________________________ > Kickstart-list mailing list > Kickstart-list at redhat.com > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/kickstart-list > From hawk at tbi.univie.ac.at Tue Aug 14 07:08:10 2012 From: hawk at tbi.univie.ac.at (Richard Neuboeck) Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:08:10 +0200 Subject: how to tell when biosboot partition is needed? In-Reply-To: <5026278B.1010101@tbi.univie.ac.at> References: <502567A6.3020607@tbi.univie.ac.at> <20120810214159.GA73156@os.powerdrain.net> <5026278B.1010101@tbi.univie.ac.at> Message-ID: <5029F95A.80607@tbi.univie.ac.at> I've got an answer from David Lehman how the decision process for the usage of biosboot works in anaconda: Here is the entire decision tree: - did the system boot in EFI mode or BIOS mode? - EFI - use gpt and never make biosboot - BIOS - is the disk larger than the max for msdos (2TB)? - yes - use gpt and ensure there's a biosboot partition - no - use msdos So in my preinstall script I check for EFI capabilities and the disk size: # get disk size in GB DISKSIZE=`parted -sm /dev/$DEV unit GB print | grep -e "$DEV" | cut -d: -f2 | sed -e 's/GB$//'` if [ -e /sys/firmware/efi -o $DISKSIZE -gt 2100 ] then # bios boot partition necessary echo "part biosboot --fstype=biosboot --size=1 --ondisk=$DEV" >> $INCFILE fi HTH Richard On 11.08.12 11:36, Richard Neuboeck wrote: > Thanks! > > I mulled over the sources but didn't find the indicators for the final > selection of gpt over msdos as partition table label. > > I'm not giving up yet :-) > Richard > > On 10.08.12 23:41, Steve Rikli wrote: >> On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 09:57:26PM +0200, Richard Neuboeck wrote: >>> Hi List, >>> >>> I'm in the same predicament as Steve. My manual test installs of >>> Fedora 17 result in msdos and gpt partition table labels. Since I'm >>> using kickstart and a pre install script to partition the disc I would >>> also like to find a way to determine if a biosboot partition is >>> necessary or not. >>> >>> The only sure reason to install a biosboot partition I could find was >>> a disc >= 3TB. >>> >>> The UEFI test system I'm using definitely has UEFI enabled and since >>> the disc has 3TB should use EFI. But I couldn't find efi in sysfs like >>> anaconda tries to do to determine if it's an EFI capable system. >>> However this system gets a gpt label in my tests. But I don't know how >>> anaconda comes to that conclusion. >> >> I never heard/found any tips or other ideas, and I couldn't follow how >> Anaconda decides what to do either; so I simply started grep'ing around >> during a live %pre session to see what I could find. >> >> I came across /tmp/storage.log , which among many other things had a line >> like this: >> >> storage: registered device format class BIOSBoot as biosboot >> >> which was about the only reference I could find to "biosboot" in the >> live Kickstart session. I was thinking there might be something in >> /proc/ or /sys/ or thereabouts, but found nothing I could make use of. >> >> In any case, my %pre disk partitioning script looks for that string, and >> if found then it adds an entry for a biosboot partition similar to: >> >> part biosboot --size 1 --fstype biosboot >> >> This method has the advantage of being independent of disk size, and >> also doesn't perform additional partitioning actions on older releases >> where /tmp/storage.log reports nothing about biosboot. So I can keep >> using the same %pre script to partition old & new Fedoras, CentOS, etc. >> >> The obvious peril is Fedora may change/move/etc. the string in some future >> version of Anaconda, so I still occasionally keep an eye out for something >> a bit more programmatic/definitive; we'll see how well it holds up. >> >> Cheers, >> sr. >> >> >>> So right now I'm only relying on the disk size to choose the partition >>> layout in my preinstall script. >>> >>> Any pointers where I can find more details or information on how to >>> make an educated guess on how to partition would be very welcome. >>> >>> Thanks! >>> Richard >>> >>> >>> On 09.06.12 01:00, Steve Rikli wrote: >>>> Is there some programmatic way within Kickstart %pre to determine >>>> if a "biosboot" partition is needed, or at least if it is an >>>> available option/fstype? >>>> >>>> Like many folks, we create a "/tmp/partitions.inc" sort of >>>> %include file in %pre, to partition the disk. >>>> >>>> Starting in Fedora16 a "part biosboot ..." partition is required, >>>> and ideally we'd like to be able to use the same %pre script to >>>> setup partitions on all the different Linux versions we need. >>>> >>>> We would be okay with "wasting" 1MB and always creating a biosboot >>>> partition for any Linux, but it's not a supported type prior to >>>> Fedora16, so that isn't an option. >>>> >>>> Thanks, sr. >>>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Kickstart-list mailing list >> Kickstart-list at redhat.com >> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/kickstart-list >> > > _______________________________________________ > Kickstart-list mailing list > Kickstart-list at redhat.com > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/kickstart-list > From sr at genyosha.net Thu Aug 16 01:29:34 2012 From: sr at genyosha.net (Steve Rikli) Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:29:34 -0700 Subject: how to tell when biosboot partition is needed? In-Reply-To: <5029F95A.80607@tbi.univie.ac.at> References: <502567A6.3020607@tbi.univie.ac.at> <20120810214159.GA73156@os.powerdrain.net> <5026278B.1010101@tbi.univie.ac.at> <5029F95A.80607@tbi.univie.ac.at> Message-ID: <20120816012934.GA2306@dragon.genyosha.home> On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 09:08:10AM +0200, Richard Neuboeck wrote: > I've got an answer from David Lehman how the decision process for the > usage of biosboot works in anaconda: > > Here is the entire decision tree: > > - did the system boot in EFI mode or BIOS mode? > - EFI > - use gpt and never make biosboot > - BIOS > - is the disk larger than the max for msdos (2TB)? > - yes > - use gpt and ensure there's a biosboot partition > - no > - use msdos Either I'm not following that logic or I think something isn't behaving as advertised. Here's my situation .... I have a bog standard Dell PowerEdge 1850 -- same test machine I used in the initial Fedora 16 work that prompted me to start this thread -- which has no EFI, and boots from an old & small (20GB) SCSI disk. If I read the above correctly, I should _not_ need a biosboot partition, yet a Fedora 16 Kickstart install fails with the known partitioning error mentioned in bugzillas et al, unless I create one. What am I missing? Cheers, sr. > So in my preinstall script I check for EFI capabilities and the disk size: > > # get disk size in GB > DISKSIZE=`parted -sm /dev/$DEV unit GB print | grep -e "$DEV" | cut > -d: -f2 | sed -e 's/GB$//'` > if [ -e /sys/firmware/efi -o $DISKSIZE -gt 2100 ] > then > # bios boot partition necessary > echo "part biosboot --fstype=biosboot --size=1 --ondisk=$DEV" >> > $INCFILE > fi > > HTH > Richard > > > On 11.08.12 11:36, Richard Neuboeck wrote: > > Thanks! > > > > I mulled over the sources but didn't find the indicators for the final > > selection of gpt over msdos as partition table label. > > > > I'm not giving up yet :-) > > Richard > > > > On 10.08.12 23:41, Steve Rikli wrote: > >> On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 09:57:26PM +0200, Richard Neuboeck wrote: > >>> Hi List, > >>> > >>> I'm in the same predicament as Steve. My manual test installs of > >>> Fedora 17 result in msdos and gpt partition table labels. Since I'm > >>> using kickstart and a pre install script to partition the disc I would > >>> also like to find a way to determine if a biosboot partition is > >>> necessary or not. > >>> > >>> The only sure reason to install a biosboot partition I could find was > >>> a disc >= 3TB. > >>> > >>> The UEFI test system I'm using definitely has UEFI enabled and since > >>> the disc has 3TB should use EFI. But I couldn't find efi in sysfs like > >>> anaconda tries to do to determine if it's an EFI capable system. > >>> However this system gets a gpt label in my tests. But I don't know how > >>> anaconda comes to that conclusion. > >> > >> I never heard/found any tips or other ideas, and I couldn't follow how > >> Anaconda decides what to do either; so I simply started grep'ing around > >> during a live %pre session to see what I could find. > >> > >> I came across /tmp/storage.log , which among many other things had a line > >> like this: > >> > >> storage: registered device format class BIOSBoot as biosboot > >> > >> which was about the only reference I could find to "biosboot" in the > >> live Kickstart session. I was thinking there might be something in > >> /proc/ or /sys/ or thereabouts, but found nothing I could make use of. > >> > >> In any case, my %pre disk partitioning script looks for that string, and > >> if found then it adds an entry for a biosboot partition similar to: > >> > >> part biosboot --size 1 --fstype biosboot > >> > >> This method has the advantage of being independent of disk size, and > >> also doesn't perform additional partitioning actions on older releases > >> where /tmp/storage.log reports nothing about biosboot. So I can keep > >> using the same %pre script to partition old & new Fedoras, CentOS, etc. > >> > >> The obvious peril is Fedora may change/move/etc. the string in some future > >> version of Anaconda, so I still occasionally keep an eye out for something > >> a bit more programmatic/definitive; we'll see how well it holds up. > >> > >> Cheers, > >> sr. > >> > >> > >>> So right now I'm only relying on the disk size to choose the partition > >>> layout in my preinstall script. > >>> > >>> Any pointers where I can find more details or information on how to > >>> make an educated guess on how to partition would be very welcome. > >>> > >>> Thanks! > >>> Richard > >>> > >>> > >>> On 09.06.12 01:00, Steve Rikli wrote: > >>>> Is there some programmatic way within Kickstart %pre to determine > >>>> if a "biosboot" partition is needed, or at least if it is an > >>>> available option/fstype? > >>>> > >>>> Like many folks, we create a "/tmp/partitions.inc" sort of > >>>> %include file in %pre, to partition the disk. > >>>> > >>>> Starting in Fedora16 a "part biosboot ..." partition is required, > >>>> and ideally we'd like to be able to use the same %pre script to > >>>> setup partitions on all the different Linux versions we need. > >>>> > >>>> We would be okay with "wasting" 1MB and always creating a biosboot > >>>> partition for any Linux, but it's not a supported type prior to > >>>> Fedora16, so that isn't an option. > >>>> > >>>> Thanks, sr. > >>>> From vpodzime at redhat.com Thu Aug 16 07:46:32 2012 From: vpodzime at redhat.com (Vratislav Podzimek) Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:46:32 +0200 Subject: how to tell when biosboot partition is needed? In-Reply-To: <20120816012934.GA2306@dragon.genyosha.home> References: <502567A6.3020607@tbi.univie.ac.at> <20120810214159.GA73156@os.powerdrain.net> <5026278B.1010101@tbi.univie.ac.at> <5029F95A.80607@tbi.univie.ac.at> <20120816012934.GA2306@dragon.genyosha.home> Message-ID: <1345103192.2516.49.camel@vpodzime.anaconda.englab.brq.redhat.com> On Wed, 2012-08-15 at 18:29 -0700, Steve Rikli wrote: > On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 09:08:10AM +0200, Richard Neuboeck wrote: > > I've got an answer from David Lehman how the decision process for the > > usage of biosboot works in anaconda: > > > > Here is the entire decision tree: > > > > - did the system boot in EFI mode or BIOS mode? > > - EFI > > - use gpt and never make biosboot > > - BIOS > > - is the disk larger than the max for msdos (2TB)? > > - yes > > - use gpt and ensure there's a biosboot partition > > - no > > - use msdos > > Either I'm not following that logic or I think something isn't behaving > as advertised. Here's my situation .... > > I have a bog standard Dell PowerEdge 1850 -- same test machine I used in > the initial Fedora 16 work that prompted me to start this thread -- which > has no EFI, and boots from an old & small (20GB) SCSI disk. > > If I read the above correctly, I should _not_ need a biosboot partition, > yet a Fedora 16 Kickstart install fails with the known partitioning error > mentioned in bugzillas et al, unless I create one. > > What am I missing? I believe this logic applies only to Fedora 17. In Fedora 16, there was an attempt to have all systems using GPT (and thus some of them biosboot partition), unless you used 'nogpt' command line option. However it appeared that some systems have problems with such setups and thus aforementioned logic was introduced in Fedora 17. -- Vratislav Podzimek Anaconda Rider | Red Hat, Inc. | Brno - Czech Republic From hawk at tbi.univie.ac.at Thu Aug 16 12:10:40 2012 From: hawk at tbi.univie.ac.at (Richard Neuboeck) Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:10:40 +0200 Subject: how to tell when biosboot partition is needed? In-Reply-To: <1345103192.2516.49.camel@vpodzime.anaconda.englab.brq.redhat.com> References: <502567A6.3020607@tbi.univie.ac.at> <20120810214159.GA73156@os.powerdrain.net> <5026278B.1010101@tbi.univie.ac.at> <5029F95A.80607@tbi.univie.ac.at> <20120816012934.GA2306@dragon.genyosha.home> <1345103192.2516.49.camel@vpodzime.anaconda.englab.brq.redhat.com> Message-ID: <502CE340.4070607@tbi.univie.ac.at> On 16.08.12 09:46, Vratislav Podzimek wrote: > On Wed, 2012-08-15 at 18:29 -0700, Steve Rikli wrote: >> On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 09:08:10AM +0200, Richard Neuboeck wrote: >>> I've got an answer from David Lehman how the decision process for the >>> usage of biosboot works in anaconda: >>> >>> Here is the entire decision tree: >>> >>> - did the system boot in EFI mode or BIOS mode? >>> - EFI >>> - use gpt and never make biosboot >>> - BIOS >>> - is the disk larger than the max for msdos (2TB)? >>> - yes >>> - use gpt and ensure there's a biosboot partition >>> - no >>> - use msdos >> >> Either I'm not following that logic or I think something isn't behaving >> as advertised. Here's my situation .... >> >> I have a bog standard Dell PowerEdge 1850 -- same test machine I used in >> the initial Fedora 16 work that prompted me to start this thread -- which >> has no EFI, and boots from an old & small (20GB) SCSI disk. >> >> If I read the above correctly, I should _not_ need a biosboot partition, >> yet a Fedora 16 Kickstart install fails with the known partitioning error >> mentioned in bugzillas et al, unless I create one. >> >> What am I missing? > I believe this logic applies only to Fedora 17. In Fedora 16, there was > an attempt to have all systems using GPT (and thus some of them biosboot > partition), unless you used 'nogpt' command line option. However it > appeared that some systems have problems with such setups and thus > aforementioned logic was introduced in Fedora 17. > I can confirm, with several installs on different systems, that the decision tree David sent is working in Fedora 17 the way it should. Fedora 16 didn't get used in our institution but the documentation states that gpt is the default. May be you can solve your problem by checking the distribution type you are installing and applying appropriate partition options. So you don't have to depend on the storage log file. Richard From sr at genyosha.net Thu Aug 16 13:29:24 2012 From: sr at genyosha.net (Steve Rikli) Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 06:29:24 -0700 Subject: how to tell when biosboot partition is needed? In-Reply-To: <502CE340.4070607@tbi.univie.ac.at> References: <502567A6.3020607@tbi.univie.ac.at> <20120810214159.GA73156@os.powerdrain.net> <5026278B.1010101@tbi.univie.ac.at> <5029F95A.80607@tbi.univie.ac.at> <20120816012934.GA2306@dragon.genyosha.home> <1345103192.2516.49.camel@vpodzime.anaconda.englab.brq.redhat.com> <502CE340.4070607@tbi.univie.ac.at> Message-ID: <20120816132924.GA7455@dragon.genyosha.home> On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 02:10:40PM +0200, Richard Neuboeck wrote: > On 16.08.12 09:46, Vratislav Podzimek wrote: > > On Wed, 2012-08-15 at 18:29 -0700, Steve Rikli wrote: > >> On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 09:08:10AM +0200, Richard Neuboeck wrote: > >>> I've got an answer from David Lehman how the decision process for the > >>> usage of biosboot works in anaconda: > >>> > >>> Here is the entire decision tree: > >>> > >>> - did the system boot in EFI mode or BIOS mode? > >>> - EFI > >>> - use gpt and never make biosboot > >>> - BIOS > >>> - is the disk larger than the max for msdos (2TB)? > >>> - yes > >>> - use gpt and ensure there's a biosboot partition > >>> - no > >>> - use msdos > >> > >> Either I'm not following that logic or I think something isn't behaving > >> as advertised. Here's my situation .... > >> > >> I have a bog standard Dell PowerEdge 1850 -- same test machine I used in > >> the initial Fedora 16 work that prompted me to start this thread -- which > >> has no EFI, and boots from an old & small (20GB) SCSI disk. > >> > >> If I read the above correctly, I should _not_ need a biosboot partition, > >> yet a Fedora 16 Kickstart install fails with the known partitioning error > >> mentioned in bugzillas et al, unless I create one. > >> > >> What am I missing? > > > > I believe this logic applies only to Fedora 17. In Fedora 16, there was > > an attempt to have all systems using GPT (and thus some of them biosboot > > partition), unless you used 'nogpt' command line option. However it > > appeared that some systems have problems with such setups and thus > > aforementioned logic was introduced in Fedora 17. > > I can confirm, with several installs on different systems, that the > decision tree David sent is working in Fedora 17 the way it should. Alright, the behavior changed -- *that* I can understand. :-) > Fedora 16 didn't get used in our institution but the documentation > states that gpt is the default. May be you can solve your problem by > checking the distribution type you are installing and applying > appropriate partition options. So you don't have to depend on the > storage log file. We specifically want to avoid doing anything like a lookup table (e.g. "if F16 do this, if F17 do this" etc.) in favor of more programmatic solutions. Unless you mean something else when you say "distribution type"? We're OK with creating a biosboot partition whether it's strictly needed or not. Even on the older systems we still run, 1MB is not going to hurt us. But what we can't afford to do is try to install a biosboot partition on distributions where it isn't yet supported (e.g. CentOS 6.3) and cause an installation failure. For a time we were forced to use a different %pre script for disk partitioning between biosboot and non-biosboot installs, but that's not very different from the lookup table idea, so is sub-optimal for us. Right now, grep'ing through the storage.log file is functional enough for us in F16 & F17, without interfering with older/other distributions, so it's satisfactory. But some of the other ideas in this thread (/sys/firmware/ etc.) may be useful for us too. Thanks, sr. From megha_dtel at yahoo.com Wed Aug 29 08:24:45 2012 From: megha_dtel at yahoo.com (Megha Agrawal) Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2012 01:24:45 -0700 (PDT) Subject: installation halts at two different points Message-ID: <1346228685.51556.YahooMailNeo@web114514.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Hello, ? I am using kickstart to automate?CentOS 5.5?installation. I have successfully burnt an iso and installed using this. Next I added a few more packages to this iso and this time when I try installing, it went on smoothly until in the end where it got stuck saying "installing boot loader". Nothing happened afterwards. ? I ejected the DVD, put it back and then tried once again - this time installer halts in the very beginning at "Running Anaconda the CentOS system installer .. please wait.. ". ? Subsequent attempts keep halting in the beginning at "Running Anaconda the CentOS system installer .. please wait.. ". ? What could have been going wrong? I have only added a few packages/rpms this time. ? Thank you, ? Megha -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Moray.Henderson at ict-software.org Thu Aug 30 11:16:51 2012 From: Moray.Henderson at ict-software.org (Moray Henderson) Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:16:51 +0100 Subject: installation halts at two different points In-Reply-To: <1346228685.51556.YahooMailNeo@web114514.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> References: <1346228685.51556.YahooMailNeo@web114514.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <000001cd86a0$f5574900$e005db00$@Henderson@ict-software.org> From: Megha Agrawal [mailto:megha_dtel at yahoo.com] Sent: 29 August 2012 09:25 I am using kickstart to automate CentOS 5.5 installation. I have successfully burnt an iso and installed using this. Next I added a few more packages to this iso and this time when I try installing, it went on smoothly until in the end where it got stuck saying "installing boot loader". Nothing happened afterwards. I ejected the DVD, put it back and then tried once again - this time installer halts in the very beginning at "Running Anaconda the CentOS system installer .. please wait.. ". Subsequent attempts keep halting in the beginning at "Running Anaconda the CentOS system installer .. please wait.. ". What could have been going wrong? I have only added a few packages/rpms this time. That's quite an old CentOS you're using - the supported one is 5.8. One possibility is a corrupt DVD. Now that you've changed the contents of the DVD the built-in iso checksum won't work, but you could generate checksums of every file in your source directory and compare them with checksums read from the DVD. Alt-F2, -F3 and -F4 switch you to a shell and debug consoles. Alt-F1 gives the install console again. ps at the shell prompt can show what's going on in the installer, and the debug consoles may contain useful error messages. Moray. "To err is human; to purr, feline." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From megha_dtel at yahoo.com Thu Aug 30 14:05:32 2012 From: megha_dtel at yahoo.com (Megha Agrawal) Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2012 07:05:32 -0700 (PDT) Subject: installation halts at two different points In-Reply-To: <000001cd86a0$f5574900$e005db00$@Henderson@ict-software.org> References: <1346228685.51556.YahooMailNeo@web114514.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> <000001cd86a0$f5574900$e005db00$@Henderson@ict-software.org> Message-ID: <1346335532.36721.YahooMailNeo@web114514.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> I changed the DVD content however I?had checksum implanted on the new iso before burning the DVD. I used implantisomd5 for this. Wouldn't that take care of?iso checksum? ? I also don't see shell?or debug consoles when I press Alt-F2/3/4. This will?aid me in troubleshooting?if somehow I can see the details of what is going on during the installation. ? I tried booting into rescue mode?as well?however I don't see any relevant logs from the previous installation attempt. I certainly can use some pointers here. ? Thank you so much! ?? ________________________________ From: Moray Henderson To: 'Megha Agrawal' ; 'Discussion list about Kickstart' Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2012 4:46 PM Subject: RE: installation halts at two different points From:Megha Agrawal [mailto:megha_dtel at yahoo.com] Sent: 29 August 2012 09:25 I am using kickstart to automate?CentOS 5.5?installation. I have successfully burnt an iso and installed using this. Next I added a few more packages to this iso and this time when I try installing, it went on smoothly until in the end where it got stuck saying "installing boot loader". Nothing happened afterwards. ? I ejected the DVD, put it back and then tried once again - this time installer halts in the very beginning at "Running Anaconda the CentOS system installer .. please wait.. ". ? Subsequent attempts keep halting in the beginning at "Running Anaconda the CentOS system installer .. please wait.. ". ? What could have been going wrong? I have only added a few packages/rpms this time. ? That?s quite an old CentOS you?re using ? the supported one is 5.8. ? ? One possibility is a corrupt DVD.? Now that you?ve changed the contents of the DVD the built-in iso checksum won?t work, but you could generate checksums of every file in your source directory and compare them with checksums read from the DVD. ? Alt-F2, -F3 and -F4 switch you to a shell and debug consoles.? Alt-F1 gives the install console again.? ps at the shell prompt can show what?s going on in the installer, and the debug consoles may contain useful error messages. ? ? Moray. ?To err is human; to purr, feline.? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: