RHEL4 install format problem on Dell PowerEdge w/PERC RAID

[Thomas Walter]

I issued the dd command (below) in rescue mode and tried the RHEL4 update 
3 install again and got the same result....... format dies at 99% with a 
screenfull of error messages scrolling buy.

I was unable to determine if RAID was running in degraded mode. All boot 
messages seemed to indicate everything related to RAID is OK.

Tom



On Mon, 17 Jul 2006, Rick Stevens wrote:

> On Mon, 2006-07-17 at 11:51 -0400, Thomas Walter wrote:
> > I decided to install RHEL4 update 3 on a Dell PowerEdge 2400 that was 
> > running RH9. This machine has hardware RAID 5. The machine can't format 
> > the / (root) partition. I've tried RHEL 4 update 2 and 3 and Fedora 5. 
> > RHEL4 update 3 hangs in graphic mode but shows multiple error messages in 
> > text mode. RHEL 4 update 2 and FC5 come back with the following error 
> > message:
> > 
> > A error occurred trying to format VolGroup/LogVol00 (which is root). This 
> > problem is serious and the install cannot continue. I tried deleting the 
> > LVM related info in the next install and just use the hard disk info but 
> > received they same error with sda3. 
> > 
> > I'm not sure where to go from here. Any suggestions?
> 
> Well, the LVM doesn't surprise me.  RH9 and FC1 have a 2.4 kernel and
> use LVM1.  RHEL4 and FC2-5 have a 2.6 kernel and use LVM2.  LVM1 and
> LVM2 are NOT compatible.
> 
> However, you killed off LVM and you're still having problems.  It sounds
> a bit like the RAID is having issues.  You said it's in hardware RAID
> 5.  Are you certain the RAID isn't running in degraded mode?  If it's
> OK, then you may have to do something drastic such as stomp on the
> partition table in rescue mode and start from scratch.
> 
> To stomp on the partition table, boot in rescue mode ("linux rescue"
> at the "boot:" prompt off CD1).  Do NOT let the system try to mount
> the existing system, then:
> 
> 	# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1
> 
> That should wipe your partition table completely.  Then try to install
> normally (you can even try LVM2 stuff at that point).
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> - Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
> - VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
> -                                                                    -
> -           If it's stupid and it works...it ain't stupid!           -
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-- 




==================================================================================

Thomas Walter
Geography & Computer Science Departments
Hunter College of the City University of New York
695 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10021

(212)772-5457 Office
(212)772-5268 Fax
tbwalter at geo.hunter.cuny.edu
http://geography.hunter.cuny.edu/~tbw