Bug#335947: reiserfs creation in partition #1 of SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda) failed

[Frans Pop <elendil@planet.nl>]

On Friday 14 March 2008, Teodor wrote:
> Comments/Problems:
> I've performed the installation twice and each time the installer failed
> to format the partition #1 for / (1GB in size) with reiserfs file
> system. The installer tried to do this before the LVM configuration, the
> error message was:
>   Partition disks:
>   !!  The ReiserFS file system creation in partition #1 on SCSI1 (0,0,0)
>       (sda) failed.

The syslog for the installation shows the following error:
mkfs.reiserfs 3.6.19 (2003 www.namesys.com)
mkfs.reiserfs: strtol is unable to make an integer of /dev/sda1

The installer calls mkfs.reiserfs as follows:
   mkfs.reiserfs $do_label -f -q /dev/sda1
where $do_label should have been empty.

I can see nothing wrong with that command and can also not reproduce the 
error (at least not using /dev/hda1). Yours is also the first report of 
this issue.

If we want to pursue this issue, we'll need some additional information. 
Could you run the installation again, but make the following changes right 
at the beginning of the partitioning stage:
- switch to VT2
- edit the file /lib/partman/commit.d/50format-reiserfs (using nano)
- add a line "set -x" below the first line
- change the following two lines (around line 70):
                 if log-output -t partman --pass-stdout \
                    mkfs.reiserfs $do_label -f -q $device >/dev/null; then
  to:
                 if log-output -t partman \
                    mkfs.reiserfs $do_label -f -d $device; then
  (remove '--pass-stdout'; change '-q' to '-d'; remove '>/dev/null')

And then send the resulting syslog.

Cheers,
FJP