Package: installation-reports Severity: important -- Package-specific info: Boot method: USB stick Image version: Lenny RC1 amd64 netinst (http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/lenny_di_rc1/amd64/iso-cd/debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso) Date: <Date and time of the install> Machine: Athlon X2 5200+ desktop Partitions: Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000246ae Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 612 4915858+ 8e Linux LVM /dev/sda3 613 19457 151372462+ 5 Extended /dev/sda5 613 1221 4891761 83 Linux /dev/sda6 1222 3046 14659281 83 Linux /dev/sda7 3047 3169 987966 83 Linux /dev/sda8 3293 3415 987966 83 Linux /dev/sda9 3416 3538 987966 83 Linux /dev/sda10 3539 3661 987966 83 Linux /dev/sda11 3662 3784 987966 83 Linux /dev/sda12 3785 4393 4891761 83 Linux /dev/sda13 4394 5610 9775521 83 Linux /dev/sda14 5611 6827 9775521 83 Linux /dev/sda15 6828 19457 101450443+ 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00034287 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 1 732 5879758+ 8e Linux LVM /dev/sdb3 733 19457 150408562+ 83 Linux Base System Installation Checklist: [O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it Initial boot: [O] Detect network card: [O] Configure network: [O] Detect CD: [O] Load installer modules: [O] Detect hard drives: [O] Partition hard drives: [E] Install base system: [O] Clock/timezone setup: [O] User/password setup: [O] Install tasks: [O] Install boot loader: [O] Overall install: [O] Comments/Problems: The installer's partitioner appears to be unable to handle the situation where an LVM partition already exists on one of the computer's disks at the time of install. Here's the experience I had: * With my first install (on a system with no LVM partitions), the partitioner worked fine with my two SATA disks connected. I created a VG "sid" on the first disk (/dev/sda1, 5GB) with boot and root_crypt LVs, and sucessfully completed the install. * Leaving the first install untouched, I attempted a second install analogous to the first one, only on the second disk (sdb1, 6GB, VG "lenny", boot/crypt root LVs). This is where the installer crashed. I rebooted and repeated 4 times to verify, every time with the same results. I've included relevant output from two of the crashes in the attached tarball. Note that the new LVs were successfully created, judging from the contents of /dev/mapper: 253, 3 Jan 11 20:24 /dev/mapper/lenny-root 253, 2 Jan 11 20:23 /dev/mapper/lenny-boot 253, 1 Jan 11 20:20 /dev/mapper/sid-root 253, 0 Jan 11 20:20 /dev/mapper/sid-boot 10, 60 Jan 11 20:20 /dev/mapper/control * Suspecting that the presence of a pre-existing LVM volume group was crashing the installer, I experimented by deleting VG "lenny" on disk 2, moved VG "sid" to from sda to sdb1, changed the partition ID of /dev/sda1 back to "Linux" and rebooted into the installer. This time the installer crashed right away when I got to the "Partitioning" option; I wasn't even able to switch VTs to save output. So then I just physically disconnected disk 2, rebooted into the installer and did an install analogous to my first one. As I expected, everything went perfectly this time, since there were no visible LVM partitions on disk now. My conclusion: the presence of any existing LVM volume group crashes the partitioner. This is a serious problem for those who are already using LVM at the time of the install. Other than this problem, the installer worked wonderfully. My respect to the developers. There were just a few minor quibbles. For example, the search for an install image is painfully slow if you have lots of partitions and/or disks - they could be scanned more intelligently and quickly, ignoring any partitions without filesystems, encrypted partitions, etc. Also, the pppoe setup might prompt the user for the network interface connected to the Internet, instead of just blindly probing for it. -PGB -- System Information: Debian Release: 5.0 APT prefers testing APT policy: (500, 'testing') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-1 (SMP w/2 CPU cores; PREEMPT) Locale: LANG=ru_RU.UTF8, LC_CTYPE=ru_RU.UTF8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Attachment:
lenny-installer-partitioner-crash.tgz
Description: GNU Unix tar archive