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Re: Install problems: Potato / boot disks 2.2.5



Hello, e2fsprogs and kernel-image maintainers.  Do you have any notion
what could be behind the problem Terry Katz has reported?

"Terry Katz" <katz@advanced.org> writes:

> Hey Adam,
> 
> >
> > Obviously, we can't support mix-and-match slink / potato
> > installations.  At this point, the sole concern of this group is the
> > potato boot-floppies.
> 
> I used the slink install as a 'last-resort' .. after numerous attempts of
> installing potato failed, I wanted to see how a slink install would go
> (since I've installed slink on all our other systems I figured it would work
> .. my goal, was to get an os on the system, anyway I could).  I then found
> that the kernel I had on my custom-slink cd would panic .. rather than
> building another set of slink boot floppies I figured I'd use the kernel
> from potato (since it would boot without problems) to boot and install slink
> from there .. I wanted to prove (to myself) that the hardware was indeed ok
> and that perhaps there were some problems with what the potato install
> does.. and from trying that method, I did find that the slink install was
> able to format and mount the drives without any error .. (well, not really
> the install .. but the versions of mke2fs and mount on slink worked without
> err .. the equivalents on potato caused errors).
> 
> > I would appreciate, Terry, if we could focus on the install problems
> > in onto your system in the pure potato world.  You say:
> >
> > > The cd boots up fine (built it today, with the stock boot-floppies
> > > 2.2.5), both raid volumes are found and install works fine through
> > > formatting and activating of the swap partition... However, as soon
> > > as it mounts the raid filesystems (/ and /usr), a whole slew of e2fs
> > > errors appear on the screen (not sure the exact error, it was
> > > something about the inode-bitmap and wrong free block count).
> >
> > I have absolutely no idea what this is -- any clues, anyone?
> >
> > > I can continue with the install but when it copies files to the hard
> > > drive I get more of those errors (It gets into a loop asking me to
> > > configure device drivers .. just keeps asking even after I install
> > > the nic drivers).
> >
> > This sounds like unrelated problems in modconf to me.  I hope these
> > are fixed in the new modconf.  We'll be burning a new boot-floppies
> > 2.2.6 with this problem I hope fixed.
> >
> > However, for your report to be more effective, I really do need more
> > explicit information regarding at exactly what stage the errors were
> > emitted, and what the error messages exactly were.
> 
> I initially emailed from home, so i didn't have the error message handy ..
> When I get to the office, Monday, I will re-attempt the install and copy
> down the errors that happen.  The exact stage that I began seeing the
> errors, however, started after the format, when the installer asked if I
> wanted to mount the partition as the root file system.
> 
> I was able to 'force' the errors outside of the installer by dropping to a
> shell and issuing some basic commands .. I first formatted the partition
> (mke2fs /dev/sda1).. that went fine, no errors.. then I mounted it under
> /target (mount /dev/sda1 /target), which produced a couple screens full of
> e2fs errors (which I will clarify on Monday).  I then umounted the
> filesystem, and ran an fsck on it.  Fsck had continuous 'inode has dtime
> set' errors on the partition (again, will clarify the error Monday).  As a
> sanity check on the format, I would then reformat (again, without error),
> and then run an fsck on the newly formatted partition .. no errors .. try to
> mount, tons of errors.. etc...
> 
> In the installer, after mounting the partition (and getting errors), and
> further access to the disk (copying the kernel, the base system, the
> drivers, etc...) would result in screens full of errors..  I was assuming
> that perhaps the modules (or something) wasn't copied over (or modified)
> correctly .. and then for some reason the installer didn't think I
> configured the modules and just kept having that as the next step ..
> 
> I was thinking that this could be a problem with the MegaRaid driver in the
> kernel .. I wanted to get anything installed, so thats why I tried slink ..
> figured I'd install that, upgrade to potato, and then try formatting and
> mounting another partition under potato (perhaps there's a problem between
> the driver and the new ext2 format stuff?)

-- 
.....Adam Di Carlo....adam@onShore.com.....<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>


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