Re: partman problems (sparc and elsewhere)

[Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>]

On Wed, Dec 01, 2004 at 05:31:15PM +0200, Anton Zinoviev wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 01, 2004 at 03:07:54PM +0100, Sven Luther wrote:
> > > 1. Partman may not write all partition tables - some of them may be for
> > >    example USB disk we are installing from
> > 
> > So what ? 
> 
> The following is a quote from
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2004/debian-boot-200402/msg01788.html
> 
> * When it writes the partition data, I always get this error from
> partman:
> 
>     The kernel was unable to re-read the partition table on
>     /dev/scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0/disk (Device or resource busy).
> 
>   That is the usb device I booted the installer from, and I did not tell
>   partman to do anything with it (nor does it), so I do not know why it
>   displays this message.

So what ? you only change the type of the partitions you format. Since you
don't touch the usb device, it should be no problem, and if you can't change
the partition type of a partition you are formating, you have worse problems,
i believe.

> > > 2. Consequently partman may try to write only the partition tables that
> > >    contain partitions that will be used somehow by the new Debian
> > >    (partitions with some file system, with swap or booting partition)
> > 
> > Well, the idea is to write the system type only for the partition we are
> > formating, not ? 
> 
> Or partition we are mounting without formating if its type doesn't
> correspond to the file system it contains.

Well, i don't think so, not automatically at least. 

> > > 3. But if the user uses LVM or RAID partman has to write the partition
> > >    tables before it knows which of them will be used.  Latter they are
> > >    already in use and the kernel complains about changes in them
> > 
> > And ? You simply do the system flag writing at the same time you format the
> > partitions, provided they are not on a LVM or RAID device ? 
> 
> At the time when some partition is being formatted (or simply sceduled
> for mounting) the partition table may already contain physical volumes
> of activated volume groups.

So what ? a raid or LVM partition is simply a partition with a given flag. The
fact that you modify the other partition on the partition table should in no
way affect any raid or lvm partitions you have, and you should also in no way
try to put a partition table on a raid or lvm partition. It is currently
possible in partman, but it is a bug, since the kernel will then not be able
to boot the given system, nor mount them.

Friendly,

Sven Luther