Bug#496093: Installer breaks with RAID, LVM, Encryption
Package: installation-reports
Boot method: Businesscard CD, Snapshot from 2008-08-22
Image version: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/daily/arch-latest/i386/iso-cd/debian-testing-i386-businesscard.iso
Date: 2008-08-22
Machine: VirtualBox 1.6.4 (running on Windows XP Pro SP3)
Processor: virtual (VM), Core 2 Duo (host)
Memory: 512MB (VM), 3GB (host)
Partitions: see below
Output of lspci -nn and lspci -vnn:
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: [ ]
Clock/timezone setup: [ ]
User/password setup: [ ]
Install tasks: [ ]
Install boot loader: [ ]
Overall install: [ ]
Comments/Problems:
I have the following goal for a new file server. Since I would like to test data security/safety before installing the real machine, I tried it on a VM with VirtualBox 1.6.4 (Windows). (The behavior could be reproduced with VMware Server 1.0.6, as well.)
VirtualBox supports SATA disks. I created three 2GB SATA disks.
My goal:
250M /dev/sd[abc]5 --> RAID1: /dev/md0 --> ext3 --> /boot
500M /dev/sd[abc]6 --> crypt (random key) --> swap
1.4G /dev/sd[abc]7 --> RAID5: /dev/md1 --> LVM: vg1 --> LV: /dev/mapper/vg1-root --> crypt (password) --> /
- Use crypt and RAID5 for the root partition to keep the data safe and secure.
- Keep /boot on a RAID1 to be bootable.
- Use three swap partitions to keep the same HDD layout on all disks.
Steps taken to get to the goal:
1. Partition disks
a. /dev/sd[abc]5: 250M, raid
b. /dev/sd[abc]6: 500M, crypt (random key)
c. /dev/sd[abc]7: 1.4G, raid
2. Configure software RAID
a. /dev/md0: RAID1, /dev/sd[abc]5
b. /dev/md1: RAID5, /dev/sd[abc]7
3. Partition disks
a. /dev/md1: lvm
4. Configure LVM
a. /dev/md1: volume group (name: vg1)
b. vg1: Create LV (name: root, size: 2G)
5. Partition disks
a. /dev/mapper/vg1-root: crypt (passphrase)
6. Configure encrypted volumes
a. /dev/sd[abc]6 are automatically set up (swap)
b. /dev/mapper/vg1-root_crypt is automatically set up (ext3)
7. Partition disks
a. /dev/mapper/vg1-root_crypt: ext3, /
b. /dev/md0: ext3, /boot
(In short: Create all partitions, create all RAID volumes, create LVM volume, create encrypted volumes, set mountpoints.)
But the installer crashes and automatically restarts after step 4 (LVM). When it restarts, the main menu is seen. Selecting "Partiton disks" will lead to the progress bar being stuck at 52%. Game over.
The restart message was: init: init: process '/bin/cttyhack /sbin/debian-installer' (pid 1002) exited. Scheduling for restart.
Since I tried it in a VirtualBox VM, I guess this can be very easily reproduced.
The problem of the installer crashing did *not* occur with beta 2 of the installer. However, the encrypted swap-on-RAID didn't work properly. (I think this issue has been solved in the meantime.)
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