SUSE 9.1 Autoyast woes
Hello:
I'm new to SUSE and autoyast. I've been using Red Hat for years now
and automating installations with their Kickstart scheme. Since
Fedora, I've been looking for a better distribution, and SUSE, once
installed, seems to be very nice. Everything's there and already
nicely configured for my average user.
Autoyast, however, is eluding me. So far, I realize that I need a
floppy disk with an 'info' file to load the right network interface
modules and assign the IP address, etc. I've generated an autoinst.xml
file using the 'autoyast' module of yast2, but the install seems to
ignore my disk partitioning directives. I want yast to wipe the drive
of existing partitions and make 4 new ones: /, swap, /boot, and /home.
Here's an excerpt from my autoinst.xml file that's supposed to be doing
this:
<partitioning config:type="list">
<drive>
<device>/dev/hda</device>
<initialize config:type="boolean">true</initialize>
<partitions config:type="list">
<partition>
<crypt>twofish256</crypt>
<filesystem config:type="symbol">reiser</filesystem>
<format config:type="boolean">true</format>
As far as filling up the file system is concerned, will you confirm whether your disk is sd or hd?
Peter Schwenk
It's hd, and yast's error messages regarding not being able to format & mount indicate as such. On May 25, 2004, at 9:54 AM, anna cheng wrote:
As far as filling up the file system is concerned, will you confirm whether your disk is sd or hd?
-- - Peter A. Schwenk | Mathematical Sciences - schwenk@math.udel.edu | University of Delaware - (302) 831-0437 | Newark, DE 19716-2553 USA
Oh, when I referred to the file system filling up during the install, that happens when I choose 'continue' during the installation when it complains about not being able to mount the partitions. No partitions are mounted, therefore the mounted filesystem is just the ramdisk created by yast for the installation. On May 25, 2004, at 9:54 AM, anna cheng wrote:
As far as filling up the file system is concerned, will you confirm whether your disk is sd or hd?
-- - Peter A. Schwenk | Mathematical Sciences - schwenk@math.udel.edu | University of Delaware - (302) 831-0437 | Newark, DE 19716-2553 USA
On Tue, 25 May 2004, Peter Schwenk wrote:
While yast is running, it looks like it is trying to partition, format, and mount the partitions, but it isn't successful.
For what its worth, I ran into an almost identical problem this afternoon with SuSE 9.1. I'm using: <partitioning config:type="list"> <drive> <device>/dev/sda</device> <initialize config:type="boolean">true</initialize> <use>all</use> <partitions config:type="list"> <partition> <mount>/</mount> <size>2g</size> <filesystem config:type="symbol">ext3</filesystem> <format config:type="boolean">true</format> </partition> <partition> <mount>swap</mount> <size>2gb</size> </partition> <partition> <mount>/var</mount> <size>2g</size> <filesystem config:type="symbol">ext3</filesystem> <format config:type="boolean">true</format> </partition> <partition> <mount>/spool</mount> <size>max</size> <filesystem config:type="symbol">ext3</filesystem> <format config:type="boolean">true</format> </partition> </partitions> </drive> </partitioning> This configuration seems to works without any problems on 9.0. The partitioning scheme generates a correct partition table under 9.1: /dev/sda1 * 1 22337 179421921 5 Extended /dev/sda5 1 262 2104452 83 Linux /dev/sda6 263 524 2104483+ 82 Linux swap /dev/sda7 525 786 2104483+ 83 Linux /dev/sda8 787 22337 173108376 83 Linux But then bails out with the error message: "Could not format /dev/sda8. You can continue if you know what you are doing, but, to prevent damage to you filesystem it is safer to cancel and reboot." As far as I can tell, the problem appears to be that something is failing to create the device special file for /dev/sda8 (sda5, sda6 and sda7 are all created without problems). If I switch to a tty with a shell prompt and run the following by hand: mknod /dev/sda8 b 8 8 and then hit "retry" within YaST, everything works just fine. I also found that if I boot into a rescue environment and clear out the partition table by hand using fdisk, the following AutoYaST run works without problems. -- David Carter Email: David.Carter@ucs.cam.ac.uk University Computing Service, Phone: (01223) 334502 New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Fax: (01223) 334679 Cambridge UK. CB2 3QH.
Could you please try with <initialize config:type="boolean">false</initialize>? Additionally it would be nice if you could send me the log files from /var/log/YaST2 off the list. Thanks, Anas David Carter wrote:
On Tue, 25 May 2004, Peter Schwenk wrote:
While yast is running, it looks like it is trying to partition, format, and mount the partitions, but it isn't successful.
For what its worth, I ran into an almost identical problem this afternoon with SuSE 9.1. I'm using:
<partitioning config:type="list"> <drive> <device>/dev/sda</device> <initialize config:type="boolean">true</initialize> <use>all</use> <partitions config:type="list"> <partition> <mount>/</mount> <size>2g</size> <filesystem config:type="symbol">ext3</filesystem> <format config:type="boolean">true</format> </partition> <partition> <mount>swap</mount> <size>2gb</size> </partition> <partition> <mount>/var</mount> <size>2g</size> <filesystem config:type="symbol">ext3</filesystem> <format config:type="boolean">true</format> </partition> <partition> <mount>/spool</mount> <size>max</size> <filesystem config:type="symbol">ext3</filesystem> <format config:type="boolean">true</format> </partition> </partitions> </drive> </partitioning>
This configuration seems to works without any problems on 9.0.
The partitioning scheme generates a correct partition table under 9.1:
/dev/sda1 * 1 22337 179421921 5 Extended /dev/sda5 1 262 2104452 83 Linux /dev/sda6 263 524 2104483+ 82 Linux swap /dev/sda7 525 786 2104483+ 83 Linux /dev/sda8 787 22337 173108376 83 Linux
But then bails out with the error message:
"Could not format /dev/sda8.
You can continue if you know what you are doing, but, to prevent damage to you filesystem it is safer to cancel and reboot."
As far as I can tell, the problem appears to be that something is failing to create the device special file for /dev/sda8 (sda5, sda6 and sda7 are all created without problems).
If I switch to a tty with a shell prompt and run the following by hand:
mknod /dev/sda8 b 8 8
and then hit "retry" within YaST, everything works just fine. I also found that if I boot into a rescue environment and clear out the partition table by hand using fdisk, the following AutoYaST run works without problems.
On Tue, 25 May 2004, Anas Nashif wrote:
Could you please try with <initialize config:type="boolean">false</initialize>?
That seems to have worked much better. Can we fake up "initialize" using preinstall scripts?
Additionally it would be nice if you could send me the log files from /var/log/YaST2 off the list.
Will do so. -- David Carter Email: David.Carter@ucs.cam.ac.uk University Computing Service, Phone: (01223) 334502 New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Fax: (01223) 334679 Cambridge UK. CB2 3QH.
David Carter wrote:
On Tue, 25 May 2004, Anas Nashif wrote:
Could you please try with <initialize config:type="boolean">false</initialize>?
That seems to have worked much better.
Can we fake up "initialize" using preinstall scripts?
Usually you dont have to initialize the dist, unless you have a nasty partition table on there. I am trying now to see why this happens. It seems the devices are not really there when dd is used to initialize them. Some oddity I also have seen elsewhere and is now fixed, not in 9.1 tree though. Anas
Additionally it would be nice if you could send me the log files from /var/log/YaST2 off the list.
Will do so.
Well, that makes me feel less insane than I usually do! ;-) On May 25, 2004, at 11:03 AM, David Carter wrote:
On Tue, 25 May 2004, Peter Schwenk wrote:
For what its worth, I ran into an almost identical problem this afternoon with SuSE 9.1. I'm using:
-- - Peter A. Schwenk | Mathematical Sciences - schwenk@math.udel.edu | University of Delaware - (302) 831-0437 | Newark, DE 19716-2553 USA
Peter Schwenk wrote:
Hello:
<partitioning config:type="list"> <drive> <device>/dev/hda</device> <initialize config:type="boolean">true</initialize> <partitions config:type="list"> <partition> <crypt>twofish256</crypt> <filesystem config:type="symbol">reiser</filesystem> <format config:type="boolean">true</format>
false <mount>/</mount>131 <size>10000</size> </partition> <partition> <crypt>twofish256</crypt> <filesystem config:type="symbol">ext2</filesystem> <format config:type="boolean">true</format>false <mount>/boot</mount>131 <size>auto</size> </partition> <partition> <crypt>twofish256</crypt> <filesystem config:type="symbol">swap</filesystem> <format config:type="boolean">true</format>false <mount>swap</mount>130 <size>auto</size> </partition> <partition> <crypt>twofish256</crypt> <filesystem config:type="symbol">reiser</filesystem> <format config:type="boolean">true</format>false <mount>/home</mount>131 <size>max</size> </partition> </partitions> <use>all</use> </drive> </partitioning>
Greetings. Myself I am a newbie, but might I suggest that you try to remove a few entries? By trial and error, you might get it working. I get AutoYaST repartition an existing drive, but my partitionning scheme is way simpler than yours (/boot, swap, /). Remove all partition_id, loop_fs and format entries. For your /boot, set a specific size, instead of "auto". Then try it. You might want to remove crypt just to try if this help, even though you require encryption. Here is mine, which clear the drive completely: <partitioning config:type="list"> <drive> <device>/dev/hda</device> <use>all</use> <partitions config:type="list"> <partition> <mount>/boot</mount> <filesystem config:type="symbol">reiserfs</filesystem> <size>128mb</size> </partition> <partition> <mount>swap</mount> <size>auto</size> </partition> <partition> <mount>/</mount> <filesystem config:type="symbol">reiserfs</filesystem> <size>max</size> </partition> </partitions> </drive> </partitioning> Simple, uh? Best regards, Hans Deragon -- Consultant en informatique/Software Consultant Deragon Informatique inc. Open source: http://www.deragon.biz http://facil.qc.ca (Promotion du libre) mailto://hans@deragon.biz http://autopoweroff.sourceforge.net (Logiciel)
Hi, I found something that might be the cause, see below:. Peter Schwenk wrote:
Hello:
I'm new to SUSE and autoyast. I've been using Red Hat for years now and automating installations with their Kickstart scheme. Since Fedora, I've been looking for a better distribution, and SUSE, once installed, seems to be very nice. Everything's there and already nicely configured for my average user.
Autoyast, however, is eluding me. So far, I realize that I need a floppy disk with an 'info' file to load the right network interface modules and assign the IP address, etc. I've generated an autoinst.xml file using the 'autoyast' module of yast2, but the install seems to ignore my disk partitioning directives. I want yast to wipe the drive of existing partitions and make 4 new ones: /, swap, /boot, and /home. Here's an excerpt from my autoinst.xml file that's supposed to be doing this:
<partitioning config:type="list"> <drive> <device>/dev/hda</device> <initialize config:type="boolean">true</initialize> <partitions config:type="list"> <partition> <crypt>twofish256</crypt> <filesystem config:type="symbol">reiser</filesystem> <format config:type="boolean">true</format>
false <mount>/</mount>131 <size>10000</size>
10000 = 10kb if you want 10gb you have to enter 10gb or 10000mb Anas
</partition> <partition> <crypt>twofish256</crypt> <filesystem config:type="symbol">ext2</filesystem> <format config:type="boolean">true</format>
false <mount>/boot</mount>131 <size>auto</size> </partition> <partition> <crypt>twofish256</crypt> <filesystem config:type="symbol">swap</filesystem> <format config:type="boolean">true</format>false <mount>swap</mount>130 <size>auto</size> </partition> <partition> <crypt>twofish256</crypt> <filesystem config:type="symbol">reiser</filesystem> <format config:type="boolean">true</format>false <mount>/home</mount>131 <size>max</size> </partition> </partitions> <use>all</use> </drive> </partitioning>While yast is running, it looks like it is trying to partition, format, and mount the partitions, but it isn't successful. After choosing "Continue" several times, the installation proceeds, but the ramdisk (I'm assuming) is the place where stuff is getting installed. The filesystem fills up after a short time, and yast asks if I want to abort the installation, which I do.
Does anyone have any ideas why my partitioning scheme isn't being accepted? A manual install from the same NFS source seems to proceed without incident. The manual install asks for confirmation of several kernel modules, mostly USB stuff but there's a couple dm_* modules loaded by yast, too.
The machine is a Gateway E-1800 (Celeron 1300MHz, IDE disks, 256MB RAM, on-board Intel graphics).
-- - Peter A. Schwenk | Mathematical Sciences - schwenk@math.udel.edu | University of Delaware - (302) 831-0437 | Newark, DE 19716-2553 USA
Well, that was stupid on my part. Sorry! The <initialize config:type="boolean">true</initialize> is still a problem, but when I set it to 'false', all works fine. Thanks a lot for your help! On May 25, 2004, at 12:18 PM, Anas Nashif wrote:
Hi,
I found something that might be the cause, see below:.
-- - Peter A. Schwenk | Mathematical Sciences - schwenk@math.udel.edu | University of Delaware - (302) 831-0437 | Newark, DE 19716-2553 USA
participants (5)
-
Anas Nashif -
anna cheng -
David Carter -
Hans Deragon -
Peter Schwenk