[SOLVED] install hangs - Examining storage devices

[stevewalsh]

Hi,

Trying to install Fedora 17 lxde onto my IBM Intellistation E Pro (http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry...cid=MIGR-60938)

Live CD boots ok, when i try to "Install to Hard Drive" after choosing my keyboard layout (United Kingdom) the installer hangs whilst "Examining storage devices".

Eventually after 20-30mins, there's an error reported by Anaconda (Attached)

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Steve

[JEO]

I viewed your log file. Are you trying to install onto a raid that already has some previous set up on it? Or is there an existing encrypted volume? These are the most likely things that would cause the anaconda installer to hang.

[stevewalsh]

I'm trying to install onto a blank partition /dev/sda1

Using fdisk I created a new partition table on the disk, and a new partition and formatted it with mkfs.ext4
(this was the old system disk for crunchbang linux, but it was time to try another new installation)

This system has 3 hard disks altogether.

The other 2 are just old data, although there is also an old swap partition on /dev/sdc1 of 500MB (I'm happy to remove this if necessary)

It is not configured as a RAID array nor LVM.

Certainly nothing should be encrypted.

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
145 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8556 cylinders, total 78165360 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5ce69edc

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 78165359 39081656 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 40.0 GB, 40016019456 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders, total 78156288 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00053a71

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 77131776 78155775 512000 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdc2 2048 77131775 38564864 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 40.0 GB, 40016019456 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders, total 78156288 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0007c9ba

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 2048 78155775 39076864 83 Linux

Disk /dev/mapper/live-rw: 3221 MB, 3221225472 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 391 cylinders, total 6291456 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/live-osimg-min: 3221 MB, 3221225472 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 391 cylinders, total 6291456 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

[root@localhost ~]#

I hope this helps,
Steve

[JEO]

If there ever was a raid configured on any of those harddisks there could be left over raid metadata on the drives. You could boot the livecd and do a dmraid -r command to find out. dmraid can also erase the old metadata if you want. If it was an mdraid then you would use the md commands to clear the metadata.

I recommend removing any data drives and just installing to one drive to simplify things. Then put the data drives back in once it's working.

[stevewalsh]

Thanks to JEO for making me consider the previous/leftover installation... from this I decided to DELETE the old swap partition

fdisk /dev/sdc
"p" to print partions so i can use that number later on
"d" to delete
choose partition number
"w" to write the changes

I've rebooted and tried the "Install to Hard drive" option again and whaddya know - it's working....

Install has just finished, and I've successfully rebooted from the hard disk !

I hope this helps someone in the future....