Lazy install

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jlehtone
Posts: 4523
Joined: 2007/12/11 08:17:33
Location: Finland

Lazy install

Post by jlehtone » 2009/04/09 07:49:11

I'd class this as venting frustration about myself being too lazy to read the documentation. :-(


New machine. A plan: Add (K)VMs later to LVM that is over software RAID1. CentOS x86_64.
I've never let the Anaconda to partition for me, and no root has been on LVM so far.

So, I happily plug a 5.2 DVD into the new Shiny Thing. Too lazy to get 5.3 yet. Too lazy to
connect a mouse. Installer goes to text mode, which I do like. And I drop to console before
the partitioning step. Some 'fdisk', 'mdadm', 'lvm *', and 'mke2fs' later I'm ready to use
the 'Custom layout' option. All seems fine, until the installation stalls around 67%, when it
executes 'mkinitrd' that goes on and on.

Reboot. This time mkinitrd succeeds, but on boot the kernel panics due to not finding the
root partition (which is on Logical Volume). A Fedora 10 Live CD names 'md' etc devices
in so bizarre ways that I do not even try (and graphics without mouse ...). So finally I
get CentOS 5.3 vmlinuz and initrd.img into the /boot too, for FTP install.

5.3 knows the names of devices better, and offers a "VNC install" in addition to "Text mode".
Too lazy to having ever used VNC. And no more progress than before. Either mkinitrd, or
no root found.

Day one, results: null.


Day two, bite the bullet and let the 5.3 installer do the partition. Even attached a mouse.
I can delete the LVM, but cannot recreate it there? No go. Think, think, think ...

Write:
[code]kernel /C53/vmlinuz lvm
initrd /C53/initrd.img[/code]
in Grub. A sheer guess, for I really am too lazy to find a manual.

Installer goes graphical. :-o Quite unexpected. And the partitioning tool has a "LVM" button.
And now the installation succeeds as expected.


Boy, am I pathetic? :-?

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AlanBartlett
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Lazy install

Post by AlanBartlett » 2009/04/09 11:12:41

Thanks for the tale. :lol:

This :pint: is for you -- unless [b]Ned[/b] gets to it first. :-P

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