help installing f16

[Mike Wright]

Hi all,

I downloaded the f16 install DVD (6.5 hours) and have been trying to 
install it to an lvm partition that is part of a Xen box.  Two days 
later I'm asking for help.

Hope this doesn't sound like a rant but I'm very frustrated.  This is a 
description of what I've been going through with a request for help at 
the very basic level of "Set Up your Drives".

I can't use livecd to install because that method won't install into a 
virtual environment and shutting down every other vm just so I can boot 
"bare metal" takes down my entire operation: no dns, no mail, no web, no 
firewall, no databases.  Nulla.  Nada.  Squatalucci.  Out of business 
while a livecd install takes place.  I'm not the only user here.  That 
means I take down every other business, too.

Wow!  Talk about regression.  I feel like I'm in the way-back machine or 
in need of invoking the "Help me, Mr. Wizard" invocation what with the 
ansi language and keyboard selectors.  Haven't seen those in many, many 
years, maybe a decade.  Then there is the disk setup.  Makes that good 
old p.o.s. called disk-druid look useful.

Totally screwed up the disk.  Replaced a functional msdos partitioning 
scheme with GUID partitioning that creates a header at the very end of 
the disk which renders fdisk useless and requires kpartx or parted to be 
used instead.

Problem is that kpartx is also a p.o.s. and parted is half brain dead.

e.g. parted requires start and end parameters for a partition but does 
not provide any info about the disk's layout.  Had to use the now 
deprecated fdisk to find that info.  Had to use dd to fill 10G with 
dev/zero to destroy the GPT but the new disk manager still managed to 
find a non-existent partition table which meant there was no free space 
on the empty drive.

OK, finally made it to the disk setup where the 2 drives, 10g and 1g, 
are detected and automatically placed into the right side box and the 
arrows for moving them left are greyed out and unusable.  Fine.  10g is 
the drive selected for the bootloader.  Press <Next>.

<this is where I'm asking for help>

Created 10g mount point / ext4 and 1g swap.  Press <Next>. 
"Partitioning Errors.  You have not created a bootloader stage 1 target 
device".  Just peachy.  What does it want?  Where is that done?  Tried 
adding a /boot partition that will never be used but that, too, proved 
pointless.

Has anybody succeeded in installing from "install media" as opposed to 
"livecd media"?

Pointers?  Hand holding?  Advice?  etc.  (just don't rick roll me).

Thanks,
Mike Wright

p.s.  Brushing up on my cuneiform in anticipation of f22.  Practicing 
starting fires by smashing rocks together in anticipation of f30.  LOL