Dear Anaconda Developers,
A colleague and I have been building an install CD based on FC5.
Unfortunately, when we boot into the install CD, which is a trivial tweak on the same set of RPM packages and kickstart file that works on FC4, we get a crash in /sbin/loader, during the first stage of the installation process, after the kernel itself has started up.
I'm glad to help improve Anaconda and /sbin/loader by debugging the problem. However, I would very much appreciate advice from anyone who has actually debugged /sbin/loader. This error is happening early in the boot process, after the kernel is up but before any shells have been launched in other windows.
Oddly enough, my colleague has been successfully distributing a very similar installation CD that's based on FC 4. But we'd prefer to base the installation on FC 5. (We're upgrading the whole system from RH 9.) We're glad to put time into debugging the problem -- all we need is some advice about a good approach for making /sbin/loader run under GDB, or whatever other debugging approach someone with experience doing this could recommend.
Our best guess so far is that there's been a minor Kickstart syntax change between FC 4 and FC 5, and perhaps our Kickstart files have a minor syntax error that's triggering the crash, but we haven't found any evidence to support that.
We're glad to contribute back to Anaconda as a token of our appreciation for the great tool which you and others have collaborated to give us.
Sincerely Yours,
Steven Augart Mazu Networks, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA