Hello All

I wanted to update on how we overcame below install issue and successfully installed Fedora 23 on our power server. This install error was caused by Driver bug (Avago RAID card, our storage controller) for which the fix is process. 

This bug manifests itself to the end user who is installing Fedora 23/22 on Avago RAID based as: Partitioning / mounting of file system as “ext4” failed. Hence the install process fails.

More details about bug can be found in last few comments of this ubuntu bug (We found this bug while installing ubuntu 15.04  for the first time):

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1475166

For now following work around can be used to install Fedora 23 on power systems with Avago raid card:

1) Power on and wait system boots into Petitboot:
    1a) Press "e" on "Install Fedora 23 (64-bit kernel)" option and append "megaraid_sas.max_sectors=2048" in the end of "boot argument"
2) Select modified option and follow the installation process. 
3) After install is complete and you are back to Petitboot: Edit booting option by appending megaraid_sas.max_sectors=2048, and boot with completed install.
***IMPORTANT NOTE***  Step 3 is needed for every boot time, or you will get system going to failure due to system can't mount file system. 
Alternatively we can add this to Grub config to avoid repeating this process.

Please give it a try as possible.

Also any advise on how to best track this on corresponding Fedora board would be appreciated. 

If what I am doing currently is enough (sharing on this mailing list), that’s good to know also.

Best
Adi


From: Rackspace Hosting <adi.gangidi@rackspace.com>
Date: Friday, September 11, 2015 at 1:06 PM
To: "ppc@lists.fedoraproject.org" <ppc@lists.fedoraproject.org>
Cc: Aaron Sullivan <aaron.sullivan@rackspace.com>, Major Hayden <major.hayden@rackspace.com>, John Hincher <john.hincher@rackspace.com>, Antony Messerli <amesserl@rackspace.com>
Subject: Re: Fedora 23 Install Issues on PPC64LE Server

Adding some more info that I had written down for one of our community members:


Hello Jakub

Here is the response to your questions.

Q: Do you observe same behavior of console with f21/f22?

Install gets stuck at the same place: (Attached SCSI) in f21/f22 but
rescue shell does NOT freeze in f21/f22.


Q: What do you use to obtain console(ipmi sol, physical connection,Š)?

‹Physical connection: Serial USB cable attached to debug port on server.

Q: What are you using as installation source(DVD, PXE, USB, remote
repo,....) and what image are you using(netinst/dvd)?

‹ Installation source is a Fedora 23 DVD content put on a USB stick.

Q: Are disks already partitioned or are empty?

‹ Disks where previously partitioned (I had powerkvm installed on there)
but this error occurs before I can get to the partition screen.

Q: Have you been successful with booting/installing any other linux
distribution(either LE/BE)?

‹ Yes Ubuntu 14.04 / 14.10 (PPC64LE) installed smoothly. With Ubuntu 15.04
install I ran into this install error on partitioning Avago raid:



However we are working around that bug by setting max_sectors of Megaraid
module manually and thus able to finish the install.

We are also able to install powerKVM (IBM¹s PPC64LE KVM)



Best
Adi


From: Rackspace Hosting <adi.gangidi@rackspace.com>
Date: Wednesday, September 9, 2015 at 6:40 PM
To: "ppc@lists.fedoraproject.org" <ppc@lists.fedoraproject.org>
Cc: Aaron Sullivan <aaron.sullivan@rackspace.com>, Major Hayden <major.hayden@rackspace.com>, John Hincher <john.hincher@rackspace.com>, Antony Messerli <amesserl@rackspace.com>
Subject: Fedora 23 Install Issues on PPC64LE Server

onnectx 3 pro card in the box.