Hi all,
Is it possible to install a live CD to a logical volume any more? I've tried repeatedly and just when I think I've got it the installer refuses to proceed.
At one time this was possible. I needed lot of copies of f14 to use as virtual machines so I installed to hard disk and on completion was prompted to install to more hard disks. From that point on it took 70 seconds per copy.
Now it seems that I need a physical partition and to create copies from that. Very time consuming, not to mention the lack of flexibility involved in using physicals vs logicals.
If it is no longer possible what is the culprit and is it possible to modify it?
Second question: is there anywhere to get zipped copies of o/s images? I'd like to be able to create installs without having to shut down and run a live CD.
Thanks for help and pointers, Mike Wright
On Jul 11, 2014, at 1:36 PM, Mike Wright mike.wright@mailinator.com wrote:
Hi all,
Is it possible to install a live CD to a logical volume any more?
Yes.
I've tried repeatedly and just when I think I've got it the installer refuses to proceed.
What's the filename of the ISO you're using? What are the steps to reproduce the problem, and what's the error message you get?
At one time this was possible. I needed lot of copies of f14 to use as virtual machines so I installed to hard disk and on completion was prompted to install to more hard disks. From that point on it took 70 seconds per copy.
a. This worked differently before Fedora 18 and new anaconda. It used to dd copy an image of the ext4 file system to either a standard partition/LV, and then resized the file system to fit the partition/LV. That's why it was fast. But the filesystem choice was fixed.
b. Today you can do live installs to any layout and filesystem because it's rsync'd and there is no file system resize.
Second question: is there anywhere to get zipped copies of o/s images? I'd like to be able to create installs without having to shut down and run a live CD.
I don't understand this question. It sounds like you should do one install configuring things the way you want in the GUI, and then look at the exported kickstart file, and then figure out how to do kickstart installs for all of your other installs.
Another way is to use cloud images to bypass the installer entirely. Download a qcow2 image, do a yum update to bring it up to date, then make snapshots of that for each VM, point each VM to a different snapshot, and within each VM regenerate machine-id and set a new hostname. Raw images are available also.
Chris Murphy
07/11/2014 01:07 PM, Chris Murphy wrote:
On Jul 11, 2014, at 1:36 PM, Mike Wright mike.wright@mailinator.com wrote:
Hi all,
Is it possible to install a live CD to a logical volume any more?
Yes.
I've tried repeatedly and just when I think I've got it the installer refuses to proceed.
What's the filename of the ISO you're using? What are the steps to reproduce the problem, and what's the error message you get?
Fedora-Live-Xfce-x86_64-20-1. The details are hazy in my memory but I spent about 3 hours on it. When I was finally able to specify my pre-existing LV I think I received an error about not being able to find an available or usable partition. The choice remained "greyed out" until I gave up and specified a physical. (I'd have to shutdown and try again to give an accurate answer but the system is in use.)
At one time this was possible. I needed lot of copies of f14 to use as virtual machines so I installed to hard disk and on completion was prompted to install to more hard disks. From that point on it took 70 seconds per copy.
a. This worked differently before Fedora 18 and new anaconda. It used to dd copy an image of the ext4 file system to either a standard partition/LV, and then resized the file system to fit the partition/LV. That's why it was fast. But the filesystem choice was fixed.
b. Today you can do live installs to any layout and filesystem because it's rsync'd and there is no file system resize.
Second question: is there anywhere to get zipped copies of o/s images? I'd like to be able to create installs without having to shut down and run a live CD.
I don't understand this question. It sounds like you should do one install configuring things the way you want in the GUI, and then look at the exported kickstart file, and then figure out how to do kickstart installs for all of your other installs.
Another way is to use cloud images to bypass the installer entirely. Download a qcow2 image, do a yum update to bring it up to date, then make snapshots of that for each VM, point each VM to a different snapshot, and within each VM regenerate machine-id and set a new hostname. Raw images are available also.
Thanks for your detailed explanation Chris.
This sounds like a perfect solution for the way I use my system (multiboot xen with kernel and initrd as modules). Where can I find these cloud images and where can I find out how to yum update them once I have them? Guessing mount, chroot, yum update?
Chris Murphy
07/11/2014 01:07 PM, Chris Murphy wrote:
Another way is to use cloud images to bypass the installer entirely. Download a qcow2 image, do a yum update to bring it up to date, then make snapshots of that for each VM, point each VM to a different snapshot, and within each VM regenerate machine-id and set a new hostname. Raw images are available also.
Ignore my previous reply. I found them, with instructions, right next to Downloads...
07/11/2014 01:07 PM, Chris Murphy wrote:
On Jul 11, 2014, at 1:36 PM, Mike Wright mike.wright@mailinator.com wrote:
Hi all,
Is it possible to install a live CD to a logical volume any more?
Yes.
I've tried repeatedly and just when I think I've got it the installer refuses to proceed.
What's the filename of the ISO you're using? What are the steps to reproduce the problem, and what's the error message you get?
Hi Chris,
I finally got the time to check into this.
The iso is Fedora-Live-Xfce-x86_64-20-1 copied to and booted from a thumb drive.
I'm not sure how to reproduce the install problems elsewhere but here is how the problem manifests itself here:
The LVM system has this to say:
PV is 148.53GiB consumed 100% by a VG, extents are 32MiB. pvdisplay and vgdisplay report free space 1805/56.41GiB.
The installer reports 1.71GiB available space. Somewhere between the tools to which I have access and the installer 54.70GiB have gone unaccounted for. I've rebooted from the thumb drive several times just to make sure something wasn't hanging around.
I've created and removed many LVs on this drive so my best guess is that somehow the installer is arriving at its idea of free space by counting as used space some that has been previously freed.
Any idea where to go from here?
Thanks, Mike Wright
On Jul 13, 2014, at 7:52 PM, Mike Wright mike.wright@mailinator.com wrote:
The LVM system has this to say:
PV is 148.53GiB consumed 100% by a VG, extents are 32MiB. pvdisplay and vgdisplay report free space 1805/56.41GiB.
The installer reports 1.71GiB available space. Somewhere between the tools to which I have access and the installer 54.70GiB have gone unaccounted for. I've rebooted from the thumb drive several times just to make sure something wasn't hanging around.
I know what the problem is, I can reproduce it. The installer wants to create a new PV or VG, I'm not sure which. Probably for sure it expects to create a new VG by default. It's not using the existing VG. And until you successfully create an LV, the UI to change VGs isn't even available.
So in my case, I have less than 1MB free space, and I'm stuck. I can't create an LV less than 1MB in size, so I can't get to the UI to switch it to use the existing VG. So I'm actually stuck and can't go forward.
You on the other hand could create /home as say 500MB. Then after it's created, click on the /home mount point and on the right side UI you'll see that the Volume Group is something like Fedora 20. Click that pop-up menu, and change it to the existing VG you really want it in. Do not modify the Volume Group, unless you really intend to change something about it. Above the Volume Group pop-up is a Size field, that's for the LV, and you can change that from 500mb to something sane. Then click Update Settings. Do the same thing for /. In the off chance that it will refuse to create a 500mb root, you might be better off going back to /home, and changing its mount point to / and the size, and the name of the LV. Update Settings. Then add a new /home mount point.
Chris Murphy
On Jul 13, 2014, at 9:09 PM, Chris Murphy lists@colorremedies.com wrote:
Above the Volume Group pop-up is a Size field, that's for the LV, and you can change that from 500mb to something sane.
Desired Capacity. Not Size.
So I just did a pvresize to give up 1GB to back myself out of this stuck state and it does work as described. It's making new LV's in a new VG on a new PV on a new partition. Rather than using what's available.
When I try this with the Fedora 21 installer, it works the same. So maybe a bug filed. While the current behavior makes sense if there's enough space to do it. It doesn't make sense to fail this way if there's space in the VG but not enough space for a new one.
Chris Murphy
On Jul 13, 2014, at 9:43 PM, Chris Murphy lists@colorremedies.com wrote:
When I try this with the Fedora 21 installer, it works the same. So maybe a bug filed. While the current behavior makes sense if there's enough space to do it. It doesn't make sense to fail this way if there's space in the VG but not enough space for a new one.
OK looks like I was confused, Fedora 21 installer uses existing VG free space when it's not possible to create a new partition/PV/VG.
Chris Murphy
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Chris Murphy -
Mike Wright