pre-install error: "Error mounting device: X as Y: invalid argument"

[Tony Nelson]

At 1:56 AM +0100 5/30/06, Ben Lancaster wrote:
 ...
>I'm trying to install FC5 on my x86 box, whilst maintaining an LV
>group from a prior FC installation.
>
>I have:
>
>250GB - hda
>200GB - hdc
>
>My LVM is roughly 100GB of hda and all of hdc (resulting in a 300GB
>LV). The group is already formatted using JFS (and the installer was
>launched with "linux jfs" at the first screen), and has data on it
>that I *need* to keep.
>
>During the installation, I chose to do a clean install, using a
>custom partition structure:
>
>hda1	100MB	/boot	ext3
>hda2	117GB	/	ext3
>hda3	2GB	swap
>
>hda4-5 are part of my LV group (MediaGroup).
>
>The partition structure is identical to the one I set up when
>installing FC4, and I had done a few clean reinstalls of FC4 whilst
>using this partition structure. hdc and hda4-5 are not set to be
>formatted.
>
>After selecting the packages to install, and confirming all (thus
>formatting hda1-3), the installer begins, but then bails out with:
>
>--
>Error mounting device: MediaGroup/Media as /Video: invalid argument
>This most likely means this partition has not been formatted.
>Press OK to reboot your system.
>--
>
>Am using the latest CD ISO torrent, and my installation media has
>been tested and verified.
>
>Can anybody point me in the right direction as to what's going wrong
>and where? It strikes me as an odd error message, since I
>specifically asked the installer not to format the lv group!

I would guess that Mediagroup/Media is your old JFS volume, and that the
installer can't deal with it (mount it).  You could leave it out during the
install, and add it to /etc/fstab later.  At least, when I was playing with
installing FC5t3, I left out my FC3 volume, and mounted it by hand when
needed.  (I cloned it and did an upgrade of the clone when FC5 came out,
not an install).

BTW, there really isn't any "latest" FC5 DVD.  They only do one, and then
you catch up with yum.
____________________________________________________________________
TonyN.:'                       <mailto:tonynelson at georgeanelson.com>
      '                              <http://www.georgeanelson.com/>