upgrading to F16 or F17 with /var and/or /usr on LVM volumes?

[Joel Rees]

On Sat, Jun 23, 2012 at 6:55 AM, Mateusz Marzantowicz
<mmarzantowicz at osdf.com.pl> wrote:
> On 22.06.2012 19:29, Joel Rees wrote:
>> On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 1:23 AM, Mateusz Marzantowicz
>> <mmarzantowicz at osdf.com.pl> wrote:
>>> On 20.06.2012 16:13, Joel Rees wrote:
>>>> Tried preupgrade, but it can't find my old system, and kicks the
>>>> upgrade process to the curb.
>>>>
>>>> Then I tried the netinstall CD and it can't find my old system, either.
>>>>
>>>> Looking around, I see a bit of discussion of problems with the install
>>>> process recognizing  LVM partitions. Rescue mode boot of the
>>>> netinstall CD appears to be unable to mount LVM partitions.
>>>>
>>>> Does anyone know of a work-around short of backing up /etc and /home
>>>> and doing a fresh install?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Joel Rees
>>> Fedora LiveCD should recognize partitions on LVM and RAID even with
>>> encryption.
>> And what good does that do me? Or is there a LiveCD that does upgrades?
>
> I'm not sure because I've installed my Fedora form netinstall cd but as
> I remember there is an option to fresh install form Live CD (maybe an
> upgrade is also available.)

I couldn't find an upgrade option the last time I looked, but it was
the security spin (F16), not the basic F16 Live CD. so maybe there's a
difference.

> But my original answer was to your need of
> doing backup, so Live CD seemed to be perfect for this job.

Well, checking my original post, I left off the detail that I can
still boot in the old F15 system. But thanks, anyway.

>> Well, the netinstall CD does have lvm command line tools on it.
>>
>> Right now I'm reading the device mapper commands. If I find the right
>> commands to activate the logical partitions, I still need to know the
>> name of the install command so I can re-start the install/upgrade
>> process after dropping out to a shell. The command does not seem to be
>> called "install", at any rate.
>>
>> (Can't remember whether I've done this on Fedora. Last time I did this
>> kind of thing on openBSD, it was just "install" there, as I recall.)
>
> I'm really surprised that anaconda doesn't recognized your LVM
> partitions. I had a problem with broken installation so I restarted it
> (reboot) and I was able to partition my disk again (including LVM
> changes etc.)

I was also surprised. Booting the netinstall CD, I notice that there
is an unnamed daemon that systemd can't get started, leaving a message
on the top of the screen somewhere along the way to multiuser.

> To see the command, start the installer (anaconda) by booting your
> computer and then drop to shell and type in ps command. That should give
> you the command to start anaconda again. You might also try to do what's
> needed in parallel with the installer on that additional terminals.

OH, YES!

Now I remember using the virtual console during installs in the past.
Let's see what that buys me.

Found this with Google:

http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Logical_Volume_Manager_Administration/cluster_activation.html

Elsewhere in there it mentions vgscan and lvscan, which give me the
logical paths I need for the argument to lvchange -aly . And running

lvchange -aly 'dev/<volumeLabel>' with the appropriate <volumeLabel>s
gets my lvm volumes activated (confirmed with another quick lvscan).

And, of course, since I'm there, "ps a" shows me that that the install
program would appear to be anaconda (in /usr/sbin, where it should be)
being interpreted by python (in /usr/bin, where it should be).

And "ps wwaux gives me the full set of options, a bit hard to see
through all the other processes. For me, that's

/usr/bin/python /usr/bin/anaconda --graphical --selinux --lang
ja_JP.UTF-8 --keymap jp106

since I let it go graphical and told it I was working in Japanese and
my keyboard is Japanese, etc.

anaconda. Now I remember having to restart anaconda by hand before,
too. Wish my memory were better.

> [... my short rant about the works of Poettering ...]
> No offense taken.

Thanks.

And thanks for reminding me about the virtual console being available
during the dedicated install session. Let's see how it plays out.

--
Joel Rees