preserving partitions during reinstall

[Dave Mitchell]

On Sat, Sep 08, 2012 at 10:32:16AM -0600, JD wrote:
> 
> On 09/09/2012 01:22 PM, Dave Mitchell wrote:
> >On Sat, Sep 08, 2012 at 05:12:31AM -0600, JD wrote:
> >>On 09/09/2012 12:33 PM, Dave Mitchell wrote:
> >>>I just did a re-install of a F14 system to bring it up to F17.
> >>>I wanted to keep the separate /home partition untouched (i.e. keep the
> >>>data), but there didn't seem to be any option to achieve this in the
> >>>installer. None of the options seemed to be able to recognise or preserve
> >>>the partitioning info within the encrypted LVM volume (as originally set
> >>>up by the F13 installer, then unchanged after a F14 upgrade).
> >>>
> >>>Am I missing something, or is this a bug. (This is mostly academic for me
> >>>now, as in the end, I backed-up, installed, and restored).
> >>>
> >>>This was my original layout on a single disk system:
> >>>
> >>>     sda1 		ext4	  500 Mb /boot
> >>>     sda2	 	LVM PV 113972 Mb vg_pigeon (encrypted)
> >>>
> >>>     vg_pigeon:
> >>>	lv_root:	ext4	13024 Mb /
> >>>	lv_swap:	swap	 2048 Mb (swap)
> >>>	lv_home:	ext4	98880 Mb /home
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>During the phase when all partitions are listed, select the partition
> >>you wish mounted as, say...  /home
> >>In the gui there is n entry where it says
> >>mount as .. and you fill the blank..
> >>Be sure you DO  NOT SELECT TO HAVE IT FORMATTED!!!
> >Perhaps I need to clarify a bit. Under none of the five-or-so install
> >options, did it recognise any of the partitions within vg_pigeon;
> >under the options that kept the volume group vg_pigeon, it suggested 3 new
> >partitions for /, /home and swap, none of which were the same size as the
> >original partitions, and *didn't* give the option of skipping formatting.
> >
> >So at no point was a I presented with a /home patititon that matched the
> >alignment of the existing partition, and where I could unselect 'format'.
> >
> So, per your original posting, which shows
> 
> sda2 LVM PV 113972 Mb
> 
> vg_pigeon (encrypted) vg_pigeon:
>      lv_root: ext4 13024 Mb /
>      lv_swap: swap 2048 Mb (swap)
> lv_home: ext4 98880 Mb /home
> 
> have the wrong values for fs type and partition size?
> Could Anaconda installer be screwing up so badly?

I don't understand what you are referring to. Those are my
hand-transcribed notes of the values I entered during the F13 install,
and also reflect the same choices I made during the F17 install. All the
fs types and sizes as written above reflect (sane) reality.

> Why dont you use the lvm and vg.... commands
> to show some info about the volume groups and compare the displayed
> partition sizes with what Anaconda shows?

The point is that *none* of the Ananconda install options:
    Use all space
    Replace Existing Linux System(s)
    Shrink current system
    use Free space
    Create custom layout
will read the existing partitioning of vg_pigeon and present that to you
as a default; they all either suggest a completely new set of defaults, or
in the case of custom, present no defaults at all.

Or to put it another way, missing from that list of install options above,
seems to be:
    Keep existing Linux partitioning

>> Also, there is no option to skip formatting. Formatting is done
> iff (i.e if and only if) it is selcted with some particular FS type).
> If it is not selcted (left blank) no formatting will be done.

On the "Use all space" / "Replace Existing Linux System(s)", the suggested
filesystem type menu doesn't have a 'blank' option, nor is there a tickbox
to the left of the filesystem menu to allow you to unselect creating a
filesystem (there *is* such a tickbox when going via "Create custom
layout").

-- 
"Procrastination grows to fill the available time"
    -- Mitchell's corollary to Parkinson's Law