installation problems

Earlier this year, an automatic update rendered my 10.2 desktop inoperable, forcing me to upgrade to 10.3. Recently, it happened again (argh!), so I’m now trying to upgrade to 11.0 (32-bit). Unfortunately, this time I am having problems getting it to install. I am using the same partition strategy as before:

Device                           Size       Type                     Mount
/dev/mapper/pdc_daehefdb          74.5      BIOS RAID pdc_daehefdb
/dev/mapper/pdc_daehefdb_part1    74.5 GB   DM RAID
/dev/mapper/pdc_daehefdb_part5    70.5 MB   DM Raid (Ext3)           /boot        K
/dev/mapper/pdc_daehefdb_part6     2.0 GB   DM Raid                  swap         K
/dev/mapper/pdc_daehefdb_part7    20.0 GB   DM Raid (Ext3)           /            K
/dev/mapper/pdc_daehefdb_part8    52.4 GB   DM Raid                  /windows/R   K
/dev/sda                         298.0 GB   WDC-WD3200JB-OOK
/dev/sda1                         20.0 GB   Linux native
/dev/sda2                        107.9 GB   Extended
/dev/sda3                         20.0 GB   Linux native
/dev/sda4                        150.0 GB   Linux native             /data        I
/dev/sda5                        107.9 GB   Linux native             /backup      I
/dev/sdb                          74.5 GB   WDC-WD800JD-00MS
/dev/sdc                          74.5 GB   WDC-WD800JD-OOLS

Here are the device.map and menu.lst files the 11.0 installer proposed:

(fd0)   /dev/fd0
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Mon Sep  1 12:00:52 BST 2008
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.0
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/mapper/pdc_daehefdb_part7 resume=/dev/mapper/pdc_daehefdb_part6 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31a
initrd /initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.0
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/mapper/pdc_daehefdb_part7 showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off x11failsafe vga=0x31a
initrd /initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
chainloader (fd0)+1

Here are the device.map and menu.lst files that worked for 10.x:

(hd0) /dev/mapper/pdc_daehefdb
(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd1) /dev/sda
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Thu Jun 19 20:44:14 BST 2008
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.18-0.2
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.22.18-0.2-default root=/dev/mapper/pdc_daehefdb_part7 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/mapper/pdc_daehefdb_part6 splash=silent showopts
initrd /initrd-2.6.22.18-0.2-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.18-0.2
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.22.18-0.2-default root=/dev/mapper/pdc_daehefdb_part7 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3
initrd /initrd-2.6.22.18-0.2-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
chainloader (fd0)+1

I tried installing with the proposed device.map file and with the 10.x device.map file, and in desperation I also tried installing to /dev/sda rather than the BIOS RAID (the 64-bit version of 11.0 installed fine on my RAIDless laptop). In all cases, the installer successfully completes Copying the Live Image to Hard Disk but fails at Finishing Basic Installation - Copy files to installed system. First I get Installation Error - An error occurred while switching to the installed system and no recovery is possible. Run the automatic debugger to find out why it has failed? Choosing YES results in Error - Connecting to the inst-sys failed, debugger cannot continue. The installer then proceeds to Save configuration but stops again at Install boot manager with An error occurred during initrd creation. When I dismiss that dialog, the installer hangs and files (such as initrd and menu.lst) are missing from /boot.

Suggestions would be most appreciated!

There were two issues.

  1. Memorex Music CD-R media doesn’t work for ISO images. I tried four, and none of them passed mediacheck, so I AssUMed that it was a zero sector padding issue. I then bought a stack of Kodak CD-R media and the first one checked out perfectly.

  2. Using the 10.x device.map file, installation hung at Saving Bootloader Config. I reran the installer, accepted the default device.map (which I knew wouldn’t work, since the BIOS RAID is primary and the ATA is secondary), and entered the 10.x device.map settings after the installation errored out (thankfully, it retried with my new settings and continued).

Also, upon first boot, the /data and /backup partitions were not found, failing fsck. I commented the references out of /etc/fstab to get the system up and then used Partitioner to add them back in, which allowed access. The entries look the same as before… ?

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD3200JB-00KFA0_WD-WCAMR3887193-part5 /backup
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD3200JB-00KFA0_WD-WCAMR3887193-part4 /data

Anyway, thanks for listening!