Fedora 12 > 14 Upgrade problem....

[mjh74]

Hi all,

I followed the this page to update my Fedora release before updating to Amahi 6. http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/F12_to_F14_update

I got to this point:

Reboot:

* This will take a LONG time, installing all the packages. It's best if you have console access
* It will boot into a special upgrade kernel, and install the latest F14 without networking or anything. This will take a long time and it's the most critical part of the process.
* Then reboot once into the final kernel and packages

I hooked up a monitor to watch the reboot and I'm presented with a message at a standard blue type installer screen, the message along the lines of "Unable to load a kickstart file", showing a path to a kickstart file. If I select ok, it tries again and comes back with the same message.
I've been flicking through this forum and various other sites and have read various posts about there not being enough boot space to download the image. My installation of F12 was completely standard and hasn't been touched (other than yum updates) since day one.

Can anyone give me any pointers to fixing this please.


Thanks,

Mark

[radioz]

I'm not familiar with the upgrade process, but it sounds like there is not enough disk space in /boot maybe.

Can you get to a command line? If so, try a 'df -h' command and post the output here.

[mjh74]

Hi there,

Thanks for the response.

The server gets to that screen as if I've booted straight from a DVD. The bootloader looks like it's been modified to point to something (the kickstart file) that doesn't actually exist.
I get the feeling I'm going to have to boot from a live CD and mount the file system to see what has happened.
It's a shame really as everything was working so well, I should have stayed with Amahi 5.

[mjh74]

Ok, so I pop home for lunch to try and have another go at my Amahi box.

Powered it up and much to my surprise it booted straight into Fedora 12!

I've just had a quick look at disk space, all looks ok.

[root@homeserver boot]# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/md127p1 130G 25G 99G 20% /
tmpfs 1005M 88K 1005M 1% /dev/shm
/dev/sdc1 1.8T 87G 1.7T 5% /var/hda/files/drives/sdc1
/dev/sdd1 1.8T 94G 1.7T 6% /var/hda/files/drives/sdd1
[root@homeserver boot]#


Had a quick nosey in boot to see what files had been put there by the upgrade attempt.

In /boot/upgrade were the following files.

[root@homeserver upgrade]# ls -al
total 186684
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2011-03-17 22:16 .
dr-xr-xr-x. 5 root root 4096 2011-03-17 22:12 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 32045806 2010-10-21 19:29 initrd.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 155316224 2010-10-21 19:30 install.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 293 2011-03-17 22:13 ks.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3782016 2010-10-21 19:29 vmlinuz

ks.cfg is the file that was causing the problem on first boot after my upgrade attempt with the "Unable to locate a kickstart file" message.


The contents of ks.cfg are...

[root@homeserver upgrade]# cat ks.cfg
# ks.cfg generated by preupgrade
lang en_US.UTF-8
keyboard uk
bootloader --upgrade --location=none
clearpart --none
upgrade --root-device=UUID=94b04d58-5270-46aa-a376-4525e5f863f8
reboot


%post
grubby --remove-kernel=/boot/upgrade/vmlinuz
rm -rf /boot/upgrade /var/cache/yum/preupgrade*
%end
[root@homeserver upgrade]#


Can anyone see a problem at all? I remember the UUID being referenced when I got the kickstart error message.

I'm not sure whether to start the process again from the start of the guide or maybe try something different.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Mark

[mjh74]

Ok, so I start the upgrade process again as per the wiki page.

After running preupgrade-cli...... it finishes with:

Preparing system to boot into installer
DEBUG /sbin/grubby --title="Upgrade to Fedora 14 (Laughlin)" --remove-kernel="/boot/upgrade/vmlinuz" --add-kernel="/boot/upgrade/vmlinuz" --initrd="/boot/upgrade/initrd.img" --args="preupgrade repo=hd::/var/cache/yum/preupgrade ks=hd:UUID=94b04d58-5270-46aa-a376-4525e5f863f8:/boot/upgrade/ks.cfg stage2=hd:UUID=94b04d58-5270-46aa-a376-4525e5f863f8:/boot/upgrade/install.img"
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
Unknown partition table signature
All finished. The upgrade will begin when you reboot.
[root@homeserver ~]#


An fdisk -l reveals..

[root@homeserver ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 74.4 GB, 74355769344 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9039 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sda doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/sdb: 74.4 GB, 74355769344 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9039 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x49943f26

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 17211 138240000 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 17211 18079 6979536 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdc: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
224 heads, 56 sectors/track, 311465 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 12544 * 512 = 6422528 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x471e995c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 311465 1953508452 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdd: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
224 heads, 56 sectors/track, 311465 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 12544 * 512 = 6422528 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6d2a06ff

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 1 311465 1953508452 83 Linux

Disk /dev/md127: 148.7 GB, 148705902592 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 18079 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x49943f26

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/md127p1 * 1 17211 138240000 83 Linux
/dev/md127p2 17211 18079 6979536 82 Linux swap / Solaris
[root@homeserver ~]#

I'm assuming the upgrader isn't aware of my raided disks and is seeing them as single disks.

Any ideas??