lucid installer hangs after parted_server crashes

[Markus Wigge]

Binary package hint: debian-installer

The installer of the alternate beta1 for lucid-lynx alway hung at 77% while detecting the partitions.

A look at alt-f4 showed me that parted_server segfaulted without any further hints.

This is reproducable when the only given disk already has a valid partition table like the following:
~# fdisk -l /dev/vg01/lucid-root

Platte /dev/vg01/lucid-root: 8589 MByte, 8589934592 Byte
255 Köpfe, 63 Sektoren/Spuren, 1044 Zylinder
Einheiten = Zylinder von 16065 × 512 = 8225280 Bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000ebfee

               Gerät boot. Anfang Ende Blöcke Id System
/dev/vg01/lucid-root1 1 994 7977984 83 Linux
Partition 1 endet nicht an einer Zylindergrenze.
/dev/vg01/lucid-root2 994 1045 408576+ 5 Erweiterte
/dev/vg01/lucid-root5 994 1045 408576 82 Linux Swap / Solaris

After cleaning the disk with dd from /dev/zero the install proceeded.
The installation took place in a KVM virtual machine under karmic.

Unfortunately the installer is unable to create and mount the desired root-FS so it does not help that it proceeds after cleaning the disk :(

[lopst (lopst-com)]

When installing from USB, the installer does not work. This happens with the desktop vesion, alternative and minimal.

Since CD does work well.

Sorry for my English

[rojer (rojer9)]

confirmed: parted_server crashes when installing from USB.
does not seem to be related to hard disk configuration - one or two HDDs, with partitions or without, parted_server crashes anyway.
haven't tried using CD yet.

[Steffen Petersen (spet)]

I've seen this problem as well. In /var/log/messages I've got the following backtrace:

Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: Backtrace has 14 calls on stack:
Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: 14: /lib/libparted.so.0(ped_assert+0x2a) [0xa00f4a]
Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: 13: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x424b7) [0xa384b7]
Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: 12: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x432c7) [0xa392c7]
Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: 11: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x445bc) [0xa3a5bc]
Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: 10: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0xf7f1) [0xa057f1]
Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: 9: /lib/libparted.so.0(ped_disk_add_partition+0x262) [0xa09072]
Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: 8: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x45f53) [0xa3bf53]
Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: 7: /lib/libparted.so.0(+0x4614f) [0xa3c14f]
Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: 6: /lib/libparted.so.0(ped_disk_new+0x75) [0xa09e55]
Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: 5: parted_server() [0x8055644]
Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: 4: parted_server() [0x8055840]
Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: 3: parted_server() [0x805609b]
Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: 2: /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe6) [0x126bd6]
Jun 14 16:25:33 ubuntu ubiquity: 1: parted_server() [0x804a0c1]

I've attached the complete syslog entry for Ubiquity, let me know if further information is needed.

[Bruce Edge (bruce-edge)]

A preseeded install that tries to wipe existing lvm partitions has the same problem:

Jun 23 17:00:52 debconf: --> FGET partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm seen
Jun 23 17:00:52 debconf: <-- 0 true
Jun 23 17:00:52 debconf: --> GET partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm
Jun 23 17:00:52 debconf: <-- 0 true
Jun 23 17:00:52 partman-lvm: Logical volume "common" successfully removed
Jun 23 17:00:52 partman-lvm: Logical volume "dom0-swap" successfully removed
Jun 23 17:00:52 partman-lvm: Logical volume "dom0_0" successfully removed
Jun 23 17:00:53 partman-lvm: Logical volume "dom0_1" successfully removed
Jun 23 17:00:53 partman-lvm: Logical volume "dpm_0" successfully removed
Jun 23 17:00:53 partman-lvm: Logical volume "dpm_1" successfully removed
Jun 23 17:00:53 partman-lvm: Logical volume "svm_0" successfully removed
Jun 23 17:00:53 partman-lvm: Logical volume "svm_1" successfully removed
Jun 23 17:00:53 partman-lvm: 0 logical volume(s) in volume group "system" now active
Jun 23 17:00:53 partman-lvm: Volume group "system" successfully removed
Jun 23 17:00:53 partman-lvm: Labels on physical volume "/dev/sda3" successfully wiped
Jun 23 17:00:53 kernel: [ 159.094772] parted_server[12631]: segfault at b0 ip 00007f6fa685b8e4 sp 00007fffc2ed5968 error 4 in libc-2.11.1.so[7f6fa6734000+178000]

[Bruce Edge (bruce-edge)]

Still broken.

I'm attaching the lvm partitioning recipe that is present on disk that causes the installer to crash.

Note, I have an ISO that uses this recipe and as such is a complete test case. If you would like the iso to test, please let me know where to upload it.

[Bruce Edge (bruce-edge)]

A simple script to delete the partitions called form the "arly_command string " should work, eg:

d-i partman/early_command string debconf-set partman-auto/disk "$(/cdrom/preseed/seed-disk.sh)"

/cdrom/preseed/seed-disk.sh:

lvps=$(lvs |cut -d' ' -f 3 | grep -v LV)
for lv in $lvps ; do
 lvremove $lv
done

Of course, this only works if you are building a complete ISO. It's doesn't do anything to help the distribution CDs. That needs a real fix in the parted_server.

[MoLE (moleonthehill)]

I've filed a new bug #660942 against parted as it seems this is where the underlying cause of the bug lies.

If this bug still affects you, please mark it as such.

[Bruce Edge (bruce-edge)]

Yes, definitely still a problem. The 10.04.1 ISO still has the same problem.

It's not related to whether the install source is a CD/DVD or USB stick.

I've worked around the problem by adding a:
d-i partman/early_command string debconf-set partman-auto/disk "$(/cdrom/preseed/nuke-old-lvm.sh)"

that does this (Note the previously posted fix didn't always work):

# Remove lvm config
vgremove -f system >>$output 2>&1 || true
pv=$(pvdisplay | grep "PV Name" | sed -e "s/[[:space:]]*PV Name[[:space:]]*//")
pvremove $pv >>$output 2>&1 || true

This isn't a proper fix, it's a hack.

[Oliver Joos (oliver-joos)]

@Thag: partman and d-i scripts are new to me. Could you give a hint where your script or your line "d-i partman ..:* should go?

[Bruce Edge (bruce-edge)]

The
d-i partman/early_command string debconf-set partman-auto/disk "$(/cdrom/preseed/nuke-old-lvm.sh)"
line belongs in a preseed file.

Here's a few references on preseeding:
http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/apb.html
http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/apbs02.html
http://www.hps.com/~tpg/notebook/autoinstall.php

[Oliver Joos (oliver-joos)]

Thanks. I think I figured out how to apply your workaround. Ubiquity does not fully support preseeding. So I created a stick with the iso of alternate cd 10.10, put your script as "nuke-old-lvm.sh" into /cdrom/preseed and appended the d-i line in file "ubuntu.seed".
But it did not make a difference - parted still freezes.

I checked out the iso-images from Lucid to Natty (daily) and also Ubuntu netbook 10.10, but was not able to install any of them on the SSD of an Asus EeePC 901. Good luck it's not my netbook :-p