Hello!
More than two months since the "always_format" flag was introduced, I
got a chance to test it. Unsuccessfully, it seems.
The disk layout on this test system was set up to imitate that on a
laptop with a total of four existing Windows partitions, (three primary
and one logical), none of which should be touched. The empty Linux
partitions were created manually with gparted. FAI is expected to create
filesystems on those during each install. There is some empty space on
the disks as well.
Here is the output from fdisk:
Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0003d396
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 127 1020096 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 128 1402 10241437+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3 1403 9051 61440592+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda4 9052 9729 5446035 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda5 1403 5226 30716248+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda6 5230 5306 618471 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 5307 5561 2048256 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda8 5562 5650 714861 83 Linux
/dev/hda9 5651 5739 714861 83 Linux
/dev/hda10 5740 6504 6144831 83 Linux
/dev/hda11 6505 7779 10241406 83 Linux
/dev/hda12 7780 8990 9727326 83 Linux
My disk configuration file looks like this:
disk_config disk1 bootable:1 preserve_always:1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12
always_format:6,7,8,9,10,11,12
primary - 0 - -
primary - 0 - -
logical - 0 - -
logical / 0 ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro createopts="-c -j"
logical swap 0 swap sw
logical /var 0 ext3 rw createopts="-c -m 5 -j"
logical /tmp 0 ext3 rw createopts="-c -m 0 -j"
logical /usr 0 ext3 rw createopts="-c -j"
logical /home 0 ext3 rw,nosuid,nodev createopts="-m 1 -j"
logical /wrk 0 ext3 rw,nosuid,nodev createopts="-m 1 -j"
primary - 0 - -
And the result of running "setup-storage -d" is attached.
Perhaps my syntax is incorrect too, but it crashed with an
"uninitialized value" from Perl which it probably should not.
Toomas Tamm
On Tue, 2010-04-06 at 23:55 +0200, Michael Tautschnig wrote:
> > On Fri, 2010-03-26 at 13:08 -0600, Jeffrey Stolte wrote:
> >
> > > (I should mention that one of our main uses of FAI is to upgrade
> > > machines from one Debian release to the next. However, rather than do
> > > an in-place upgrade, we do a fresh install of the new release while
> > > preserving the existing partition sizes on the disk.)
> > >
> > > I hope this makes some sense. If no one else has asked for this
> > > capability, though, maybe we need to reconsider our practice of
> > > preserving partition sizes. I don't want you to have to add an option
> > > that no one else uses or that is not considered to be a "best
> > practice".
> > > Let me know if you need any additional information. Thanks.
> >
> > I would cast another vote towards adding such an option. Our use case is
> > the following: we have several dual-booting laptops where the Windows
> > partition(s), as well as the master boot record (which may contain
> > manufacturer-specific code to access recovery partitions, etc) should be
> > touched as little as possible. Just as the above user, we prefer fresh
> > installs to in-place upgrades.
> >
> > It would feel very reassuring if there were an option in FAI which
> > essentially meant "do not touch anything in disk paritioning, just
> > create new filesystems on existing partitions where requested, and leave
> > all the rest unchanged".
> >
> > In today's situation, I always feel an urge to test my setups (based on
> > hooks and/or manual intervention) several times on a "disposable" test
> > machine before I dare to run FAI on a "real" system.
> >
>
> I've added an option "always_format" which can be used along with
> preserve_always, etc. and works the same way as the "format" option did in
> setup_harddisks.
>
> I believe the following should work, adapting Jeffrey's example:
>
> disk_config sda disklabel:msdos bootable:1 preserve_always:1,2,5,6,7
> always_format:1,2,5
> primary / 0 ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro createopts="-j"
> primary swap 0 swap sw
> logical /var 0 ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro createopts="-j"
> logical /home 0 ext3 defaults,nosuid,nodev,errors=remount-ro
> logical /d1 0 ext3 defaults,nosuid,nodev,errors=remount-ro
>
> In case some of the partitions need not exist in all cases, you can use
> preserve_lazy instead of preserve_always, but then some size other than 0 must
> be specified.
>
> This option is available as of 3.3.5+experimental2. For details on how to
> obtain
> the experimental builds please see
> http://faiwiki.informatik.uni-koeln.de/index.php/Main_Page#getting_FAI
> Testing is much appreciated!!
>
>
> Best,
> Michael
>
setup-harddisks is running in test-only mode
Starting setup-storage 1.2.1+exp
disklist was: hda
Using config file: /var/lib/fai/config/disk_config/DISK_jensen
Input was:
# setup-storage configuration file for the laptop, jensen.
#
# It comes with a small partition as sda1, the larger
# sda2 for Win7, and sda4 for recovery.
#
# I shrunk sda2, created an extended partition in the empty
# space, and divided it between Windows Home (D:) and linux
# partitions. We preserve the size and location of everything,
# but create new filesystems.
# We use the "always_format" option which was created partially
# at my own request into FAI 3.3.5+experimental2.
#
disk_config disk1 bootable:1 preserve_always:1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 always_format:6,7,8,9,10,11,12
primary - 0 - -
primary - 0 - -
logical - 0 - -
logical / 0 ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro createopts="-c -j"
logical swap 0 swap sw
logical /var 0 ext3 rw createopts="-c -m 5 -j"
logical /tmp 0 ext3 rw createopts="-c -m 0 -j"
logical /usr 0 ext3 rw createopts="-c -j"
logical /home 0 ext3 rw,nosuid,nodev createopts="-m 1 -j"
logical /wrk 0 ext3 rw,nosuid,nodev createopts="-m 1 -j"
primary - 0 - -
(CMD) parted -s /dev/hda unit TiB print 1> /tmp/IckBwJajzX 2> /tmp/i3JTIRK3ot
Executing: parted -s /dev/hda unit TiB print
(STDOUT) Model: ST380011A (ide)
(STDOUT) Disk /dev/hda: 0.07TiB
(STDOUT) Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
(STDOUT) Partition Table: msdos
(STDOUT)
(STDOUT) Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
(STDOUT) 1 0.00TiB 0.00TiB 0.00TiB primary ntfs
(STDOUT) 2 0.00TiB 0.01TiB 0.01TiB primary ntfs
(STDOUT) 3 0.01TiB 0.07TiB 0.06TiB extended
(STDOUT) 5 0.01TiB 0.04TiB 0.03TiB logical ntfs
(STDOUT) 6 0.04TiB 0.04TiB 0.00TiB logical ext3
(STDOUT) 7 0.04TiB 0.04TiB 0.00TiB logical linux-swap
(STDOUT) 8 0.04TiB 0.04TiB 0.00TiB logical ext3
(STDOUT) 9 0.04TiB 0.04TiB 0.00TiB logical ext3
(STDOUT) 10 0.04TiB 0.05TiB 0.01TiB logical ext3
(STDOUT) 11 0.05TiB 0.06TiB 0.01TiB logical ext3
(STDOUT) 12 0.06TiB 0.07TiB 0.01TiB logical ext3
(STDOUT) 4 0.07TiB 0.07TiB 0.01TiB primary ntfs
(STDOUT)
(CMD) parted -s /dev/hda unit B print free 1> /tmp/qzpr7AdTLF 2> /tmp/Zi0nPG9LWb
Executing: parted -s /dev/hda unit B print free
(STDOUT) Model: ST380011A (ide)
(STDOUT) Disk /dev/hda: 80026361856B
(STDOUT) Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
(STDOUT) Partition Table: msdos
(STDOUT)
(STDOUT) Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
(STDOUT) 1 32256B 1044610559B 1044578304B primary ntfs
(STDOUT) 2 1044610560B 11531842559B 10487232000B primary ntfs
(STDOUT) 3 11531842560B 74447009279B 62915166720B extended
(STDOUT) 5 11531874816B 42985313279B 31453438464B logical ntfs
(STDOUT) 42985313280B 43009989119B 24675840B Free Space
(STDOUT) 6 43010021376B 43643335679B 633314304B logical ext3
(STDOUT) 7 43643367936B 45740782079B 2097414144B logical linux-swap
(STDOUT) 8 45740814336B 46472831999B 732017664B logical ext3
(STDOUT) 9 46472864256B 47204881919B 732017664B logical ext3
(STDOUT) 10 47204914176B 53497221119B 6292306944B logical ext3
(STDOUT) 11 53497253376B 63984453119B 10487199744B logical ext3
(STDOUT) 12 63984485376B 73945267199B 9960781824B logical ext3
(STDOUT) 73945267200B 74447009279B 501742080B Free Space
(STDOUT) 4 74447009280B 80023749119B 5576739840B primary ntfs
(STDOUT)
(CMD) parted -s /dev/hda unit chs print free 1> /tmp/5EdBjYOGYo 2> /tmp/NPu2wstGwk
Executing: parted -s /dev/hda unit chs print free
(STDOUT) Model: ST380011A (ide)
(STDOUT) Disk /dev/hda: 9729,80,62
(STDOUT) Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
(STDOUT) BIOS cylinder,head,sector geometry: 9729,255,63. Each cylinder is 8225kB.
(STDOUT) Partition Table: msdos
(STDOUT)
(STDOUT) Number Start End Type File system Flags
(STDOUT) 1 0,1,0 126,254,62 primary ntfs
(STDOUT) 2 127,0,0 1401,254,62 primary ntfs
(STDOUT) 3 1402,0,0 9050,254,62 extended
(STDOUT) 5 1402,1,0 5225,254,62 logical ntfs
(STDOUT) 5226,0,0 5228,254,62 Free Space
(STDOUT) 6 5229,1,0 5305,254,62 logical ext3
(STDOUT) 7 5306,1,0 5560,254,62 logical linux-swap
(STDOUT) 8 5561,1,0 5649,254,62 logical ext3
(STDOUT) 9 5650,1,0 5738,254,62 logical ext3
(STDOUT) 10 5739,1,0 6503,254,62 logical ext3
(STDOUT) 11 6504,1,0 7778,254,62 logical ext3
(STDOUT) 12 7779,1,0 8989,254,62 logical ext3
(STDOUT) 8990,0,0 9050,254,62 Free Space
(STDOUT) 4 9051,0,0 9728,254,62 primary ntfs
(STDOUT)
Finding all volume groups
(CMD) mdadm --detail --scan --verbose -c partitions 1> /tmp/eZ57VnRW0q 2> /tmp/t97rsbKQaO
Executing: mdadm --detail --scan --verbose -c partitions
Use of uninitialized value $p in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/share/fai/setup-storage//Init.pm line 266.
Can't preserve /dev/hda because it is not defined in the current config
