Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:48:43 +1100 (EST) From: Ian Smith <smithi@nimnet.asn.au> To: William Bulley <web@umich.edu> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Edward Martinez <eam1edward@gmail.com> Subject: Re: where to ask about problems with bsdinstall in 9.0RC2? Message-ID: <20111123150244.W72022@sola.nimnet.asn.au> In-Reply-To: <20111122164045.GA25322@itcom245.staff.itd.umich.edu> References: <20111122164045.GA25322@itcom245.staff.itd.umich.edu>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:40:45 -0500, William Bulley wrote:
> According to Ian Smith <smithi@nimnet.asn.au> on Sat, 11/19/11 at 13:29:
> >
> > Unfortunately that concentrates on creating a GPT layout, encouraging a
> > Linux-like single (plus a boot) partition - forget using dump/restore -
> > and says nothing much about installing over an existing setup with MBR
> > partitioning and multiple slices, a not uncommon setup on many existing
> > laptops .. eg here I want to install over a previous 7.2-RELEASE 60GB
> > slice partitioned as I want it - 1GB /, 4GB /var, 16GB /usr and ~37GB
> > /home. Further, I want to preserve /home as is, despite having backups.
> >
> > sysinstall's partitioning is more sophisticated; you get to specifically
> > toggle on or off newfs'ing each partition, as well as specifying newfs
> > options if you want. So it's clear whether you'll be newfs'ing / and
> > which other partitions, and which you'll be leaving alone, eg /home.
> >
> > On BETA1 I recorded "Extract Error while extracting base.txz: can't set
> > user=0/group=0 for /var/empty Can't update time for /var/empty .." which
> > someone/s else also reported, which turned out to be misleading .. the
> > basic problem is that the filesystem isn't empty, ie as after newfs.
>
> I hate to be a pest about this, but bsdinstall just isn't working for me.
> I grabbed the 9.0RC2 bootonly ISO for i386 and tried again to load this
> onto this Dell laptop. This time the *.txz files had to be gotten over
> the network which took longer that with the DVD1 ISO. :-(
>
> The files were fetched, and checked/verified, then the actual installation
> (extraction) began. Unfortunately, I got the same error pop-up message.
> This time I have the exact text of that error message:
>
> "Error while extracting base.txz: Can't
> set user=0/group=0 for var/emptyCan't
> update time for var/empty"
>
> Note the missing space or CR before the second "Can't"
>
> What confused me at first was the missing slash ("/") character before the
> two "var" pathnames. But I now understand that is because I am updating
> (not installing) from a previously working (was 8.2-STABLE in this case)
> system where the four partitions (root, swap, /var, and /usr) are present
> and full of FreeBSD files, etc.
Sorry William, this arrived not long after I crashed, 18-hour odd time
difference .. I've since seen Frank Shute advise how to csup from 8.2-S
to RELENG_9_0 and in your case that's likely the easiest way to go.
As you see, you got exactly the same error I got with BETA1, and for the
same reason - bsdinstall isn't running newfs on your existing partitions
before trying to extract the distribution. I thought that was going to
be fixed before release, but clearly not yet. It really needs the newfs
toggle option of sysinstall/sade before it'll be useful as sysinstall.
You'd have to boot your DVD1, go into Live CD (formerly Fixit) mode and
run newfs manually - if running sysinstall from there doesn't work? I
recall your 8.2 system was on slice 1, so likely:
# newfs /dev/ad0s1a # /
# newfs /dev/ad0s1e; newfs /dev/ad0s1f # /usr, /var
Then probably have to reboot DVD1 - I don't know if you can get back
into the installer from fixit mode? - then the install should work, but
of course you've by then lost your 8.2 system entirely.
> If this is a "feature" of bsdinstall, then it should be mentioned in the
> documentation somewhere. I used the "Manual" configuration method where
> I was asked to name the mount points for root, /var and /usr. My question
> is this: "if bsdinstall can't handle installing over top of an already
> existing system on disk, then why ask the user for mount points on those
> already existing partitions?" This seems weird to me.
The docs are very much a work in progress. Even sysinstall requires you
to at least enter the mountpoints for your existing partitions (within a
slice); they're needed for install and of course to build /etc/fstab.
In my case, wanting to preserve /home, seems I'll have to NOT supply a
mountpoint for that partition in order for it to be left alone, and then
add it into fstab afterwards, probably having to merge any newly created
user there from /usr/home, revert the symlink etc. Messy.
> So now I am back to square one. I want to load 9.0RC2 onto this laptop
> for reasons that aren't relevant to this thread, yet I am unable to do
> so because as of 9.0 sysinstall has been replaced by bsdinstall.
Did you try running sysinstall (or sade), just to do the slicing +
partitioning / newfs'ing from Live CD mode, only on DVD1 I guess?
> For the record, how do I upgrade to 9.0RC2 (or any 9.0 variant) from a
> system already running 8.2-STABLE? Had this attempt been using the
> sysinstall method, I would have long since been up and running FreeBSD
> 9.x on this laptop. Please advise. Thanks in advance.
In your case I think a source upgrade and building is probably the way
to go. In my case, my 8.2 is on another slice (s4), but I want 9.0 on
s2, over an existing 7.4-RELEASE, because that slice has enough space
for a decent ongoing 9.x system, and because I'd hoped to contribute to
debugging bsdinstall - but then I moved and had no net access for nearly
a month. Still, I'm persisting with that plan and I'll keep hassling
until this regression in functionality is fixed, for 9.1 now I guess.
cheers, Ian
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20111123150244.W72022>