Problems with kickstart --initlabel
 

I know the thread is really old but:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...tended-484378/


I'm having the exact same problem. My specifics are:


- Tyring to install CentOS 6.3
- Doing a netinstall using a FTP site
- The installation is for a guest OS (KVM).

The install is being launched with:

virt-install -n server1.example.com -r 768 -l /media/netinstall -x "ks=ftp://192.168.100.2/pub/ks.cfg"


The install starts and gets to the point where I see "Error processing drive. This device may need to be re-initialized." The relevant part of my KS file:


clearpart --initlabel --all
# Disk partitioning information
part /boot --fstype="ext4" --size=500
part /home --fstype="ext4" --size=2048
part swap --fstype="swap" --size=2048
part / --fstype="ext4" --grow --size=1


When I switch to the 3rd terminal for information, here's what I see:

required disklable type for sda (1) is None
default diskalbel type for sda is msdos
selecting msdos diskalbel for sda based on size


Based on "required diskalbel type for sda (1) is none" I decided to remove the --initlabel parm, however I still face the same problem (prompted to initialize the disk).



TIA


Erik

I've never had any issues but maybe it's sensitive to argument ordering - I've always put --initlabel last:

Thank you for the suggestion, unfortunately it didn't help. I still get the same output on the 3rd console.

clearpart --initlabel should work. If it doesn't this is a bug.

However, if you are installing on virtio disks, /dev/sdX notation is wrong, it should be /dev/vdX

Issue
The 'clearpart --initlabel' option in a kickstart no longer initializes drives in RHEL 6.3.

Environment
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3
Anaconda (kickstart)

Resolution
Use the 'zerombr' option in the kickstart to initialize disks and create a new partition table.
Use the 'ignoredisk' option in the kickstart to limit which disks are initialized by the 'zerombr' option. The following example will limit initialization to the 'vda' disk only:
zerombr
ignoredisk --only-use=vda

So really we want both kickstart options set as they cover different cases, a previously used disk, a blank disk or a disk with an invalid partition table:

clearpart: Removes partitions from the system
--initlabel: .. if installing to a brand new hard drive
zerombr: any invalid partition tables found on disks are initialized

Ref: http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Re...2-options.html

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for.

It seems like clearpart no longer initializes disks as of RHEL 6.3 (although I'm assuming it still deletes partitions if they already exist):

https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/solutions/117513

I tried the zerombr solution on a system with a "brand new disk" (a KVM virtualized installation) and it worked.