I'm running into a slight problem trying to upgrade a CentOS 4.4 install to 5.0.
The configuration: CentOS 4.4 is an old install that used to boot natively. That has since been backed up and restored to two seperate LVs (as the original install had two partitions). The host system now runs Debian, and I've been able to successfully boot the old CentOS 4.4 install under Xen (with a Debian domU kernel, but that's besides the point).
I've decided to upgrade the CentOS domU to CentOS 5. After determining that the recommended upgrade path is to do so via the installer, I grabbed the CentOS installer kernel/ramdisk and configured my domU to boot from those. The installer comes up without a problem.
Things get hairy when the installer takes a look at the 'disks'. I receive the following message: /dev/xvda currently has a loop partition layout. To use this disk for the installation of CentOS, it must be re-initialized, causing the loss of ALL DATA on this drive.
It looks like the installer doesn't like the fact that there are no partitions (which is correct, as the 'disk' is actually a logical volume under lvm). As I'm trying to do an upgrade, and not blow away my existing setup, this isn't going to work.
My question, therefore, is - how do I tell the CentOS 5 installer to ignore the fact that there are no partitions, and to simply do the install? As mentioned previously, the CentOS domU does boot perfectly fine, and given the prevalence of volume groups, logical volumes and virtual machines these days, it seems rather silly to have an installer absolutely rely on the existence of partitions before it'll let one do an upgrade or install.
Hi
The installer way is not the only one to upgrade your system! Especially if it fail to detect your disk/partitions.
You should be able to to make the upgrade using "yum upgrade/update" Google on the web about centos upgrade for more info.
Regards.
On 10/21/07, Mike Edwards pf-centos@mirkwood.net wrote:
I'm running into a slight problem trying to upgrade a CentOS 4.4 install to 5.0.
The configuration: CentOS 4.4 is an old install that used to boot natively. That has since been backed up and restored to two seperate LVs (as the original install had two partitions). The host system now runs Debian, and I've been able to successfully boot the old CentOS 4.4 install under Xen (with a Debian domU kernel, but that's besides the point).
I've decided to upgrade the CentOS domU to CentOS 5. After determining that the recommended upgrade path is to do so via the installer, I grabbed the CentOS installer kernel/ramdisk and configured my domU to boot from those. The installer comes up without a problem.
Things get hairy when the installer takes a look at the 'disks'. I receive the following message: /dev/xvda currently has a loop partition layout. To use this disk for the installation of CentOS, it must be re-initialized, causing the loss of ALL DATA on this drive.
It looks like the installer doesn't like the fact that there are no partitions (which is correct, as the 'disk' is actually a logical volume under lvm). As I'm trying to do an upgrade, and not blow away my existing setup, this isn't going to work.
My question, therefore, is - how do I tell the CentOS 5 installer to ignore the fact that there are no partitions, and to simply do the install? As mentioned previously, the CentOS domU does boot perfectly fine, and given the prevalence of volume groups, logical volumes and virtual machines these days, it seems rather silly to have an installer absolutely rely on the existence of partitions before it'll let one do an upgrade or install.
--
Mike Edwards | If this email address disappears, Unsolicited advertisments to | assume it was spammed to death. To this address are not welcome. | reach me in that case, s/-.*@/@/
"Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource." -- John F. Kennedy _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Thank you for the reply, Alain.
Since CentOS doesn't have a recommended on-line upgrade path (why?!), I figured I'd go with the recommended path of using the installer. To that end, I was wondering if I was missing something (boot option, perhaps?) that would tell anaconda to bypass the partition check, and just get on with the install.
I eventually gave up after several hours of frustration, and followed a HowTo on the CentOS site written by someone upgrading from the 4.4 server install to 5.0.
I still repeat my earlier question - why should a modern installer, with the existence (and popularity!) of LVM and Xen, refuse to operate on disks when it cannot find a partition table? It seems upstream is severely limiting their install options in this case.
Thank you again.
On Mon, Oct 22, 2007 at 01:37:14PM +0200, Alain Spineux babbled thus:
Hi
The installer way is not the only one to upgrade your system! Especially if it fail to detect your disk/partitions.
You should be able to to make the upgrade using "yum upgrade/update" Google on the web about centos upgrade for more info.
Regards.
On 10/21/07, Mike Edwards pf-centos@mirkwood.net wrote:
I'm running into a slight problem trying to upgrade a CentOS 4.4 install to 5.0.
The configuration: CentOS 4.4 is an old install that used to boot natively. That has since been backed up and restored to two seperate LVs (as the original install had two partitions). The host system now runs Debian, and I've been able to successfully boot the old CentOS 4.4 install under Xen (with a Debian domU kernel, but that's besides the point).
I've decided to upgrade the CentOS domU to CentOS 5. After determining that the recommended upgrade path is to do so via the installer, I grabbed the CentOS installer kernel/ramdisk and configured my domU to boot from those. The installer comes up without a problem.
Things get hairy when the installer takes a look at the 'disks'. I receive the following message: /dev/xvda currently has a loop partition layout. To use this disk for the installation of CentOS, it must be re-initialized, causing the loss of ALL DATA on this drive.
It looks like the installer doesn't like the fact that there are no partitions (which is correct, as the 'disk' is actually a logical volume under lvm). As I'm trying to do an upgrade, and not blow away my existing setup, this isn't going to work.
My question, therefore, is - how do I tell the CentOS 5 installer to ignore the fact that there are no partitions, and to simply do the install? As mentioned previously, the CentOS domU does boot perfectly fine, and given the prevalence of volume groups, logical volumes and virtual machines these days, it seems rather silly to have an installer absolutely rely on the existence of partitions before it'll let one do an upgrade or install.
-- Alain Spineux aspineux gmail com May the sources be with you
Mike Edwards wrote:
Thank you for the reply, Alain.
Since CentOS doesn't have a recommended on-line upgrade path (why?!), I figured I'd go with the recommended path of using the installer. To that end, I was wondering if I was missing something (boot option, perhaps?) that would tell anaconda to bypass the partition check, and just get on with the install.
I eventually gave up after several hours of frustration, and followed a HowTo on the CentOS site written by someone upgrading from the 4.4 server install to 5.0.
I still repeat my earlier question - why should a modern installer, with the existence (and popularity!) of LVM and Xen, refuse to operate on disks when it cannot find a partition table? It seems upstream is severely limiting their install options in this case.
I don't think that upgrading a Xen VM from el4 to el5 was even on their scope at the time of the 5.0 release.
EL4 did not even have xen support at the release time of el5 (it was at version el4.4) ... xen support for el4 did not come until el4.5 (which was after the 5.0 release).
CentOS does not even really recommend that you use the anaconda installer to upgrade ... we RECOMMEND that you do a clean install and then move over all you data and configuration files, as does upstream:
http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/Installation_Guide-en-US/ch-upgrade-x86.ht...
Specifically:
"While upgrading from <product_name> version 4 Update 4 is supported, you are more likely to have a consistent experience by backing up your data and then installing this release of <product_name> 5 over your previous <product_name> installation."
You were (if using a CentOS DomU) trying to upgrade from 4.5 to 5.0 ... which is NOT supported, but will work for all except the DomU's.
When 5.1 is released, I would expect that this will work better.
<snip>
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Alain Spineux -
Johnny Hughes -
Mike Edwards