D.2. Trouble During the Installation

D.2.1. No devices found to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux Error Message

If you receive an error message stating No devices found to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux, then there may be an issue with your DASD devices. If you encounter this error, add the DASD=<disks> parameter to your parm file (where disks is the DASD range reserved for installation), and start the install again.

Additionally, make sure that you format the DASDs using the dasdfmt command within a Linux root shell, instead of formatting the DASDs using CMS.

D.2.2. Trouble with Partition Tables

If you receive an error after the Disk Partitioning Setup (Section 2.10 Disk Partitioning Setup) phase of the installation saying something similar to

The partition table on device hda was unreadable. To create new partitions it must be initialized, causing the loss of ALL DATA on this drive.

you may not have a partition table on that drive or the partition table on the drive may not be recognizable by the partitioning software used in the installation program.

No matter what type of installation you are performing, backups of the existing data on your systems should always be made.

D.2.3. Other Partitioning Problems

If you are using Disk Druid to edit partitions, but cannot move to the next screen, you probably have not created all the partitions necessary for Disk Druid's dependencies to be satisfied.

You must have the following partitions as a bare minimum:

TipTip
 

When defining a partition's type as swap, you do not have to assign it a mount point. Disk Druid automatically assigns the mount point for you.

D.2.4. Are You Seeing Python Errors?

During some upgrades or installations of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the installation program (also known as anaconda) may fail with a Python or traceback error. This error may occur after the selection of individual packages or while trying to save the upgrade log in /tmp/. The error may look similar to:

Traceback (innermost last):
   File "/var/tmp/anaconda-7.1//usr/lib/anaconda/iw/progress_gui.py",
line 20, in run
     rc = self.todo.doInstall ()
   File "/var/tmp/anaconda-7.1//usr/lib/anaconda/todo.py", line 1468, in
doInstall
     self.fstab.savePartitions ()
   File "fstab.py", line 221, in savePartitions
     sys.exit(0)
 SystemExit: 0

 Local variables in innermost frame:
 self: <fstab.GuiFstab instance at 8446fe0>
 sys: <module 'sys' (built-in)>
 ToDo object:
 (itodo
 ToDo
 p1
 (dp2
 S'method'
 p3
 (iimage
 CdromInstallMethod
 p4
 (dp5
 S'progressWindow'
 p6

 <failed>

This error occurs in some systems where links to /tmp/ are symbolic to other locations or have been changed since creation. These symbolic or changed links are invalid during the installation process, so the installation program cannot write information and fails.

If you experience such an error, first try to download any available errata for anaconda. Errata can be found at:

http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/

The anaconda website may also be a useful reference and can be found online at:

http://rhlinux.redhat.com/anaconda/

You can also search for bug reports related to this problem. To search Red Hat's bug tracking system, go to:

http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/

Finally, if you are still facing problems related to this error, register your product and contact our support team. To register your product, go to:

http://www.redhat.com/apps/activate/