[Bug 1650300] Re: ubuntu-installer/partman does not properly detect partitions on FBA device

[Dimitri John Ledkov]

Hello,

I think I should add a condition in partman-partitioning that checks
/proc/dasd/devices to see if the drive with `dasd` label is FBA, and if
so, fallback to msdos partioning table. I'm not sure if FBA drive via
virtio in KVM has /proc/dasd/devices with the right information or not.
I guess using BIODASDINFO ioctl is better.

However, shouldn't the GNU parted use BIODASDINFO ioctl and
report/export dasd_info.type such that partman-partioning can use that?
Or e.g. not set `dasd` label when dasd_info.type != "ECKD" (same logic
as fdasd)?

Regards,

Dimitri.

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Title:
  ubuntu-installer/partman does not properly detect partitions on FBA
  device

Status in Ubuntu on IBM z Systems:
  Confirmed
Status in partman-partitioning package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in partman-partitioning source package in Xenial:
  Confirmed
Status in partman-partitioning source package in Yakkety:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  I installed Ubuntu 16.04.1 on an FBA device. When the partman menu appeared, I created a new partition table on DASD 0.0.ede0 (FBA), and then I created two partitions: 0.7G ext4 for /boot and 10G ext4 for /.
  Installation proceeded ok, and the system ipled from EDEV EDE0.  All fine.

  During a 2nd installation on the same device the following problem occured:
  After activation of the previously installed EDEV disk, partman shows one single full size partition, which is not correct:
  DASD 0.0.ede0 (FBA ) - 10.7 GB IBM S390 DASD drive
  >     #1    10.7 GB

  while kernel has the correct info:
  ~ # cat /proc/partitions |grep dasd
    94        0   10485760 dasda
    94        1     683584 dasda1
    94        2    9801984 dasda2
  Continuing with the installation from here results in a system IPL that ends up in an initramfs, since the rootfs could not be mounted due to an incorrect partition table.

  Attaching syslog.

  Until this bug is fixed, I recommend to describe the workaround (when
  installing on EDEV DASD it is highly recommended to create an empty
  partition table on the entire device before partitioning) in the
  release notes.

  Maybe you can have a look info LTC bug 137464 / LP1548411 which
  described a similar problem with vdisks under KVM.

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