Partman is disorganized
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
partman-base (Ubuntu) |
Confirmed
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
Binary package hint: partman-base
I'm finding that the partition manager on the Ubuntu Gutsy Alternate and Server Hardy Alpha 2 CDs is useless for anything other than very simple drive setups. I've wasted a ridiculous amount of time trying to set up a RAID1/LVM2/dm-crypt arrangement with two pairs of identical drives:
sda1+sdb1=
sdc1+sdd1=
sdc2+sdd2=
sdc3+sdd3=
A bunch of LUKS/dm-crypt volumes in LVs for /, /home, /var/lib/backuppc, and a couple of archives. Not too complicated except the partition manager can't handle it (manual mode):
1. Some mount point assignments lost when RAID, LVM, or Crypt sub-menus are loaded.
2. Old MDs and LVMs are re-discovered after deletion, re-partitioning, and new mount point assignments whenever the same sub-menus are used.
3. MD likes to start resyncing volumes in the background which apparently causes the LVM config module to fail to reload the partition table. The convenient <Go Back> <Cancel> <OK> options are ambiguous and all lead the the LVM sub-menu anyways. Sometimes when the LVM sub-menu actually loads it just aborts when any option is selected and kicks back to the main partitoning screen.
4. Device assignments for MDs sometimes start at md0, sometimes not, depending on it's mood and what kind of mess mdcfg has got going on in the background.
After several attempts with fallbacks to the GParted LiveCD to really kill some partitons that the partition manager couldn't give up on I finally got the damn mess to install. Except of course md was complaining about not being able to bd_claim sda at every boot and mdadm kept reporting it had a bad superblock. I failed it, removed it, wiped it, copied it, fdisked it, added and re-added it, tried every solution suggested on the entire Internet and it still had errors. The odd thing is that the partition still seemed to sync.