Preupgrade from F9 to F10 gives error message on reboot

[inkybutton]

Hello,
I used preupgrade today to upgrade from F9 to F10. After downloading all the packages, it asked me to reboot. After it did so, anaconda was started, and there were several message that came up.

1. "Unable to mount hda6 to /mnt/hda6" - I thought it isn't important, so I clicked on Continue.
2. "Downloading repository information from repository"
3. "Retrying downloading"
4. "Unable to read package metadata. This may be due to a missing repodata directory. Please ensure that your install tree has been correctly generated.
Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository anaconda-InstallationRepo-200811191949.i386. Please verify its path and try again." The options were Exit Installer, Retry, Edit, and Continue.

When I clicked on Edit I was prompted to enter a path to the repository. However, there was a popup that said "Unable to display /Nothing/var/cache/yum/" - which may be a hint to someone who knows these things.
When I tried "Retry" it said "unable to generate install tree".

Help! I'm so close to getting F10...

[Dox96]

I have a very similar problem, although I didn't get the first unable to mount warning. I was doing the same thing - upgrading from F9 to F10 using preupgrade. The bit where it says "Unable to display /None/var/cache/yum" is very suspicious and seems to indicate that it can't find the repository that preupgrade makes in the /var/cache/yum/preupgrade directory. I certainly checked this directory to see that the required data was there, and it all seems OK. I also checked the grub file to see if it was configured correctly. One of the options was "repo=hd:UUID=xxxxxx:/var/cache/yum/preupgrade" which looks like it is the configuration option applicable, but I checked the given UUID using /lib/udev/vol_id and it appears to be correct.

So now what do I do? Anaconda appears to offer a way out because you are prompted to enter a path to the installation repository, but although I have tried I haven't been able to give the correct options to anaconda to help it find it.

I notice that poor inkybutton hasn't received any tips for this in the past three weeks... Is there anyone out there who can help us?

[Dox96]

[Edit] WARNING: Read this post before attempting this workaround!

Well I managed to get around this problem through possibly the most hideous hack you could possibly imagine When anaconda couldn't find the repos on my hard drive, it offered a screen allowing you to suggest where to look. There were three choices that it offered: HTTP/FTP; CD/DVD and NFS. I tried in vain to use the NFS option to point to my hard drive (which is almost certainly due to my total lack of knowledge of NFS and anaconda I suspect). I didn't want to burn a DVD with the data, so I ftp'd the /var/cache/yum/preupgrade data to a website that I could access. Then I tried running anaconda again, pointing to that website. It worked!

So the hack was to transfer 2GB of data onto a website and back down again, just so anaconda could find the data it needed! I think I need a prize for worst hack ever

Complete instructions:

• Press the "Edit" button when anaconda complains about not finding the repo.
• Leave the repo name alone; just enter the website in the form: http://example.com/repo_dir
• Press OK
• Do something else for the next hour; you're not going to be able to use your computer