Upgrade from FC6 - FC12 Woes

beaman · #1 28th November 2009, 02:47 AM

Hey all,

I decided to upgrade finally. It didn't go smoothly and right now I'm not really sure what is going on.

During the install when it was scanning my disks it threw a timeout error but continued anyway. I completed the install but one thing that seemed odd to me is that I wasn't asked about packages or anything and it never prompted me for any other CDs. I wasn't sure what was going on. I did a re-install but same results.

So I figured fine I'll just configure things myself. I went to mount my other partitions and was unable to. I'm not sure what was done but I've not been able to get to my old data.

I'm not even sure where to start because things are so different. I ran fdisk -l and I see these devices:

/dev/sda
/dev/sdb
/dev/dm-0
/dev/dm-1

Under /dev/sda It shows /dev/sda1 but tells me that partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary it then shows /dev/sda2. This has a System of Linux LVM. Same with my /dev/sdb1. I am guessing this is where my 2 old partitions went.

I looked up LVM which I didn't know anything about before. Previously I was about to mount my partitions directly so I'm pretty sure they were not LVM. So somehow these got converted?

I don't know what /dev/dm-0 and /dev/dm-1 are but I do get errors on them:

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table
Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Right now I'm trying to simply get to my data once again or determine if it's unrecoverable.

At this point I'm at a loss as to how to proceed. I know I didn't tell the install to format anything other than the first partition.

Oh and after the two Fedora installs I did take a peek at Unbuntu. I started that install and it told me that the partition I was installing on was too small. So I canceled it. It showed the other partitions but I could see no way to read them.

Any help or guidance would be appreciated. I see some programs that help with data recovery and I'll try them if all else fails.

rclark · #2 28th November 2009, 03:26 AM

Well, first LVM is installed by default on an install. I think all your data is 'gone'..... I feel LVM is 'bad' as it adds another layer of confusion and its installed by default

. Might be fine for some systems but not for most. If you get the feeling I dislike it ... I do

. I like my Linux the NORMAL setup. What you needed to do, to do a 'normal' install, is to do a 'custom' disk layout during the process. Then you can pick what partitions and mount points you want, which partitions need to be formatted or not, make sure lvm isn't installed, and then continue the install.

That said, you still should have been asked what 'type' of system you wanted. A desktop, development, or server setup. Pick one or all, and then continue. After installation you can use the add/remove packages or just yum to get the others you like.

Hope that helps!

beaman · #3 28th November 2009, 03:34 AM

Ugh. Yeah I'm not liking it either. I read up on it and just to mount stuff I had to go through more steps. Hmm. I may try some of those data recovery programs and see what they do. Kinda sucks because I had a music collection on one that I hadn't backed up. Yeah bad me. Nothing I can't get back eventually but will take a long while that's for sure.

SlowJet · #4 28th November 2009, 03:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rclark

Well, first LVM is installed by default on an install. I think all your data is 'gone'..... I feel LVM is 'bad' as it adds another layer of confusion and its installed by default

. Might be fine for some systems but not for most. If you get the feeling I dislike it ... I do

. I like my Linux the NORMAL setup. What you needed to do, to do a 'normal' install, is to do a 'custom' disk layout during the process. Then you can pick what partitions and mount points you want, which partitions need to be formatted or not, make sure lvm isn't installed, and then continue the install.

That said, you still should have been asked what 'type' of system you wanted. A desktop, development, or server setup. Pick one or all, and then continue. After installation you can use the add/remove packages or just yum to get the others you like.

Hope that helps!

Are you a professor researching a fiction novel for the last ten years so you don't have to teach 1 semester per year?

Anaconda, if it finds a Fedora system on the disk it will ask if you want to install (default radio button on) or upgrade (if the is radio button is selected, the system will be upgraded and no partitioning or formatting takes place.)

Otherwise, everything anaconda does is an install and the user needs to account for exiting partitions with the custom selection, just like you said, but that also shows LVM and clicking the edit button, with the Volume Group selected, will pop up a screen for processing LV's (Logical Volumes) with all the parameters that a normal Linux partition would use.

LVM is not bad or buggy or slow, it is just different, and can manage the disk space much more straight forward than any backup, re-partition, recovery plan. It can also make static snapshots for live backups.

Now for the real problem. He tried to upgrade from a very old version to the current.
That has never been supported and is total never going to happen in Fedora.

Install F12 fresh, use custom partitioning.

SJ

beaman · #5 28th November 2009, 04:01 AM

Yeah I see that this has happened to others. My intention was not to do an upgrade but to install a fresh copy onto the first partition and leave the others alone but apparently I didn't choose something correctly or misunderstood some option. Ah well.

I'm hoping some data recovery is possible since most wouldn't have been overwritten with other data yet.

SlowJet · #6 28th November 2009, 04:06 AM

That's what all say.

I recommend a twin install of Fedora current and Fedora+1 (rawhide Alpha) so you can learn what to expect when the next release comes along.
The twin install can be utilized several ways with a little imagination.

SJ

rclark · #7 28th November 2009, 04:17 AM

Quote:

Are you a professor researching a fiction novel for the last ten years so you don't have to teach 1 semester per year?

Touchy are we? Alas, Nope

..... Just a student of the KISS principle.... I work with embedded systems and industrial control systems actually. Also manage several Linux servers too. A low level, real-time, bit head by trade since '86. That's me.

As for LVM, never said it was bad or buggy, just not needed for a default install IMHO. When I see a need for it, I'll use it, otherwise it stays off my systems

.

I read install ... not upgrade. Sorry for any confusion. :o SJ, you explained it as a 'professor' should

.

beaman · #8 28th November 2009, 04:48 AM

My bad for not being clearer. I don't do actual upgrades because I've had bad experiences with upgrades so I always do fresh installs. I partitioned my system so that one partition could be use for the system and the rest would be for data.

I remember a screen where one option was install or upgrade. I chose that but I don't remember ever choosing anything that said upgrade. I do recall one time it apparently tried to access some repositories and failed. My second attempt didn't give me that error and it went through.