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7.8. anaconda

Updated anaconda packages that fix several bugs and add various enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.
The anaconda packages contain portions of the Anaconda installation program that can be run by the user for reconfiguration and advanced installation options.

Bug Fixes

BZ#1145812
On the custom storage screen, selecting mountpoint and format as EFI System Partition caused the following error message to be displayed:
You have not created a /boot/efi partition.
This update modifies the way boot devices are looked up. As a result, an acceptable boot device is located and no error is reported in the described situation.
BZ#1139606
The Anaconda installer set the "boot" flag on the PowerPC Reference Platform (PReP) partition when using GUID Partition Table (GPT) disks. Consequently, the GUID of the partition changed to the EFI System Partition instead of PReP. Now, when using GPT disks, the boot flag is only set on boot partitions that are formatted as EFI partitions, and the PReP partition GUID is no longer replaced with the ESP GUID.
BZ#1153376
The LVM physical volume (PV) and volume group (VG) size was sometimes smaller than expected. Consequently, Anaconda sometimes tried to create a logical volume (LV) that was larger than the available space in the VG. Now, Anaconda verifies the amount of available space when creating a LV and if the request is too large, only the available space is used. Also, a warning message is included in the storage.log file.
BZ#1129499
Under specific circumstances, if a device lookup by name failed, the function failed instead of gracefully returning "no such device". As a consequence, Anaconda terminated unexpectedly. With this update, if a device lookup by name fails, it is treated as if nothing was found instead of an error.
BZ#1083586
Previously, Anaconda forced the vesa driver after the Linux framebuffer (fbdev). As a consquence, the X server could terminate unexpectedly while booting. Now, Anaconda no longer crashes.
BZ#979163
Some servers use network cards that take a very long time to initialize since the link is reported as being available. Consequently, the download of the kickstart file failed. This update re-adds support for the "nicdelay" installer boot option by using NetworkManager's feature of checking the gateway with a ping before the device is reported as connected. As a result, for servers with network cards taking a very long time to initialize, the "nicdelay" boot option can be used to prevent kickstart download from failing.
BZ#1168024
When starting the VNC server, Anaconda always passed the "-nevershared" option, and Anaconda only allowed one VNC connection. This update removes the "-nevershared" option. The user has to use the "-shared" option from their VNC client to connect to a shared connection.
BZ#1021445
The Anaconda installer searched for prepboot disks with a preference for those on the same disk as /boot. If a user deleted all partitions including /boot, the object would be a NoneType. Consequently, Anaconda terminated unexpectedly. This update adds a guard to perform a safe default in the described situation.

Enhancements

BZ#1144979
On IBM System z, if LDL-formatted Direct Access Storage Devices (DASDs) are detected, the Anaconda installer now displays a warning dialog that explains the problem and presents a list of the detected Linux Disk Layout (LDL) DASDs with an option to format them as Compatible Disk Layout (CDL). Before, although LDL DASDs were recognized by the kernel, they were not officially supported in the installer. The user can now choose whether or not to format the detected LDL DASDs as CDL.
BZ#1083459
This update adds support for LVM Thin Provisioning as a device type within the Anaconda installer and kickstart configuration.
Users of anaconda are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix these bugs and add these enhancements.