Bug 1217620

Summary: "Error: Cannot check free space in basic directory / (device /dev/sda21), cannot start installation."
Product: [openSUSE] openSUSE Distribution Reporter: Felix Miata <mrmazda>
Component: InstallationAssignee: E-mail List <yast2-maintainers>
Status: RESOLVED INVALID QA Contact: Jiri Srain <jsrain>
Severity: Normal    
Priority: P5 - None CC: aschnell
Version: Leap 15.6   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: x86-64   
OS: Other   
Whiteboard:
Found By: --- Services Priority:
Business Priority: Blocker: ---
Marketing QA Status: --- IT Deployment: ---
Attachments: y2logs .tgz from host hp750

Description Felix Miata 2023-11-29 07:26:59 UTC
Created attachment 871049 [details]
y2logs .tgz from host hp750

Original summary:
"Error: Cannot check free space in basic directory / (device /dev/sda21), cannot start installation."

To reproduce:
1-partition as desired
2-format target / partition EXT4 using desired non-default formatting options
3-open 15.6 556.3 x86_64 20231118 installer
4-proceed from start, selecting basic minimal along the way, to partitioning
5-use advanced partitioner to select target EXT4 partition, and another (already well used) for /usr/local.
6-apply

Actual behavior:
1-partitioner exits to installation settings summary with red letters reporting:
"Error: Cannot check free space in basic directory / (device /dev/sda21), cannot start installation."

Expected behavior:
1-partitioner exits to report no errors reported in installation settings

Additional comments:
1-switching to tty2 after the error I was able to mount the target / filesystem to /mnt/ and save y2logs output onto it.
2-tune2fs -l /dev/sda21 # (the freshly created / target):
tune2fs 1.46.4 (18-Aug-2021)
Filesystem volume name:   st20s156
Last mounted on:          /mnt
Filesystem UUID:          8dbe2fef-b658-4093-a181-48dafa708ea2
Filesystem magic number:  0xEF53
Filesystem revision #:    1 (dynamic)
Filesystem features:      has_journal ext_attr resize_inode dir_index filetype extent flex_bg sparse_super huge_file uninit_bg dir_nlink extra_isize
Filesystem flags:         signed_directory_hash
Default mount options:    user_xattr acl
Filesystem state:         clean
Errors behavior:          Continue
Filesystem OS type:       Linux
Inode count:              512000
Block count:              4092542
Reserved block count:     204627
Overhead clusters:        71472
Free blocks:              4020754
Free inodes:              511988
First block:              0
Block size:               2048
Fragment size:            2048
Reserved GDT blocks:      512
Blocks per group:         16384
Fragments per group:      16384
Inodes per group:         2048
Inode blocks per group:   128
Flex block group size:    16
Filesystem created:       Wed Nov 29 01:20:01 2023
Last mount time:          Wed Nov 29 01:38:51 2023
Last write time:          Wed Nov 29 01:47:59 2023
Mount count:              2
Maximum mount count:      -1
Last checked:             Wed Nov 29 01:20:01 2023
Check interval:           0 (<none>)
Lifetime writes:          129 MB
Reserved blocks uid:      0 (user root)
Reserved blocks gid:      0 (group root)
First inode:              11
Inode size:               128
Journal inode:            8
Default directory hash:   half_md4
Directory Hash Seed:      6593b8c8-46ab-4e1c-962c-77716d1b9570
Journal backup:           inode blocks
Comment 1 Stefan Hundhammer 2023-11-29 10:45:08 UTC
storage-inst/01-probed.yml :

# 2023-11-28 20:32:55 -0500
---
- disk:
    name: "/dev/sda"
    size: 312571224 KiB (298.09 GiB)
    block_size: 0.5 KiB
    io_size: 0 B
    min_grain: 1 MiB
    align_ofs: 0 B
    partition_table: msdos
    mbr_gap: 1 MiB
    partitions:
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 0 B
    - partition:
        size: 40131 KiB (39.19 MiB)
        start: 31.5 KiB
        name: "/dev/sda1"
        type: primary
        id: dos16
        file_system: vfat
        label: P01WINDOS
    - partition:
        size: 249007.5 KiB (243.17 MiB)
        start: 40162.5 KiB (39.22 MiB)
        name: "/dev/sda2"
        type: primary
        id: ''
        file_system: vfat
        label: P02FREEDOS
    - partition:
        size: 208845 KiB (203.95 MiB)
        start: 289170 KiB (282.39 MiB)
        name: "/dev/sda3"
        type: primary
        id: linux
        file_system: ext2
        label: 03boot
    - partition:
        size: 194860417.5 KiB (185.83 GiB)
        start: 498015 KiB (486.34 MiB)
        name: "/dev/sda4"
        type: extended
        id: ''
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 498015 KiB (486.34 MiB)
    - partition:
        size: 787153.5 KiB (0.75 GiB)
        start: 498046.5 KiB (486.37 MiB)
        name: "/dev/sda5"
        type: logical
        id: swap
        file_system: swap
        label: 05swapper
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 1285200 KiB (1.23 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 7373803.5 KiB (7.03 GiB)
        start: 1285231.5 KiB (1.23 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda6"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext4
        label: st20s131
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 8659035 KiB (8.26 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 8185086 KiB (7.81 GiB)
        start: 8659066.5 KiB (8.26 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda7"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext4
        label: st20stw5
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 16844152.5 KiB (16.06 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 21687718.5 KiB (20.68 GiB)
        start: 16844184 KiB (16.06 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda8"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext3
        label: '08home'
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 38531902.5 KiB (36.75 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 4096543.5 KiB (3.91 GiB)
        start: 38531934 KiB (36.75 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda9"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext3
        label: '09usrlcl'
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 42628477.5 KiB (40.65 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 6554488.5 KiB (6.25 GiB)
        start: 42628509 KiB (40.65 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda10"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext4
        label: st20stw
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 49182997.5 KiB (46.90 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 6554488.5 KiB (6.25 GiB)
        start: 49183029 KiB (46.90 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda11"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext4
        label: st20s150
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 55737517.5 KiB (53.16 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 6554488.5 KiB (6.25 GiB)
        start: 55737549 KiB (53.16 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda12"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext3
        label: st20deb12
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 62292037.5 KiB (59.41 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 6554488.5 KiB (6.25 GiB)
        start: 62292069 KiB (59.41 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda13"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext4
        label: st20s151
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 68846557.5 KiB (65.66 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 6554488.5 KiB (6.25 GiB)
        start: 68846589 KiB (65.66 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda14"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext3
        label: st20deb11
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 75401077.5 KiB (71.91 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 6554488.5 KiB (6.25 GiB)
        start: 75401109 KiB (71.91 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda15"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext4
        label: st20s152
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 81955597.5 KiB (78.16 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 8185086 KiB (7.81 GiB)
        start: 81955629 KiB (78.16 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda16"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext4
        label: st20s153
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 90140715 KiB (85.96 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 8185086 KiB (7.81 GiB)
        start: 90140746.5 KiB (85.96 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda17"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext4
        label: st20s154
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 98325832.5 KiB (93.77 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 8185086 KiB (7.81 GiB)
        start: 98325864 KiB (93.77 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda18"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext4
        label: st20s155
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 106510950 KiB (101.58 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 8185086 KiB (7.81 GiB)
        start: 106510981.5 KiB (101.58 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda19"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext4
        label: st20sslo
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 114696067.5 KiB (109.38 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 8185086 KiB (7.81 GiB)
        start: 114696099 KiB (109.38 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda20"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext3
        label: st20deb13
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 122881185 KiB (117.19 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 8185086 KiB (7.81 GiB)
        start: 122881216.5 KiB (117.19 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda21"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext4
        label: st20s156
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 131066302.5 KiB (124.99 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 8185086 KiB (7.81 GiB)
        start: 131066334 KiB (124.99 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda22"
        type: logical
        id: linux
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 139251420 KiB (132.80 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 8185086 KiB (7.81 GiB)
        start: 139251451.5 KiB (132.80 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda23"
        type: logical
        id: linux
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 147436537.5 KiB (140.61 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 8185086 KiB (7.81 GiB)
        start: 147436569 KiB (140.61 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda24"
        type: logical
        id: linux
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 155621655 KiB (148.41 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 8185086 KiB (7.81 GiB)
        start: 155621686.5 KiB (148.41 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda25"
        type: logical
        id: linux
    - free:
        size: 4996246.5 KiB (4.76 GiB)
        start: 163806772.5 KiB (156.22 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 17205583.5 KiB (16.41 GiB)
        start: 168803019 KiB (160.98 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda26"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext2
        label: st20isos
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 186008602.5 KiB (177.39 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 8827686 KiB (8.42 GiB)
        start: 186008634 KiB (177.39 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda27"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext3
        label: st20pub
    - free:
        size: 31.5 KiB
        start: 194836320 KiB (185.81 GiB)
    - partition:
        size: 522081 KiB (509.84 MiB)
        start: 194836351.5 KiB (185.81 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda28"
        type: logical
        id: dos32
        file_system: vfat
        label: WINDRIVERS
    - free:
        size: 117212791.5 KiB (111.78 GiB)
        start: 195358432.5 KiB (186.31 GiB)
- disk:
    name: "/dev/sdb"
    size: 0 B
    block_size: 0.5 KiB
    io_size: 0 B
    min_grain: 1 MiB
    align_ofs: 0 B
- disk:
    name: "/dev/sdc"
    size: 0 B
    block_size: 0.5 KiB
    io_size: 0 B
    min_grain: 1 MiB
    align_ofs: 0 B
- disk:
    name: "/dev/sdd"
    size: 0 B
    block_size: 0.5 KiB
    io_size: 0 B
    min_grain: 1 MiB
    align_ofs: 0 B
- disk:
    name: "/dev/sde"
    size: 0 B
    block_size: 0.5 KiB
    io_size: 0 B
    min_grain: 1 MiB
    align_ofs: 0 B
Comment 2 Stefan Hundhammer 2023-11-29 10:48:25 UTC
Exact error message:

2023-11-29 01:36:07 <1> hp750(4536) [Ruby]
  modules/Packages.rb(AddFailedMounts):496
  Proposal summary:
  $["warning":"Error: Cannot check free space in basic directory / 
    (device /dev/sda21), cannot start installation.",
    "warning_level":`blocker]
Comment 3 Stefan Hundhammer 2023-11-29 10:53:58 UTC
At first glance, it looks very much like at least one of those many filesystems on /dev/sda was broken:


   - partition:
        size: 8185086 KiB (7.81 GiB)
        start: 122881216.5 KiB (117.19 GiB)
        name: "/dev/sda21"
        type: logical
        id: linux
        file_system: ext4
        label: st20s156


2023-11-28 20:32:21 <1> hp750(4536) [libstorage]
  SystemCmd.cc(execute):267 SystemCmd Executing:
  "/sbin/blkid -c /dev/null"

2023-11-28 20:32:36 <1> hp750(4536) [libstorage] SystemCmd.cc(addLine):646
  Adding Line 27
  "/dev/sda21: LABEL="st20s156"
  UUID="8dbe2fef-b658-4093-a181-48dafa708ea2" BLOCK_SIZE="2048"
  TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="2df02df0-15""


2023-11-29 01:36:07 <1> hp750(4536) [Ruby]
  modules/SpaceCalculation.rb(block in get_partition_info):597
  Executing mount command:
  /usr/bin/mount -o noatim,ro /dev/sda21 /tmp/YaST2-04536-1QwBkd/diskspace_mount

2023-11-29 01:36:07 <3> hp750(4536) [bash]
  ShellCommand.cc(shellcommand):78
  mount: /tmp/YaST2-04536-1QwBkd/diskspace_mount:
  wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda21,
  missing codepage or helper program, or other error.

2023-11-29 01:36:07 <1> hp750(4536) [Ruby]
  modules/SpaceCalculation.rb(block in get_partition_info):600
  Mount result: 32

2023-11-29 01:36:07 <3> hp750(4536) [Ruby]
  modules/SpaceCalculation.rb(block in get_partition_info):622
  Mount failed, ignoring partition /dev/sda21
Comment 4 Stefan Hundhammer 2023-11-29 10:58:42 UTC
So please make sure before the installation that those filesystems are okay.

In this particular case, try 'fsck' on that /dev/sda21. Or if you are sure you don't want to use it anymore, create a new one with 'mkfs', or change the partition type (ID) to something that a Linux installer will not try to probe.

Not just continuing if there are corrupted filesystems is a safety measure.
Comment 5 Stefan Hundhammer 2023-11-29 11:03:49 UTC
I am not 100% sure, but I seem to recall that there is a limit to the maximum number of logical partitions that you can use. You may have reached it.
Comment 6 Arvin Schnell 2023-11-29 11:44:14 UTC
From the logs:

/usr/bin/mount -o noatim,ro /dev/sda21

That should be "noatime".
Comment 7 Stefan Hundhammer 2023-11-29 11:51:30 UTC
Felix, AFAICS that is a value that you entered manually:

From macro_inst_initial.ycp:

  UI::ChangeWidget( `id ("Y2Partitioner::Widgets::ArbitraryOptions"),	
    `Value, "noatim" );	// YInputField "Arbitrary Optio

2023-11-28 20:34:14 <1> hp750(4536) [Ruby] 
  widgets/fstab_options.rb(handle):162 
  fstab_options after dialog: ["noatim"]

Since that is one of the "arbitrary mount options", there are no checks.
Comment 8 Felix Miata 2023-11-29 19:36:05 UTC
Sorry about wasting your time. There used to be a checkbox for noatime. Back then there was no opportunity to misspell it without noticing.
Comment 9 Felix Miata 2023-11-29 21:23:28 UTC
(In reply to Stefan Hundhammer from comment #5)
> I am not 100% sure, but I seem to recall that there is a limit to the
> maximum number of logical partitions that you can use. You may have reached
> it.

For a few years after hda was replaced by sda for ATA storage, ATA suffered the same 16 device limitation it inherited from SCSI. That eventually got fixed. I don't know what new limit there may be, but it's at least 62 or 63, if not more. I've done plenty of Leap installations on partitions above #16. Some of my disks have upwards of 50 partitions.

I have 8 15.6As from upgrades. I just finished my first fresh 15.6A installation, onto that same sda21 successfully, started using the NET installer's linux and initrd launched by 13.1's Grub 0.97: 9 minutes for download & install phase.