Environment
Novell Open Enterprise Server 1 (OES 1) Service Pack 2 Linux
Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 (OES 2)
Novell Open Enterprise Server (Linux based)
Situation
After doing a standard install of SLES 10 SP1 and OES2. During the installation you pick NSS, eDir and any other OES service you would like to install and the whole disk has to be managed by EVMS, including swap.
This changes the device entry from /dev/sda1 to /dev/evms/sda1 (which does not occur if you don't choose NSS above). Once the install has finished, all seems to work OK, but when you go into Yast, Hardware, Boot Loader you get an error message "Because of the partitioning the boot loader cannot be initialised properly".
This changes the device entry from /dev/sda1 to /dev/evms/sda1 (which does not occur if you don't choose NSS above). Once the install has finished, all seems to work OK, but when you go into Yast, Hardware, Boot Loader you get an error message "Because of the partitioning the boot loader cannot be initialised properly".
Resolution
By default, /boot partition can not be installed in an EVMS/LVM container. If you try to do that during the installation, you will get the following pop up warning:
Boot loader cannot be installed properly !
After finishing the OES2 installation with / (root) partition in an EVMS container, you need to point the /boot partition as evms partition because of boot.evms service if such action has not been done already during the installation.
Checking the y2log file, you can see the following;
2008-07-21 08:31:24 <1> zos7(5793) [YCP] bootloader/routines/misc.ycp:326 getPartitionList: `boot
2008-07-21 08:31:24 <1> zos7(5793) [YCP] bootloader/routines/misc.ycp:1449 Boot partition device: /dev/evms/sda1
2008-07-21 08:31:24 <1> zos7(5793) [YCP] bootloader/routines/misc.ycp:1452 Disk info: $["disk":"/dev/evms", "nr":"sda1"]
2008-07-21 08:31:24 <1> zos7(5793) [YCP] bootloader/routines/misc.ycp:1475 Cannot install bootloader on EVMS
2008-07-21 08:32:01 <3> zos7(5793) [YCP] Report.ycp:484 Because of the partitioning, the boot loader
cannot be installed properly.
That means that if you use yast2 bootloader, misc.ycp routine is used too and it is the same one used during the installation and it checks if /boot partition is under EVMS/LVM or not and it warns you.
This is a cosmetic message and can be disregarded.
Boot loader cannot be installed properly !
After finishing the OES2 installation with / (root) partition in an EVMS container, you need to point the /boot partition as evms partition because of boot.evms service if such action has not been done already during the installation.
Checking the y2log file, you can see the following;
2008-07-21 08:31:24 <1> zos7(5793) [YCP] bootloader/routines/misc.ycp:326 getPartitionList: `boot
2008-07-21 08:31:24 <1> zos7(5793) [YCP] bootloader/routines/misc.ycp:1449 Boot partition device: /dev/evms/sda1
2008-07-21 08:31:24 <1> zos7(5793) [YCP] bootloader/routines/misc.ycp:1452 Disk info: $["disk":"/dev/evms", "nr":"sda1"]
2008-07-21 08:31:24 <1> zos7(5793) [YCP] bootloader/routines/misc.ycp:1475 Cannot install bootloader on EVMS
2008-07-21 08:32:01 <3> zos7(5793) [YCP] Report.ycp:484 Because of the partitioning, the boot loader
cannot be installed properly.
That means that if you use yast2 bootloader, misc.ycp routine is used too and it is the same one used during the installation and it checks if /boot partition is under EVMS/LVM or not and it warns you.
This is a cosmetic message and can be disregarded.
Additional Information
Using EVMS OES2 Documentation
https://www.novell.com/documentation/oes2/stor_nss_lx_nw/data/btnb8e9.html#btnb8e9
https://www.novell.com/documentation/oes2/stor_nss_lx_nw/data/btnb8e9.html#btnb8e9