Mount command on extended partition hangs forever during install

Bug #1032874 reported by Nikki VonHollen
10
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
debian-installer-utils (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned
Precise
Won't Fix
Undecided
Unassigned
linux (Ubuntu)
Triaged
High
Unassigned
Precise
Won't Fix
High
Unassigned

Bug Description

Re-installing Precise with kernels 3.2.0-26 or 3.2.0-27 from the precise-updates repo hangs forever when searching for install media on systems that do this from check-missing-firmware. The underlying problem is a hanging mount command. The problem doesn't exist using 3.2.0-23 in the precise repo.

When the installer detects that it needs to load some missing firmware, it tries to mount every available partition as '/media'. If the hard drive is already partitioned and has an extended partition, the installer will try to mount the extended partition and hang indefinitely. Sending SIGKILL to the mount command does nothing.

Eventually, the kernel will start logging 'INFO: task mount:3559 blocked for more than 120 seconds.' messages.

To reproduce, on ThinkPad T420s (or most other laptops with wireless) that already has Ubuntu installed with an extended partition (for example, sda2):
1. Boot the kernel/initramfs for the network installer at /ubuntu/dists/precise/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/ubuntu-installer/amd64/
2. Select language and keyboard options
3. Installer hangs forever
4. Alt-F2 to another terminal
5. Run ps, see stalled mount command, like 'mount -tauto /dev/sda2 /media'

On 3.2.0-23, the mount command will return immediately with an error, as expected (since mounting and extended partition doesn't make sense).

Regardless of what hardware is used, running the mount command on an extended partition always stalls. The hardware only makes a difference in deciding whether the mount command is called during install.

Revision history for this message
Nikki VonHollen (vonhollen) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Nikki VonHollen (vonhollen) wrote :

Adding attachments one at a time :-/

Revision history for this message
Nikki VonHollen (vonhollen) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Nikki VonHollen (vonhollen) wrote :
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Nikki VonHollen (vonhollen) wrote :
Brad Figg (brad-figg)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
tags: added: precise
Revision history for this message
Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury) wrote :

Would it be possible for you to try a Quantal(12.10) install and see if the bug exists there as well?

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Medium
tags: added: regression-update
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
importance: Medium → High
tags: added: kernel-da-key
Revision history for this message
Nikki VonHollen (vonhollen) wrote :

The mount command doesn't hang in the Quantal kernel (3.5.0-8-generic). It returns immediately with an error, as expected, instead of hanging.

Revision history for this message
Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury) wrote :

Thanks for testing, @Vonhollen

Revision history for this message
Nikki VonHollen (vonhollen) wrote :

jsalisbury: No problem! Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help. I don't mind going through more kernels. Thanks ^_^

Chris J Arges (arges)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Precise):
status: New → Triaged
importance: Undecided → High
assignee: nobody → Chris J Arges (christopherarges)
Revision history for this message
Mark Russell (marrusl) wrote :

Hi Nikki,

We were able to reproduce this before, but not on the latest precise builds. Can you test with the latest 12.04? Also, do you see this problem with the alternate ISO as well, or just netbooting?

Thanks!

Revision history for this message
Nikki VonHollen (vonhollen) wrote :

I just tried 3.2.0-30-generic #48 in precise-updates, and everything looks fine. No hang. Thanks! :-)

tags: removed: kernel-da-key
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Oliver's fix for bug 1028905 will stop this showing up in quantal once it lands, although that doesn't make it less of a kernel bug.

affects: hw-detect (Ubuntu) → debian-installer-utils (Ubuntu)
Changed in debian-installer-utils (Ubuntu):
status: New → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

debian-installer-utils (1.91ubuntu5) quantal-proposed; urgency=low

  * prevent list-devices-linux from returning entries for extended partitions
    (ID_PART_ENTRY_TYPE 0x5,0xf and 0x85) (LP: #1028905)

 -- Oliver Grawert <email address hidden> Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:11:57 +0200

Changed in debian-installer-utils (Ubuntu):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Chris J Arges (arges)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Precise):
assignee: Chris J Arges (arges) → nobody
Revision history for this message
Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote :

The Precise Pangolin has reached end of life, so this bug will not be fixed for that release

Changed in debian-installer-utils (Ubuntu Precise):
status: New → Won't Fix
Steve Langasek (vorlon)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu Precise):
status: Triaged → Won't Fix
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