Topic: SME 8 installation erased my usb hard drive

[fred]

I cant believe that the developers or whoever allowed a usb drive to be included in the system drives for installation. I have been using sme server for more than 10 years and have been to afraid of ruffling any feathers by complaining about things that have happened because of broken code or whatever. (don't get me started) But this time i dont care because I am !(*^(^# off and really angry because i had a databse on that drive I was going to restore now I have to frig around and mount an lvm raid partition to copy the database back again.

There are probably lots of others that are frustrated but keep quiet in fear. You should be able to speak your mind without fear of retribution! and the arrogance of some responding to cries for help is appalling thats if you get a response. and those stupid stupid stupid captcha codes.....end of rant for now!

[Stefano]

if you are a SME user for more than 10 years you should know that before installing/upgrading etc you shoul read carefully the documentation, the release notes and the wiki pages..

I'm sorry for your data, but it's not a SME fault..

[janet]

Stefano

Am I recalling correctly, did something get added to sme code that excluded USB dives from being included in system rebuilds & so on. If so it's broken.
Maybe was it a manual thing where you specifically excluded USB drives at the boot install prompt.
I'd have to go searching & looking, so just thought I'd do a quick ask.

Granted that recent comments do say (somewhere) to disconnect USB drives before upgrading & installing.

[fred]

no other operating system that I have seen uses a usb drive when doing an install without you knowing about it

fresh install should be a no brainer "reading documentation" you gotta be kidding

[Stefano]

no other operating system that I have seen uses a usb drive when doing an install without you knowing about it

fresh install should be a no brainer "reading documentation" you gotta be kidding

fred, we are talking about a server distribution, not a game machine.. if you need something stupid that makes you feel like a sysad simply doing click -> click -> click, use something else..

my 2c..

I repeat, I'm sorry for your inconvenience, but it's not a SME issue.. user must always read the documentation and/or, at least, what he has written on the screen..

anyway, if something went wrong, this is not the right place.. bugzilla is here

[nekatreven]

There are probably lots of others that are frustrated but keep quiet in fear. You should be able to speak your mind without fear of retribution! and the arrogance of some responding to cries for help is appalling thats if you get a response. and those stupid stupid stupid captcha codes.....end of rant for now!

I agree that things can be frustrating; you don't even want to post because you may not have searched enough on the wiki for someone's liking and heaven forbid if they think it should have been reported as a bug instead. I can understand that we're not paying for the help and that having things sorted out correctly allows them to do more, but the forum really does usually feel hostile and I usually regret posting. The times it isn't hostile it feels like someone ran my post through google translate (twice) into a language they don't know and then just took a stab at it. For example I just posted a request for clarification of a section in the wiki (and gave a link to it) and all I got back was that section pasted into the thread reply box. Ummm....yea...I've read it, now can we do anything about answering the questions I asked that appear to have been ignored?

If it is any consolation there appears to be as much contradiction in the opinions on the issue you've hit as there is in their damned wiki! It seems not everyone sees fit to blame you for the installer deleting your data without warning (http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5316#c10). And I quote... from the EXISTING bug about this issue:

The loss of even one user's data is too much. -Charlie Brady

So in closing... Should it really need to get to the sixth post on this thread before some forum noob who barely has enough posts to skip the captcha gets off their butt gives an answer that isn't either guessing or fire and brimstone?

[nekatreven]

fred, we are talking about a server distribution, not a game machine.. if you need something stupid that makes you feel like a sysad simply doing click -> click -> click, use something else..

my 2c..

I repeat, I'm sorry for your inconvenience, but it's not a SME issue.. user must always read the documentation and/or, at least, what he has written on the screen..

anyway, if something went wrong, this is not the right place.. bugzilla is here

It may not always be this way...you may be very useful and nice in many of your other posts (but I don't care enough to look). In this case though you are the epitome of what is wrong with this forum. You've talked down to and insulted the man twice now and your nose is pointed far too high in the air to realize that every statement you just made is wrong. You've just asked him to open a duplicate bug and cause more work in the bug tracker.

It most certainly IS already an SME issue seeing as there is an open bug on it.

[Stefano]

You've just asked him to open a duplicate bug and cause more work in the bug tracker.

please, quote my post where I told him to open a new bug, thank you

[nekatreven]

please, quote my post where I told him to open a new bug, thank you

He posts here and you say "anyway, if something went wrong, this is not the right place" and you give a URL! What would you assume he would do with that? Print out the URL and post it on his wall?

[Stefano]

ahem.. he's not a noob

I have been using sme server for more than 10 years

then I guess/hope he's able to search bugzilla.. and, if not, he could always open another bug.. even if duplicate

[janet]

fred

Cool down or you will blow a heart valve.

The bug report referred to (and the one I was alluding to in my post based on my memory), says the problem is an upstream one with the anaconda installer which does not correctly and reliably identify USB drives. The sme developers tried fixing it but were unable to easily do so. The effort required was it seems unwarranted based on the small number of problems reported. Remember our developers do not get paid.

So until anaconda is fixed it seems the problem will remain in sme server also.

I'm sure the developers would welcome code fixes from anyone with the time & skill set to do so.
Please temper your statements until you have better knowledge of the issues at hand, same goes for another poster in this thread.

I did not search for a better answer before as I did not have time, so just posted my recollections.

[cactus]

Granted that recent comments do say (somewhere) to disconnect USB drives before upgrading & installing.

As far as I was able to trace back anaconda warns on installation time:

        rc = anaconda.intf.messageWindow(_("Warning"),
                                _("All disks will be reformatted and any data will be lost. Proceed?"),
                                type = "yesno", default = "no")

        if rc == 0:
            return INSTALL_BACK

Although I agree that the message could be a little bit more explicit user is still warned and has to actually select the yes button as the default choice is no. I suggest OP to launch a bug and in this bug suggest a text which in his name would be a improved version of the text of the current warning.

So we could improve the message, but IMHO it is also a matter of not reading/understanding the message properly.

[cactus]

As far as I was able to trace back anaconda warns on installation time:

In the Administration Manual there is a screenshot of the warning in the installer in step 5:



It comes with the following additional warning message:

Warning:
The installation process formats and erases all attached hard drives. USB hard drives are considered non-removable drives. Removable drives are USB pen drives and floppy/cd rom drives. The installer ignores all removable drives and uses all non-removable drives that are at least 2Gb in size.

If you have multiple hard drives, be sure to back them up prior to starting the installation process. Be sure to unplug USB drives.

It seems this message is not correct either, so OP please open a bug for this as well against the Wiki component in the SME Server Documentation product. That way you can help us improve SME Server.