Hi there,
I am trying to install AlmaLinux on a PC on which CentOS 6 was installed previosly.
The error occures almost directly after clicking on “Begin installation”.
It says "An error accored while activating your storage configuration - (FSError’format failed: -11), ‘/dev/sdb1’)
I already tried different options for partitioning, but without success.
Does anybody know a solution for this?
Many thanks.
David
I don’t know solution, not even what can cause that “format failed”, but I would
shift to the shell prompt or reboot in troubleshoot/rescue mode to get shell (or boot with something else). I presume that whatever was on the system can be erased.
If so I would do that – probably dd from /dev/zero to make the drive really look empty. This on assumption that the old partition table&co confuses the installer.
Hi, David,
One question up front: as this machine previously was running CentOS 6… just how old is the hardware? Specifically, what processor does it have?
Starting with RHEL 9, Redhat set a minimum processor feature set of at least x86-64-v2. Just something to check.
Also, you could always try installing Rocky Linux 8.9 and see if it works any better, or fails in a similar fashion.
Sometimes a prior LVM or software RAID configuration can cause problems with the installer; wipefs can help with that, if needed.
Without knowing any details of the machine’s hardware I’m not sure what else to suggest.
Good luck!
One could not get into installer because its kernel would simply fail to boot, if that would be the issue.
(Most) Intel processors from Nehalem, about 2009, and AMD processors from about 2014 have the x86-64-v2 features.
Thanks for your anwers up to now.
Additional, here is the output from lspci -nn :
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 DMI2 [8086:0e00] (rev 04)
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 PCI Express Root Port 1a [8086:0e02] (rev 04)
00:02.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 PCI Express Root Port 2a [8086:0e04] (rev 04)
00:03.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 PCI Express Root Port 3a [8086:0e08] (rev 04)
00:03.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 PCI Express Root Port 3c [8086:0e0a] (rev 04)
00:04.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Crystal Beach DMA Channel 0 [8086:0e20] (rev 04)
00:04.1 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Crystal Beach DMA Channel 1 [8086:0e21] (rev 04)
00:04.2 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Crystal Beach DMA Channel 2 [8086:0e22] (rev 04)
00:04.3 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Crystal Beach DMA Channel 3 [8086:0e23] (rev 04)
00:04.4 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Crystal Beach DMA Channel 4 [8086:0e24] (rev 04)
00:04.5 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Crystal Beach DMA Channel 5 [8086:0e25] (rev 04)
00:04.6 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Crystal Beach DMA Channel 6 [8086:0e26] (rev 04)
00:04.7 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Crystal Beach DMA Channel 7 [8086:0e27] (rev 04)
00:05.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 VTd/Memory Map/Misc [8086:0e28] (rev 04)
00:05.2 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 IIO RAS [8086:0e2a] (rev 04)
00:05.4 PIC [0800]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 IOAPIC [8086:0e2c] (rev 04)
00:11.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation C600/X79 series chipset PCI Express Virtual Root Port [8086:1d3e] (rev 06)
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation C600/X79 series chipset MEI Controller #1 [8086:1d3a] (rev 05)
00:16.1 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation C600/X79 series chipset MEI Controller #2 [8086:1d3b] (rev 05)
00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation C600/X79 series chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller #2 [8086:1d2d] (rev 06)
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation C600/X79 series chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller #1 [8086:1d26] (rev 06)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge [8086:244e] (rev a6)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation C600/X79 series chipset LPC Controller [8086:1d41] (rev 06)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation C600/X79 series chipset SMBus Host Controller [8086:1d22] (rev 06)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation C600/X79 series chipset Thermal Management Controller [8086:1d24] (rev 06)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation I350 Gigabit Network Connection [8086:1521] (rev 01)
01:00.1 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation I350 Gigabit Network Connection [8086:1521] (rev 01)
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GM107 [GeForce GTX 750] [10de:1381] (rev a2)
03:00.1 Audio device [0403]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0fbc] (rev a1)
04:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller [0107]: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS2308 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 [1000:0086] (rev 05)
ff:08.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 QPI Link 0 [8086:0e80] (rev 04)
ff:09.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 QPI Link 1 [8086:0e90] (rev 04)
ff:0a.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Power Control Unit 0 [8086:0ec0] (rev 04)
ff:0a.1 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Power Control Unit 1 [8086:0ec1] (rev 04)
ff:0a.2 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Power Control Unit 2 [8086:0ec2] (rev 04)
ff:0a.3 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Power Control Unit 3 [8086:0ec3] (rev 04)
ff:0b.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 UBOX Registers [8086:0e1e] (rev 04)
ff:0b.3 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 UBOX Registers [8086:0e1f] (rev 04)
ff:0c.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Unicast Registers [8086:0ee0] (rev 04)
ff:0c.1 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Unicast Registers [8086:0ee2] (rev 04)
ff:0d.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Unicast Registers [8086:0ee1] (rev 04)
ff:0d.1 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Unicast Registers [8086:0ee3] (rev 04)
ff:0e.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Home Agent 0 [8086:0ea0] (rev 04)
ff:0e.1 Performance counters [1101]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Home Agent 0 [8086:0e30] (rev 04)
ff:0f.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller 0 Target Address/Thermal Registers [8086:0ea8] (rev 04)
ff:0f.1 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller 0 RAS Registers [8086:0e71] (rev 04)
ff:0f.2 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller 0 Channel Target Address Decoder Registers [808… (rev 04)
ff:0f.3 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller 0 Channel Target Address Decoder Registers [808… (rev 04)
ff:0f.4 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller 0 Channel Target Address Decoder Registers [808… (rev 04)
ff:0f.5 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller 0 Channel Target Address Decoder Registers [808… (rev 04)
ff:10.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller 1 Channel 0-3 Thermal Control 0 [8086:0eb0] (rev 04)
ff:10.1 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller 1 Channel 0-3 Thermal Control 1 [8086:0eb1] (rev 04)
ff:10.2 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller 1 Channel 0-3 ERROR Registers 0 [8086:0eb2] (rev 04)
ff:10.3 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller 1 Channel 0-3 ERROR Registers 1 [8086:0eb3] (rev 04)
ff:10.4 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller 1 Channel 0-3 Thermal Control 2 [8086:0eb4] (rev 04)
ff:10.5 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller 1 Channel 0-3 Thermal Control 3 [8086:0eb5] (rev 04)
ff:10.6 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller 1 Channel 0-3 ERROR Registers 2 [8086:0eb6] (rev 04)
ff:10.7 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller 1 Channel 0-3 ERROR Registers 3 [8086:0eb7] (rev 04)
ff:13.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 R2PCIe [8086:0e1d] (rev 04)
ff:13.1 Performance counters [1101]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 R2PCIe [8086:0e34] (rev 04)
ff:13.4 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 QPI Ring Registers [8086:0e81] (rev 04)
ff:13.5 Performance counters [1101]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 QPI Ring Performance Ring Monitoring [8086:0e36] (rev 04)
ff:16.0 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 System Address Decoder [8086:0ec8] (rev 04)
ff:16.1 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Broadcast Registers [8086:0ec9] (rev 04)
ff:16.2 System peripheral [0880]: Intel Corporation Xeon E7 v2/Xeon E5 v2/Core i7 Broadcast Registers [8086:0eca] (rev 04)
There is a Hardware RAID controller. But honestly, I really don’t know how to handle that and which options to use in the config menu.
I will try the /dev/zero next tuesday, when I am back in office.
If that won’t work, I’ll try Rocky Linux.
Yesterday I got something I haven’t expected. I set the file system to ext4 (by try and error), and it worked. Nevertheless, I want to have xfs, so I will try it again… 
With device ID 1000:0086
The mpt3sas kernel module in el9_3 (version 43.100.00.00) seems to know that.
ELRepo seems to have package kmod-mpt3sas for el9_3, also version 43.100.00.00.
It is possible that the ELRepo version has better support for this device than the module provided by distro kernel.
One can add an additional kernel command-line parameter to the kernel of the installer before it is loaded. The thing to append would be something like:
inst.dd=http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/elrepo/dud/el9/x86_64/dd-mpt3sas-43.100.00.00-2.el9_3.elrepo.iso
That instructs the kernel to load additional drivers from the ISO. With help of those the installer can use the hardware (particularly when kernel has nothing for device to begin with). The kmod-mpt3sas package is also installed, so that the kernel of installed system will have it. One just have to check after install that the elrepo repository is defined. Otherwise kernel updates that need new version of module won’t get it.
I do still use ext4 for system volumes. The ext4 can shrink – feature that xfs lacks. While I almost never need that flexibility, it would be inconvenient not to have it in need. XFS is for large data volumes , but those can be set up after the install.
Hardware RAID is usually set up before system has any OS. The firmware on the RAID card has tools that BIOS/UEFI can start. Therefore, the OS sees array(s) as “drive(s)” – as long as it has driver for the RAID controller.
Fake RAID may have similar tool, but the OS still sees the individual physical drives and assembles (and uses) the array with software (mdadm). What does lsblk show?
Thanks again for your support.
In the end it worked with ext4. But I really don’t know why.