Anaconda/Kickstart/ReinstallingFedoraWithKickstartOnBTRFS

Reinstalling Fedora with Kikcstart on BTRFS

by Gene Czarcinski

In general, kickstart has good support for installing onto btrfs subvolumes. However, there is one case that has a small problem: re-installing onto an existing subvolume rootfs and / or /boot.

Problem: To do an install, Anaconda requires that the rootfs and /boot be "freshly formatted." For regular partitions and LVMlv, this presents no problem, just reformat the partition or LVMlv. On the other hand, a btrfs subvolume more closely resembles a directory than a partition and how do you re-format a directory? ... well, by deleting it and then re-defining it. This can be done easily when a regular GUI or text manual install but kickstart is another matter.

Solution: Use a %pre section to delete the subvolume. Given a system with /boot on a ext4 partition and an existing btrfs volume supporting root6 and home subvolumes, it would look something like:

clearpart --none

part swap  --fstype=swap --noformat --onpart=UUID=a3b0c2ad-88c8-4d6d-876c-7c52881ab854

#part /boot --fstype=ext4 --onpart=sda4
#part /boot --fstype=ext4 --onpart=sda5
part /boot --fstype=ext4 --onpart=sda6
#part /boot --fstype=ext4 --onpart=sda7

part btrfs.10 --fstype=btrfs --noformat --label=ten --onpart=UUID=0f0f82cb-ed27-4468-a18c-64a877b64329
btrfs /                       --subvol --name=root6   ten
btrfs /var                    --subvol --name=var6    ten
btrfs /home                   --subvol --name=home --noformat  ten

%pre --log=/tmp/pre-install.log
echo "manage the btrfs subvolumes"
mkdir /mnt/btrfsvol
mount UUID=0f0f82cb-ed27-4468-a18c-64a877b64329 /mnt/btrfsvol
btrfs subvol list /mnt/btrfsvol
btrfs subvol delete /mnt/btrfsvol/root6
btrfs subvol delete /mnt/btrfsvol/var6
btrfs subvol list /mnt/btrfsvol
umount /mnt/btrfsvol
rmdir /mnt/btrfsvol
%end

%post --nochroot --log=/mnt/sysimage/root/post-install.log
cp -v /tmp/pre-install.log /mnt/sysimage/root
%end

The first time this is run, the btrfs subvol delete will produce errors. Thereafter, reruns will delete the subvols so they can be re-installed.