Installation of SLES 10 SP3 fails when run from a hard disk on a system with an unpartitioned USB device

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 3

Situation

The installation of SLES 10 SP3 fails when run from a hard disk on a system with an unpartitioned USB storage device. The install goes normally until it fails to find the installation source during the first boot.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Setup a system with a hard disk with the SLES 10 SP3 installation source on it.
2. Plug a USB device without any partition into the system.

3. Start an autoyast based installation from the installation source that is on the hard disk in the system.
4. Continue the install normally until the system reboots.

5. When the system boots the yast installer fails to find the installation sources to complete the remaining configuration of the system.
6. The disk with the installation source cannot be mounted through a console ( Ctrl+Alt+F2) either. The message states that the disk is already mounted/busy.

Resolution

This issue is resolved by either removing all unpartitioned USB storage devices from the system, or creating partitions on the USB devices.

Disclaimer

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