[Parted-maintainers] Bug#602568: squeeze-di-beta1 installer: partman hang

[Jean-Christian de Rivaz]

In http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnu.parted.bugs/10180 Jim 
Meyering provided a patch that solve the problem. After verification, he 
commited it into git://git.debian.org/git/parted/parted.git:

commit 9f5b0608611eed40ef33be2096f5d482710602e5
Author: Jim Meyering <meyering at redhat.com>
Date:   Tue Nov 9 10:25:36 2010 +0100

     dos: fix a bug affecting very small devices (smaller than 1 cylinder)

     This bug was introduced in commit c79d91ec, "dos: accommodate very
     small devices (useful for testing)".
     * libparted/labels/dos.c (_primary_constraint): The bug was to
     skip setting start_geom for small devices.  That led to a used-
     uninitialized bug in the subsequent ped_constraint_new call.
     The fix is to relax the constraint to use a starting sector of "1",
     if necessary.  Report and diagnosis by Jean-Christian de Rivaz in
     http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnu.parted.bugs/10178
     * NEWS (Bug fixes): Mention it.

Many thanks to Jim for this patch. Debian installer should use this last 
revision to fix this problem.

It it worth noting that partman is still deficient in the way it handle 
a parted-server error. Improving it will certainly help to get better 
problem report from Debian users. I have see on the internet others 
installer report about hang at the same partman operation time.

Also, the debian/rules for parted still should be updated with my 
proposed patch to remove obsoletes directives.

So even if the primary cause is now fixed, from a quality view, this bug 
is still not in the state to be closed. Or should other bug be opened 
for those point ?

Jean-Christian de Rivaz