Fedora 7 upgrade error

I recently encountered (and resolved!) an error upgrading a machine to Fedora 7. I reasoned it was worth sharing, so here you go:

Early in the process, an Anaconda screen prompted me to decide between a full install (to overwrite the existing FC6) or an upgrade. After I chose “upgrade,” the installer choked with this stack trace:


Traceback (most recent call first):
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/iw/upgrade_bootloader_gui.py", line 78, in _newToLibata
    if l.strip()[0] == "#":
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/iw/upgrade_bootloader_gui.py", line 90, in getScreen
    newToLibata = self._newToLibata(anaconda.rootPath)
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 1131, in setScreen
    new_screen = self.currentWindow.getScreen(anaconda)
  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 1042, in nextClicked
    self.setScreen ()
IndexError: string index out of range

I dug deeper in the stack trace and found the culprit: Anaconda didn’t like that the system’s /etc/modprobe.conf began with comment lines. I removed those, restarted the upgrade, and it went off without a hitch.

Hopefully this will spare you a headache or two.

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