Bug #712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Version: 1.103 Guido Günther (13 Aug 2015): > On Wed, Apr 01, 2015 at 07:54:52PM +0200, Cyril Brulebois wrote: > > Hi, > > > > and sorry for the lag. > > > > Sam McLeod (2015-03-07): > > > Thanks Cyril, I did indeed miss that, that's great - I'll test it today. > > > > > > It looks like the example pressed hasn't been updated to include this > > > feature: https://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/example-preseed.txt > > > > This seems to be fixed by: > > > > 69619 sthibault # Due notably to potential USB sticks, the location of > > the MBR can not be > > 69619 sthibault # determined safely in general, so this needs to be > > specified: > > 69619 sthibault #d-i grub-installer/bootdev string /dev/sda > > 69619 sthibault # To install to the first device (assuming it is not a > > USB stick): > > 69619 sthibault #d-i grub-installer/bootdev string default > > Just wanted to confirm that adding: > > d-i grub-installer/bootdev string default > > to the preseed.cfg file Petter mentioned in the very beginning of this > thread[1] makes the Jessie install succeed without prompts for me in a > kvm virt-install installation so it indeed looks fixed. > > Cheers, > -- Guido Fixed in grub-installer 1.103 Closing this bugreport (a forgotten one from 2015) Holger -- Holger Wansing PGP-Fingerprint: 496A C6E8 1442 4B34 8508 3529 59F1 87CA 156E B076
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Hi, On Wed, Apr 01, 2015 at 07:54:52PM +0200, Cyril Brulebois wrote: Hi, and sorry for the lag. Sam McLeod s...@fastmail.com (2015-03-07): Thanks Cyril, I did indeed miss that, that's great - I'll test it today. It looks like the example pressed hasn't been updated to include this feature: https://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/example-preseed.txt This seems to be fixed by: 69619 sthibault # Due notably to potential USB sticks, the location of the MBR can not be 69619 sthibault # determined safely in general, so this needs to be specified: 69619 sthibault #d-i grub-installer/bootdev string /dev/sda 69619 sthibault # To install to the first device (assuming it is not a USB stick): 69619 sthibault #d-i grub-installer/bootdev string default Just wanted to confirm that adding: d-i grub-installer/bootdev string default to the preseed.cfg file Petter mentioned in the very beginning of this thread[1] makes the Jessie install succeed without prompts for me in a kvm virt-install installation so it indeed looks fixed. Cheers, -- Guido (svn blame en/appendix/preseed.xml in the manual; confirmed by looking at the website now.) Mraw, KiBi. [1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=712907#10
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Hi, and sorry for the lag. Sam McLeod s...@fastmail.com (2015-03-07): Thanks Cyril, I did indeed miss that, that's great - I'll test it today. It looks like the example pressed hasn't been updated to include this feature: https://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/example-preseed.txt This seems to be fixed by: 69619 sthibault # Due notably to potential USB sticks, the location of the MBR can not be 69619 sthibault # determined safely in general, so this needs to be specified: 69619 sthibault #d-i grub-installer/bootdev string /dev/sda 69619 sthibault # To install to the first device (assuming it is not a USB stick): 69619 sthibault #d-i grub-installer/bootdev string default (svn blame en/appendix/preseed.xml in the manual; confirmed by looking at the website now.) Mraw, KiBi. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Hi Sam, On Sat, Mar 07, 2015 at 09:02:17AM +1100, Sam McLeod wrote: Thanks Cyril, I did indeed miss that, that's great - I'll test it today. It looks like the example pressed hasn't been updated to include this feature: https://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/example-preseed.txt This seems to be fixed in VCS at http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/d-i?view=revisionrevision=69554 (so should be in the final version for jessie) Regards, Salvatore -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150310173334.GA3999@eldamar.local
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
I can confirm this is still a problem with Jessie. Debian installer with preseed fails to automatically select the disk to install grub to (/dev/vda). This causes the installation to stop and wait for user input when building on QEMU / KVM: https://github.com/sammcj/packer-qemu-debian-jessie/issues/1 -- Sam McLeod @s_mcleod[https://twitter.com/s_mcleod] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/1425656661.397854.236515077.1fe72...@webmail.messagingengine.com
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Sam McLeod s...@fastmail.com (2015-03-07): I can confirm this is still a problem with Jessie. Debian installer with preseed fails to automatically select the disk to install grub to (/dev/vda). I guess you may want to read the grub-installer part here: https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/News/2015/20150126 Mraw, KiBi. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Confirmed working with Jessie - https://github.com/sammcj/packer-qemu-debian-jessie/commit/12a6dae01f328787dd89621d0bddc34458ac038e Build log - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sammcj/packer-qemu-debian-jessie/master/build_output.log Thanks again Cyril.
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Thanks Cyril, I did indeed miss that, that's great - I'll test it today. It looks like the example pressed hasn't been updated to include this feature: https://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/example-preseed.txt -- Sam McLeod @s_mcleod[https://twitter.com/s_mcleod] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/1425679337.925430.236672229.3cc74...@webmail.messagingengine.com
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 13:55:16 +0200 Petter Reinholdtsen wrote: To make it easier for teachers and others without knowledge about disk devices to install Debian Edu, I implemented this workaround for this issue in debian-edu-config: For those of you doing automatic installs via preseed on both physical and virtual machines, you might want to try this workaround instead: d-i partman/early_command string debconf-set grub-installer/choose_bootdev $(echo /dev/[sv]d[a-z]) -- bye, pabs https://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
On Tue, 25 Nov 2014 14:20:16 +0800 Paul Wise wrote: d-i partman/early_command string debconf-set grub-installer/choose_bootdev $(echo /dev/[sv]d[a-z]) Woops, got the wrong debconf item, this one is correct: d-i partman/early_command string debconf-set grub-installer/bootdev $(echo /dev/[sv]d[a-z]) -- bye, pabs https://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Just to be sure everyone reading this bug report understand what I see as the problem, I present the installation as it is seen from Debian Edu in Jessie. URL: https://jenkins.debian.net/job/g-i-installation_debian-edu_jessie_standalone/12/ show the grub dialog that show up at the end of the Debian Edu installation. It ask people to type in the device path for grub. See URL: https://jenkins.debian.net/job/g-i-installation_debian-edu_jessie_standalone/12/artifact/results/snapshot_004900.png for the dialog text. This is very bad from a usability point of view, as normal people are not expected to know device paths. -- Happy hacking Petter Reinholdtsen -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140921120419.gd2...@ulrik.uio.no
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Petter Reinholdtsen p...@hungry.com (2014-09-21): Just to be sure everyone reading this bug report understand what I see as the problem, I present the installation as it is seen from Debian Edu in Jessie. URL: https://jenkins.debian.net/job/g-i-installation_debian-edu_jessie_standalone/12/ show the grub dialog that show up at the end of the Debian Edu installation. It ask people to type in the device path for grub. See URL: https://jenkins.debian.net/job/g-i-installation_debian-edu_jessie_standalone/12/artifact/results/snapshot_004900.png for the dialog text. This is very bad from a usability point of view, as normal people are not expected to know device paths. Well, I don't know anything about Debian Edu, but I'm pretty sure there's another prompt before that in non-Edu, where devices are listed, and where users can pick from. KiBi. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Petter Reinholdtsen p...@hungry.com (2014-09-21): URL: https://jenkins.debian.net/job/g-i-installation_debian-edu_jessie_standalone/12/artifact/results/snapshot_004900.png This is very bad from a usability point of view, as normal people are not expected to know device paths. I got feedback from one of these normal people doing a wheezy install. The dialog instructed him to use /dev/sda if he wants to install GRUB to the first hard disk. But that was wrong! Since this was a USB- booted install, /dev/sda was the install media and /dev/sdb his first hard disk. grub-installer actually pre-filled the dialog with /dev/sdb, meaning the code to not-install to USB media and guess something else, had worked correctly in this instance. There's a possibility that this has led to install reports implicating grub-installer, in which the code perhaps worked as intended but it was only the user's responses to wrong information that caused an issue. On 14:22, Cyril Brulebois wrote: Well, I don't know anything about Debian Edu, but I'm pretty sure there's another prompt before that in non-Edu, where devices are listed, and where users can pick from. Yes, in jessie d-i there's now a preceding dialog that shows a list of devices and their identity. I think this is a great solution to the above problem. The problem here, affecting Debian Edu and AFAIK any preseed install, was that the new dialog defaults to 'Enter device manually' and the automated installer chooses that option. Therefore we see the original manual input dialog. During manual installs, *sometimes* something other than 'Enter device manually' is selected by default. We just need to figure out why that didn't happen in Petter's situation. Was /dev/sda the first hard disk in this case? Does grub-mkdevicemap in /target call it (hd0)? What is the full conents of /proc/partitions? grub-installer can log extra stuff to syslog if you uncomment some of the debug options at the top of the file. (We really should have jenkins.d.o redirect syslog to the virtual serial port, log it to a file and include it among the build artifacts. I think some of the Jenkins jobs do that, but not this one). Regards, -- Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/2014092111.gb31...@squeeze.pyro.eu.org
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
[Samuel Thibault] I have attached the syslog, interestingly: Aug 26 00:10:17 grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '' Yes, I suspect that is a typo in the script somewhere, failing to set the default. partman succeed in picking a good default, perhaps grub-installer can use the same logic? Anyway, I ran a Debian Edu installation using DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer, and got this output from the grub-installer run: Aug 25 21:07:34 main-menu[176]: INFO: Menu item 'grub-installer' selected Aug 25 21:07:34 debconf: -- SETTITLE debian-installer/grub-installer/title Aug 25 21:07:34 debconf: -- 0 OK Aug 25 21:07:34 debconf: -- CAPB backup Aug 25 21:07:34 debconf: -- 0 multiselect backup progresscancel align escape plugin-terminal Aug 25 21:07:34 grub-installer: info: architecture: i386/generic Aug 25 21:07:34 debconf: -- GET base-installer/install-recommends Aug 25 21:07:34 debconf: -- 0 true Aug 25 21:07:36 debconf: -- GET mirror/protocol Aug 25 21:07:36 debconf: -- 0 http Aug 25 21:07:36 debconf: -- GET mirror/http/proxy Aug 25 21:07:36 debconf: -- 0 Aug 25 21:07:36 debconf: -- GET debconf/priority Aug 25 21:07:36 debconf: -- 0 critical Aug 25 21:07:36 debconf: -- GET debian-installer/locale Aug 25 21:07:36 debconf: -- 0 en_GB.UTF-8 Aug 25 21:07:39 in-target: debconf (developer): frontend started Aug 25 21:07:39 in-target: debconf (developer): Trying to find a templates file.. Aug 25 21:07:39 in-target: debconf (developer): Trying /usr/bin/debconf-apt-progress.templates Aug 25 21:07:39 in-target: debconf (developer): Trying /usr/share/debconf/templates/debconf-apt-progress.templates Aug 25 21:07:39 in-target: debconf (developer): Couldn't find a templates file. Aug 25 21:07:39 in-target: debconf (developer): frontend running, package name is Aug 25 21:07:39 in-target: debconf (developer): starting /usr/bin/debconf-apt-progress --no-progress --logstderr -- apt-get -q -y --no-remove install grub-common Aug 25 21:07:39 in-target: debconf (developer): -- GET debconf/priority Aug 25 21:07:39 in-target: debconf (developer): -- 0 high Aug 25 21:07:39 in-target: Reading package lists... Aug 25 21:07:39 in-target: Aug 25 21:07:40 in-target: Building dependency tree... Aug 25 21:07:40 in-target: Aug 25 21:07:40 in-target: Reading state information... Aug 25 21:07:40 in-target: Aug 25 21:07:40 in-target: The following extra packages will be installed: Aug 25 21:07:40 in-target: os-prober Aug 25 21:07:40 in-target: Suggested packages: Aug 25 21:07:40 in-target: multiboot-doc grub-emu xorriso Aug 25 21:07:40 in-target: The following NEW packages will be installed: Aug 25 21:07:40 in-target: grub-common os-prober Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): -- SUBST debconf-apt-progress/info DESCRIPTION Retrieving file 1 of 2 Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): -- 0 Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): -- PROGRESS INFO debconf-apt-progress/info Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): DATA debconf-apt-progress/info type text Aug 25 21:07:41 debconf: -- DATA debconf-apt-progress/info type text Aug 25 21:07:41 debconf: -- 0 OK Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): 0 OK Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): DATA debconf-apt-progress/info description Retrieving file 1 of 2 Aug 25 21:07:41 debconf: -- DATA debconf-apt-progress/info description Retrieving file 1 of 2 Aug 25 21:07:41 debconf: -- 0 OK Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): 0 OK Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): PROGRESS INFO debconf-apt-progress/info Aug 25 21:07:41 debconf: -- PROGRESS INFO debconf-apt-progress/info Aug 25 21:07:41 debconf: -- 0 OK Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): 0 OK Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): -- 0 OK Aug 25 21:07:41 kernel: [ 8259.395341] ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3 Aug 25 21:07:41 kernel: [ 8259.395831] ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): -- SUBST debconf-apt-progress/info DESCRIPTION Retrieving file 1 of 2 Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): -- 0 Aug 25 21:07:41 debconf: -- DATA debconf-apt-progress/info type text Aug 25 21:07:41 debconf: -- 0 OK Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): -- PROGRESS INFO debconf-apt-progress/info Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): DATA debconf-apt-progress/info type text Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): 0 OK Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): DATA debconf-apt-progress/info description Retrieving file 1 of 2 Aug 25 21:07:41 debconf: -- DATA debconf-apt-progress/info description Retrieving file 1 of 2 Aug 25 21:07:41 debconf: -- 0 OK Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): 0 OK Aug 25 21:07:41 in-target: debconf (developer): PROGRESS INFO debconf-apt-progress/info Aug 25 21:07:41 debconf: -- PROGRESS INFO debconf-apt-progress/info Aug 25 21:07:41 debconf: -- 0 OK Aug 25 21:07:41
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
On 15/09/14 08:36, Petter Reinholdtsen wrote: [Samuel Thibault] I have attached the syslog, interestingly: Aug 26 00:10:17 grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '' Yes, I suspect that is a typo in the script somewhere, failing to set the default. partman succeed in picking a good default, perhaps grub-installer can use the same logic? FWIW I've been looking into this issue already in the past few days. At this point I'd say Petter's patch shouldn't be necessary, because the intent was for the 'list' dialog to have an entry pre-selected (or not show that dialog at all). That only works sometimes (e.g. PXE), but in other cases (including CD-ROM) it appears grub-installer correctly guessed the boot device (based on filesystem containing /boot) and just didn't pre-select it in the dialog. That causes the regression in auto preseed installs. I suggest to actually remove this dialog now: Install the GRUB boot loader to the master boot record? Go Back Yes No because it doesn't make it clear which device we're actually installing to. If our guess was wrong, we want to give the user a chance to correct it. The new dialog can serve the same purpose and is more informative: Device for boot loader installation: [ ] Enter device manually [o] /dev/sda (ata-QEMU_HARDDISK_QM1) Go Back How do people feel about me making such a change? I think it will make the real bug (that we sometimes don't pre-select an option in that dialog despite having a good guess) easier for everyone to see. Regards, -- Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/5416c34a.1000...@pyro.eu.org
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org (2014-09-15): On 15/09/14 08:36, Petter Reinholdtsen wrote: [Samuel Thibault] I have attached the syslog, interestingly: Aug 26 00:10:17 grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '' Yes, I suspect that is a typo in the script somewhere, failing to set the default. partman succeed in picking a good default, perhaps grub-installer can use the same logic? FWIW I've been looking into this issue already in the past few days. At this point I'd say Petter's patch shouldn't be necessary, because the intent was for the 'list' dialog to have an entry pre-selected (or not show that dialog at all). That only works sometimes (e.g. PXE), but in other cases (including CD-ROM) it appears grub-installer correctly guessed the boot device (based on filesystem containing /boot) and just didn't pre-select it in the dialog. That causes the regression in auto preseed installs. I suggest to actually remove this dialog now: Install the GRUB boot loader to the master boot record? Go Back Yes No because it doesn't make it clear which device we're actually installing to. Errr, it doesn't have to. It's about *whether* touching the/a MBR is desired. If our guess was wrong, we want to give the user a chance to correct it. The new dialog can serve the same purpose and is more informative: Device for boot loader installation: [ ] Enter device manually [o] /dev/sda (ata-QEMU_HARDDISK_QM1) Go Back How do people feel about me making such a change? I think it will make the real bug (that we sometimes don't pre-select an option in that dialog despite having a good guess) easier for everyone to see. I still disagree with the good guess assessment! Repeating that over and over and over and over again is *not* going to make it true. Touching other prompts doesn't look like a safe, or welcome, or proper change to me. KiBi. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 09:39:24PM +0200, Cyril Brulebois wrote: Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org (2014-09-10): 3. for a user who blindly hits enter, they get our best guess to the correct device (instead of a bare now enter a device path prompt) Please stop pretending it's a best guess. IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH, and it has been known for *years*. But I haven't actually tested it yet :) Many users already have… and wedged their installation images. Slightly tired of repeating myself. KiBi. Does the installer no longer know to what device it installed the Debian system? Perhaps where it put /boot? Might *that* be a good place to put the bootloader? -- hendrik -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140911172303.ga12...@topoi.pooq.com
Re: Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
On 11/09/14 18:23, Hendrik Boom wrote: Does the installer no longer know to what device it installed the Debian system? Perhaps where it put /boot? Might *that* be a good place to put the bootloader? I've been trying to document the existing processes here: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Bugs/GrubInstaller In limited circumstances grub-installer will guess (hd0) (the first disk detected by grub-mkdevicemap). When installing from USB this is often wrong. There are some circumstances where grub-installer will look at where /boot resides. I suspect most of the time this is a better guess. It will always ask for user confirmation. There are different dialogs shown to the user depending on which detections grub-installer used. It has become over-complicated. Regards, -- Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/54121630.2070...@pyro.eu.org
Re: Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org (2014-09-11): On 11/09/14 18:23, Hendrik Boom wrote: Does the installer no longer know to what device it installed the Debian system? Perhaps where it put /boot? Might *that* be a good place to put the bootloader? I've been trying to document the existing processes here: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Bugs/GrubInstaller This page is missing cases involving firmware on a USB stick, so no, even installation from CD/DVD/PXE can fail the same way. Mraw, KiBi. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
On 11/09/14 22:48, Cyril Brulebois wrote: I've been trying to document the existing processes here: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Bugs/GrubInstaller This page is missing cases involving firmware on a USB stick, so no, even installation from CD/DVD/PXE can fail the same way. OK, I'd like to document that as a test case. Actually with this there could be two situations: * the USB stick was plugged in already at boot time * the USB stick is plugged in later and could lead to different ordering. Regards, -- Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Re: Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Hope you guys don't mind me adding my comment here?? I've noticed that this happens when I'm installing into a virtualbox vm, and there is only single partition. Seems like a silly question when there is only 1 choice. regards On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 7:51 AM, Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org wrote: On 11/09/14 22:48, Cyril Brulebois wrote: I've been trying to document the existing processes here: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Bugs/GrubInstaller This page is missing cases involving firmware on a USB stick, so no, even installation from CD/DVD/PXE can fail the same way. OK, I'd like to document that as a test case. Actually with this there could be two situations: * the USB stick was plugged in already at boot time * the USB stick is plugged in later and could lead to different ordering. Regards, -- Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org
Re: Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Hi, On 12/09/14 00:54, Ozi Traveller wrote: I've noticed that this happens when I'm installing into a virtualbox vm, and there is only single partition. Thanks, this is useful information for me. But please could you be more specific: was this a default, automatic (preseed) or expert-mode install? Of which version (wheezy, jessie daily build?)) and from what type of install media (ISO image? mounted as virtual CDROM drive or as a hard disk?) Did you get this dialog first: | Install the GRUB boot loader to the master boot record? | Go Back Yes No or do you only see this: | Device for boot loader installation: | [o] Enter device manually | [ ] /dev/sda (ata-QEMU_HARDDISK_QM1) and in case of the latter -- was Enter device manually the pre-selected option (if you were to hit Enter), or was /dev/sda pre-selected? Seems like a silly question when there is only 1 choice. There are actually other choices if you were to Enter device manually - you could install GRUB to a partition instead of the MBR. Or to some other device that GRUB wasn't able to detect. We need to provide a way to do that. Thanks, Regards, -- Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/54123bdb.5060...@pyro.eu.org
Re: Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Hi Sorry for the lack of information. auto preseed, not expert: https://github.com/ozitraveller/star-live-build/blob/master/xfce-64/config/includes.installer/preseed.cfg version: jessie install media: iso image mounted as virtual CDROM : yes Yes that is the dialog I got, only not QEMU. Yes I understand the other options thanks. I hope this helps. regards On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 10:18 AM, Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org wrote: Hi, On 12/09/14 00:54, Ozi Traveller wrote: I've noticed that this happens when I'm installing into a virtualbox vm, and there is only single partition. Thanks, this is useful information for me. But please could you be more specific: was this a default, automatic (preseed) or expert-mode install? Of which version (wheezy, jessie daily build?)) and from what type of install media (ISO image? mounted as virtual CDROM drive or as a hard disk?) Did you get this dialog first: | Install the GRUB boot loader to the master boot record? | Go Back Yes No or do you only see this: | Device for boot loader installation: | [o] Enter device manually | [ ] /dev/sda (ata-QEMU_HARDDISK_QM1) and in case of the latter -- was Enter device manually the pre-selected option (if you were to hit Enter), or was /dev/sda pre-selected? Seems like a silly question when there is only 1 choice. There are actually other choices if you were to Enter device manually - you could install GRUB to a partition instead of the MBR. Or to some other device that GRUB wasn't able to detect. We need to provide a way to do that. Thanks, Regards, -- Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Control: tags -1 + patch
[Petter Reinholdtsen 2014-08-31]
I did a install today using debconf priority medium, and there I am
asked by grub-installer for the Device for boot loader
installation, and the two options are Enter device manually and
/dev/sda (ata-QEMU_HARDDISK_QM1). The selected one is Enter
device manually. This make me believe that if we change the
selection of this debconf question, we might solve this issue for a
lot of users.
I had a look at the code, and found the template and the order of the
devices shown. I suggest to move the manual option last in the list
of devices like this:
diff --git a/debian/grub-installer.templates b/debian/grub-installer.templates
index e439ad0..66043dc 100644
--- a/debian/grub-installer.templates
+++ b/debian/grub-installer.templates
@@ -88,9 +88,9 @@ _Description: Device for boot loader installation:
Template: grub-installer/choose_bootdev
Type: select
-Choices-C: manual, ${DEVICES_LIST}
+Choices-C: ${DEVICES_LIST}, manual
#flag:translate!:2
-__Choices: Enter device manually, ${DESCRIPTIONS}
+__Choices: ${DESCRIPTIONS}, Enter device manually
# :sl2:
_Description: Device for boot loader installation:
You need to make the newly installed system bootable, by installing
An alternative would be to set the selected value to something more
sensible than manual, for example if there only is one device to
choose from.
Both alternatives should solve the problem for Debian Edu and the
simple case with only disk present, while still keeping it easy to
specify the device manually. :)
OK to commit?
--
Happy hacking
Petter Reinholdtsen
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Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Petter Reinholdtsen p...@hungry.com (2014-09-10):
Control: tags -1 + patch
[Petter Reinholdtsen 2014-08-31]
I did a install today using debconf priority medium, and there I am
asked by grub-installer for the Device for boot loader
installation, and the two options are Enter device manually and
/dev/sda (ata-QEMU_HARDDISK_QM1). The selected one is Enter
device manually. This make me believe that if we change the
selection of this debconf question, we might solve this issue for a
lot of users.
I had a look at the code, and found the template and the order of the
devices shown. I suggest to move the manual option last in the list
of devices like this:
diff --git a/debian/grub-installer.templates b/debian/grub-installer.templates
index e439ad0..66043dc 100644
--- a/debian/grub-installer.templates
+++ b/debian/grub-installer.templates
@@ -88,9 +88,9 @@ _Description: Device for boot loader installation:
Template: grub-installer/choose_bootdev
Type: select
-Choices-C: manual, ${DEVICES_LIST}
+Choices-C: ${DEVICES_LIST}, manual
#flag:translate!:2
-__Choices: Enter device manually, ${DESCRIPTIONS}
+__Choices: ${DESCRIPTIONS}, Enter device manually
# :sl2:
_Description: Device for boot loader installation:
You need to make the newly installed system bootable, by installing
An alternative would be to set the selected value to something more
sensible than manual, for example if there only is one device to
choose from.
Both alternatives should solve the problem for Debian Edu and the
simple case with only disk present, while still keeping it easy to
specify the device manually. :)
OK to commit?
That also means people being too “Enter happy” might overwrite their
installation medium.
Mraw,
KiBi.
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Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
On 10/09/14 19:45, Petter Reinholdtsen wrote: I had a look at the code, and found the template and the order of the devices shown. I suggest to move the manual option last in the list of devices like this: I think it would meet all the criteria of a good solution: 1. old preseed files will work again, and behave the same way as before (install GRUB to first hard disk) 2. for manual installs, a user has a chance to review a list of detected devices, with some information to help identify what they are 3. for a user who blindly hits enter, they get our best guess to the correct device (instead of a bare now enter a device path prompt) But I haven't actually tested it yet :) Regards, -- Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/54109f12.4020...@pyro.eu.org
Processed: Re: Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Processing control commands: tags -1 + patch Bug #712907 [grub-installer] grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive Added tag(s) patch. -- 712907: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=712907 Debian Bug Tracking System Contact ow...@bugs.debian.org with problems -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/handler.s.b712907.14103747448011.transcr...@bugs.debian.org
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
[Cyril Brulebois] That also means people being too “Enter happy” might overwrite their installation medium. Really? When I install using a USB memory stick, the internal hard drive is the second entry and the USB stick is the third entry, making me believe the change will ensure the internal disk is the first and default entry. In which cases will the first entry become the installation medium? Perhaps we can identify them and ensure the installation media never is the default? -- Happy hacking Petter Reinholdtsen -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140910192858.gl22...@ulrik.uio.no
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org (2014-09-10): On 10/09/14 19:56, Cyril Brulebois wrote: That also means people being too “Enter happy” might overwrite their installation medium. OTOH if our best guess was correct (e.g. most installs from a real CD/DVD? PXE installs?), an enter-happy person may not be happy at all, because they get to a confusing now enter a device path prompt with almost no good information. I think on balance, it is a good change, but some further work on detecting install media to avoid overwriting it, would make it better. (There is already code in d-i to detect install media, if that could work here, those devices perhaps could be bumped to the end of this list?). Spoiler alert: no, that code is not sufficient. Especially in the install from USB case. We've had this problem for several releases already… Why do you think we're now asking by default? Because we want the installation process to be a pain? No, because guessing doesn't work well enough. (BTW: You're supposed to be using reply-all on the BTS.) Mraw, KiBi. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org (2014-09-10): 3. for a user who blindly hits enter, they get our best guess to the correct device (instead of a bare now enter a device path prompt) Please stop pretending it's a best guess. IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH, and it has been known for *years*. But I haven't actually tested it yet :) Many users already have… and wedged their installation images. Slightly tired of repeating myself. KiBi. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Petter Reinholdtsen p...@hungry.com (2014-09-10): [Cyril Brulebois] That also means people being too “Enter happy” might overwrite their installation medium. Really? When I install using a USB memory stick, the internal hard drive is the second entry and the USB stick is the third entry, making me believe the change will ensure the internal disk is the first and default entry. In which cases will the first entry become the installation medium? Perhaps we can identify them and ensure the installation media never is the default? Really. It's HW dependent; you've been lucky. Mraw, KiBi. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
On 10/09/14 19:56, Cyril Brulebois wrote: That also means people being too “Enter happy” might overwrite their installation medium. OTOH if our best guess was correct (e.g. most installs from a real CD/DVD? PXE installs?), an enter-happy person may not be happy at all, because they get to a confusing now enter a device path prompt with almost no good information. I think on balance, it is a good change, but some further work on detecting install media to avoid overwriting it, would make it better. (There is already code in d-i to detect install media, if that could work here, those devices perhaps could be bumped to the end of this list?). Regards, -- Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
On 10/09/14 20:39, Cyril Brulebois wrote: Slightly tired of repeating myself. Perhaps could we use some Wiki page with a table of: * type of install media used * type of target drive * install type (manual, preseed, Debian Edu) * description of hardware * the result (what was the first drive, ideally the full $DEVICES_LIST) * link to installation-report or email in list archives * contact details of person who can reproduce/re-test it and basically try to enumerate all situations, and evaluate them with latest d-i dailies? (Kinda similar to how debian-cd@ handled last-minute testing on the wheezy release day - but I'm suggesting for this issue that we spend some weeks to get this right). Regards, -- Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org (2014-09-10): On 10/09/14 20:39, Cyril Brulebois wrote: Slightly tired of repeating myself. Perhaps could we use some Wiki page with a table of: * type of install media used * type of target drive * install type (manual, preseed, Debian Edu) * description of hardware * the result (what was the first drive, ideally the full $DEVICES_LIST) * link to installation-report or email in list archives * contact details of person who can reproduce/re-test it and basically try to enumerate all situations, and evaluate them with latest d-i dailies? To be franck I don't understand what you're trying to achieve… signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
On 10/09/14 21:47, Cyril Brulebois wrote: To be franck I don't understand what you're trying to achieve… OK, let me dig up some more information and I'll come back to this in a few days. Regards, -- Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
[Ben Hutchings] Right. We don't use the block device names in the configuration of the installed system and we shouldn't use them here (not primarily, anyway). Under Linux, we should ask udev for the model name (and maybe serial number) and show this as well as the device name. I expect there is some similar facility under kFreeBSD but I don't know what it is. I did a install today using debconf priority medium, and there I am asked by grub-installer for the Device for boot loader installation, and the two options are Enter device manually and /dev/sda (ata-QEMU_HARDDISK_QM1). The selected one is Enter device manually. This make me believe that if we change the selection of this debconf question, we might solve this issue for a lot of users. -- Happy hacking Petter Reinholdtsen -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140831154450.gb14...@ulrik.uio.no
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
tags 712907 + help thanks Hi, On 20/06/13 18:56, Petter Reinholdtsen wrote: The change introduced in version 1.86 added a new question in Debian Installer, causing the installation to hang at the end asking where to install grub. This dialog is really not accessible to a normal person. In wheezy ISTR a multiple-choice dialog listing the detected devices or partitions on the system? (Or maybe I'm thinking of `dpkg-reconfigure -plow grub-pc`). Could we not have something more closely resembling that? At the very least, there should be a best-guess default value to blindly hit 'enter' to. I know we struggled to get that right before, but let me explain why I think this dialog is no better: The instructions in the dialog are plain wrong in some cases: /dev/sda is not always the name of the first hard drive. Some virtualised block devices have other names; perhaps some RAID drivers still use other names such as /dev/ciss/ /dev/ida/? And FWIW GNU/kFreeBSD has /dev/da0, /dev/ada0 or other naming for disk drives. (Did it happen before that when installing from a bootable USB stick, that would sometimes be /dev/sda instead? Or almost certainly if say, installing from USB stick (which would be attached first) to iSCSI (attached later)? Likewise if your target disk is a removal hard drive there is some uncertainty here. Therefore we still have the same 'bug' that this change was intended to fix - we simply shifted the burden to the user, to figure out the right device, but we give no reliable information in the dialog (such as partition list, device identification) to help make that decision. It could be ambiguous what the second partition means sometimes. And I don't even know myself what happens if you try to install a bootloader to an msdos extended partition /dev/sda2, vs. the logical partition /dev/sda5. Mention of /dev/sda5 seems presumptuous of having an msdos disklabel. I doubt users will remember exactly which partition was formatted and mounted as what, especially if they let the auto-partitioner decide that for them. If you choose to 'Go Back' at this point, it doesn't seem possible to even get back into the partman menu to review those. Tagging this with 'help' because I think this is a really serious usability issue, underpinned by the technical challenge of guessing the right choice, and that is essentially unaddressed. Thanks, Regards, -- Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Processed: Re: Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Processing commands for cont...@bugs.debian.org: tags 712907 + help Bug #712907 [grub-installer] grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive Added tag(s) help. thanks Stopping processing here. Please contact me if you need assistance. -- 712907: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=712907 Debian Bug Tracking System Contact ow...@bugs.debian.org with problems -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/handler.s.c.140942884017798.transcr...@bugs.debian.org
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
On 30/08/14 21:00, Steven Chamberlain wrote: I doubt users will remember exactly which partition was formatted and mounted as what, especially if they let the auto-partitioner decide that for them. If you choose to 'Go Back' at this point, it doesn't seem possible to even get back into the partman menu to review those. I'd clicked on 'Go Back', and when I try to do the grub-install step again, instead of the new dialog it shows me exactly what I'd prefer to see instead: Device for boot loader installation: Enter device manually /dev/sda Regards, -- Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org (2014-08-30): On 30/08/14 21:00, Steven Chamberlain wrote: I doubt users will remember exactly which partition was formatted and mounted as what, especially if they let the auto-partitioner decide that for them. If you choose to 'Go Back' at this point, it doesn't seem possible to even get back into the partman menu to review those. I'd clicked on 'Go Back', and when I try to do the grub-install step again, instead of the new dialog it shows me exactly what I'd prefer to see instead: Device for boot loader installation: Enter device manually /dev/sda That's what you should see the first time. Maybe you hit 'Enter' one time too many and entered the 'Enter device manually' menu? Mraw, KiBi. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
On Sat, 2014-08-30 at 21:00 +0100, Steven Chamberlain wrote: tags 712907 + help thanks Hi, On 20/06/13 18:56, Petter Reinholdtsen wrote: The change introduced in version 1.86 added a new question in Debian Installer, causing the installation to hang at the end asking where to install grub. This dialog is really not accessible to a normal person. In wheezy ISTR a multiple-choice dialog listing the detected devices or partitions on the system? (Or maybe I'm thinking of `dpkg-reconfigure -plow grub-pc`). Could we not have something more closely resembling that? At the very least, there should be a best-guess default value to blindly hit 'enter' to. I know we struggled to get that right before, but let me explain why I think this dialog is no better: The instructions in the dialog are plain wrong in some cases: /dev/sda is not always the name of the first hard drive. Some virtualised block devices have other names; perhaps some RAID drivers still use other names such as /dev/ciss/ /dev/ida/? And FWIW GNU/kFreeBSD has /dev/da0, /dev/ada0 or other naming for disk drives. [...] Right. We don't use the block device names in the configuration of the installed system and we shouldn't use them here (not primarily, anyway). Under Linux, we should ask udev for the model name (and maybe serial number) and show this as well as the device name. I expect there is some similar facility under kFreeBSD but I don't know what it is. Ben. -- Ben Hutchings Q. Which is the greater problem in the world today, ignorance or apathy? A. I don't know and I couldn't care less. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
On 30/08/14 21:44, Cyril Brulebois wrote:
That's what you should see the first time. Maybe you hit 'Enter' one
time too many and entered the 'Enter device manually' menu?
Oh I see, that's right. This dialog only appears if you've blindly hit
'Enter' at the first grub-install dialog ('Enter device manually'). Or
if doing a preseed install...
If we had a reasonable guess for the right place to install GRUB, maybe
making that the default (instead of 'Enter device manually') in this
menu would fix it for the preseed case? (Including for older preseed
configs being reused from wheezy, if people expect the same behaviour).
(Being able to preseed this to something other than the best guess,
would be #759737).
Regards,
--
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org
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Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org (2014-08-31):
On 30/08/14 21:44, Cyril Brulebois wrote:
That's what you should see the first time. Maybe you hit 'Enter' one
time too many and entered the 'Enter device manually' menu?
Oh I see, that's right. This dialog only appears if you've blindly
hit 'Enter' at the first grub-install dialog ('Enter device
manually'). Or if doing a preseed install...
Thanks for confirming.
If we had a reasonable guess for the right place to install GRUB,
maybe making that the default (instead of 'Enter device manually') in
this menu would fix it for the preseed case? (Including for older
preseed configs being reused from wheezy, if people expect the same
behaviour).
Last I heard, we had not.
Mraw,
KiBi.
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Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Cyril Brulebois, le Thu 20 Mar 2014 14:51:32 +0100, a écrit : Salvatore Bonaccorso car...@debian.org (2014-03-20): It looks bootdev could be preseeded[1], at least for a test for a VM preseed the following worked for me: d-i grub-installer/bootdev string /dev/vda [1] https://bugs.debian.org/666974 But having string (hd0) does not seem to work here (have not checked why), which would be nicer to have more generalised preseed files as previous possible (for say when having machines having a /dev/vda or a /dev/sda ...). First of all, I'm not familiar with d-i best practices. So maybe the following won't make sense. We could imagine either proposing another variable which would take specifications like “(hd0)” and do what's needed to convert them back to /dev/foo stuff, or detect (based on what? parens?) when a conversion is needed for the bootdev variable that was passed, and do that. Well, grub-installer actually already does something like this in the auto-detect phase. It tries to be very careful about not using an hd0 that would actually be a USB stick, but apparently (considering the bug reports we have seen) it's not reliable enough. We at the very least need to document this in the preseed file of the installer, and probably in the relase as this will hit all automated installations. Samuel -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140825224515.ga9...@type.youpi.perso.aquilenet.fr
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Hi KiBi, hi Petter, On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 02:26:49PM +0200, Cyril Brulebois wrote: Petter Reinholdtsen p...@hungry.com (2013-06-20): Package: grub-installer Version: 1.86 Severity: important User: debian-...@lists.debian.org Usertags: debian-edu We discovered this in Debian Edu based on testing using d-i udebs from unstable. See URL: http://jenkins.debian.net/view/edu/job/g-i-installation_debian-edu_jessie_standalone/ for a automatic test of such installation. The change introduced in version 1.86 added a new question in Debian Installer, causing the installation to hang at the end asking where to install grub. This used to work automatically, but now require people to fill in a value, and [enter] do not work. Not in every case, that's why the question was added in the first place! I haven't looked whether one can preseed it like other questions. If it isn't possible, that should be fixed. It looks bootdev could be preseeded[1], at least for a test for a VM preseed the following worked for me: d-i grub-installer/bootdev string /dev/vda [1] https://bugs.debian.org/666974 But having string (hd0) does not seem to work here (have not checked why), which would be nicer to have more generalised preseed files as previous possible (for say when having machines having a /dev/vda or a /dev/sda ...). Petter, does this also work for you? Regards, Salvatore -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140320134139.ga22...@lorien.valinor.li
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Salvatore Bonaccorso car...@debian.org (2014-03-20): It looks bootdev could be preseeded[1], at least for a test for a VM preseed the following worked for me: d-i grub-installer/bootdev string /dev/vda [1] https://bugs.debian.org/666974 But having string (hd0) does not seem to work here (have not checked why), which would be nicer to have more generalised preseed files as previous possible (for say when having machines having a /dev/vda or a /dev/sda ...). Petter, does this also work for you? First of all, I'm not familiar with d-i best practices. So maybe the following won't make sense. We could imagine either proposing another variable which would take specifications like “(hd0)” and do what's needed to convert them back to /dev/foo stuff, or detect (based on what? parens?) when a conversion is needed for the bootdev variable that was passed, and do that. Mraw, KiBi. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Hi
I have a very similar problem, adding it here as it seems to have the same
origin. As mentioned by Petter, 1.86 introduced the follwoing change:
grub-installer (1.86) unstable; urgency=low
[ Vincent McIntyre ]
* Support menu selection of GRUB boot disk. Closes: #706112
-- Cyril Brulebois k...@debian.org Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:53:27 +0200
I used to have a small preseed file and a virt-install invocation
like, described by Guido here, doing a net install:
http://honk.sigxcpu.org/con/Preseeding_Debian_virtual_machines_with_virt_install.html
virt-install --connect=qemu:///system \
--location=http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/unstable/main/installer\-amd64
\
--initrd-inject=${HOME}/virt/d-i/preseed.cfg \
--extra-args=auto keymap=us hostname=${NAME}
netcfg/get_ipaddress=${IP} suite=${SUITE} -- console=tty0
console=ttyS0,115200n8 \
--name $NAME \
--ram=$RAM \
--disk=pool=default,size=${DISKSIZE},format=qcow2,bus=virtio,cache=writeback
beeing able to quickly do tests in newly created vms, the preeseed.cfg
look like:
cut-cut-cut-cut-cut-cut-
d-i debian-installer/language string en
d-i debian-installer/country string US
d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US.UTF-8
d-i keymapselect us
d-i netcfg/choose_interface select auto
d-i netcfg/disable_autoconfig boolean true
d-i netcfg/get_netmask string 255.255.255.0
d-i netcfg/get_gateway string 192.168.122.1
d-i netcfg/get_domain string unassigned-domain
d-i netcfg/get_nameservers string 192.168.122.1
d-i netcfg/confirm_static boolean true
d-i mirror/countrystring manual
d-i mirror/http/hostname string cdn.debian.net
d-i mirror/http/directory string /debian
d-i mirror/http/proxy string
d-i passwd/make-user boolean false
d-i passwd/root-password password r00tme
d-i passwd/root-password-again password r00tme
d-i time/zone string US/Eastern
d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true
d-i clock-setup/ntp boolean true
d-i partman-auto/method string regular
#d-i partman-auto/method string lvm
d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm boolean true
d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true
d-i partman-lvm/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true
d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select atomic
d-i partman-partitioning/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/choose_partition select finish
d-i partman/confirm boolean true
d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true
tasksel tasksel/first multiselect
d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server
d-i pkgsel/upgrade select full-upgrade
popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean false
d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean true
d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true
d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note
cut-cut-cut-cut-cut-cut-
It happens with both
d-i partman-auto/method string lvm
or
d-i partman-auto/method string regular
The installer stops at the new question: [!] Install the GRUB boot
loader on a hard disk.
Interestingly it stoppend only to work for me some days ago, IIRC it
was one of the days after the wheezy point release (some installer
components where updated then, IIRC). So I don't know (yet) if one
other part of the installer updated is involved causing this.
Regards,
Salvatore
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Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20131017121754.GA648@eldamar.local
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Petter Reinholdtsen p...@hungry.com (2013-06-20): Package: grub-installer Version: 1.86 Severity: important User: debian-...@lists.debian.org Usertags: debian-edu We discovered this in Debian Edu based on testing using d-i udebs from unstable. See URL: http://jenkins.debian.net/view/edu/job/g-i-installation_debian-edu_jessie_standalone/ for a automatic test of such installation. The change introduced in version 1.86 added a new question in Debian Installer, causing the installation to hang at the end asking where to install grub. This used to work automatically, but now require people to fill in a value, and [enter] do not work. Not in every case, that's why the question was added in the first place! I haven't looked whether one can preseed it like other questions. If it isn't possible, that should be fixed. (Why you're using unstable udebs for a wheezy-based debian-edu isn't obvious to me, by the way.) Mraw, KiBi. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
[Cyril Brulebois] Not in every case, that's why the question was added in the first place! How often was the old default wrong? If it was rare, perhaps the question should only show up in expert installs (ie use priority low)? (Why you're using unstable udebs for a wheezy-based debian-edu isn't obvious to me, by the way.) I was tested using Jessie/testing when I discovered this. I did not experience it with Wheezy when I tested it a while back. -- Happy hacking Petter Reinholdtsen -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20131017124433.gr6...@ulrik.uio.no
Bug#712907: grub-installer: No longer installs automatically on a normal machine with one hard drive
Petter Reinholdtsen p...@hungry.com (2013-10-17): [Cyril Brulebois] Not in every case, that's why the question was added in the first place! How often was the old default wrong? If it was rare, perhaps the question should only show up in expert installs (ie use priority low)? More or less everytime the install medium was a USB stick. Mraw, KiBi. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
