[Bug 1012629] Re: grub-installer ignores "bootdev" setting in preseed file

[Stuart Longland]

I've got the following in my preseed file:

d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sdc
d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean false
d-i grub-installer/bootdev  string /dev/sdc

We've got two machines intended as Ceph OSD nodes, they've got two 3TB
HDDs on the two high-speed SATA ports and a 60GB SSD on a second.  Since
the SSD is mostly for the OS with the HDDs providing the bulk of the
I/O, this is meant the HDDs wound up as sda and sdb with the SSD being
called sdc.  The BIOS is set to boot sdc first, and the other two disks
will be initially unpartitioned so it's important that the boot-loader
winds up on sdc.

The above seems to do the trick.  I rather suspect the docs are a little
ambiguous, particularly with regards to the syntax used to specify
bootdev which looks like a relic of GRUB-legacy days.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1012629

Title:
  grub-installer ignores "bootdev" setting in preseed file

Status in “debian-installer” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  I am installing an Ubuntu system with two disks attached; I want the
  OS to be installed on the second disk /dev/sdb; the first disk
  /dev/sda is currently completely empty (not even partitioned).  The
  install process works fine, but then GRUB ignores the line:

          d-i grub-installer/bootdev string /dev/sdb

  and complains that it cannot write to /dev/sda (because it does not
  even have a partition table).

  Same happens if I use GRUB's own notation "(hd1)" instead of /dev/sdb
  in the preseed file.

  If I omit the "grub-installer/bootdev" line in the preseed, then D-I
  stops to ask me if I want to install GRUB on sda or sdb.

  The issue can be replicated with virtual machines: add two disks (one
  of the empty / zeroed out), and instruct the preseed to install on the
  second one.

  I think this is the same as Debian bug #666974, but I'm filing it
  separately as I'm not sure what/how much is changed in Ubuntu's
  version of D-I. See: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=666974

  
  Preseed options used for partitioning / target selection:

      ### Partitioning
      d-i partman-auto/method string lvm
      d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select atomic

      # do not ask for confirmation, ever
      d-i partman-basicfilesystem/no_swap               boolean  false
      d-i partman-lvm/confirm                           boolean  true
      d-i partman-lvm/confirm_nooverwrite               boolean  true
      d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm                 boolean  true
      d-i partman-md/confirm                            boolean  true
      d-i partman-md/device_remove_md                   boolean  true
      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
      d-i partman/exception_handler                     select   Retry

  
  GRUB-related preseed options:

      ### Boot loader installation
      d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean true
      d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true
      d-i grub-installer/bootdev string /dev/sdb

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