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

[Christofer Bernander]

I'm also experiencing issues with grub-installer ignoring/overriding the
bootdev setting on Ubuntu Server 14.04.2 w/ Software RAID (at least when
set using the debconf-set command).

I had to resort to using the same type of workaround as mentioned in
post #27, so I thought I'd share some details of it here for reference:

...

# Identify disks larger than 1 TiB
d-i partman/early_command string \
DISKLIST=$(for f in $(list-devices disk); \
do fdisk -l $f 2>/dev/null | sed -nr 's|^Disk (/[^:]+):.* [0-9]{13,} bytes$|\1|p'; done | sort); \
echo "${DISKLIST}" > /tmp/disklist

...

# Manual GRUB installation
d-i grub-installer/skip boolean true
d-i lilo-installer/skip boolean true
d-i preseed/late_command string \
in-target apt-get -y install grub-pc; \
for line in $(cat /tmp/disklist); do in-target grub-install --force "${line}"; done; \
in-target update-grub

...

This works for me on two separate systems where one has the (system)
disks on sda+sdb and the other on sdb+sdc.

Here is an expanded version of the first part which includes the
partition recipe:

# Identify disks larger than 1 TiB
d-i partman/early_command string \
DISKLIST=$(for f in $(list-devices disk); \
do fdisk -l $f 2>/dev/null | sed -nr 's|^Disk (/[^:]+):.* [0-9]{13,} bytes$|\1|p'; done | sort); \
echo "${DISKLIST}" > /tmp/disklist; \
DISKA=$(echo "${DISKLIST}" | head -n 1); \
DISKB=$(echo "${DISKLIST}" | head -n 2 | tail -n 1); \
debconf-set partman-auto/disk "${DISKA} ${DISKB}"; \
debconf-set partman-auto-raid/recipe "1 2 0 ext2 /boot ${DISKA}2#${DISKB}2 . 1 2 0 ext4 / ${DISKA}3#${DISKB}3 ."

The rest of the partitioning is just a standard 'd-i partman-
auto/expert_recipe string multiraid' config that does not need to
reference the disk variables.

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

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

Status in grub-installer package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in grub-installer source package in Precise:
  Confirmed
Status in grub-installer source package in Trusty:
  Fix Released
Status in grub-installer package in Debian:
  Fix Released

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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