[Bug 1656048] Comment bridged from LTC Bugzilla

[bugproxy]

------- Comment From mauricfo at br.ibm.com 2017-01-13 11:09 EDT-------
@cyphermox wrote a different patch, and we coordinated testing of that via IRC.

That is [1], which is verified OK in the system used to debug this.

[1] https://launchpad.net/~cyphermox/+archive/ubuntu/installer-
dev/+build/11854412

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to grub-installer in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1656048

Title:
  grub-installer might not install to the PReP partition of NVMe disks

Status in grub-installer package in Ubuntu:
  In Progress
Status in grub-installer source package in Xenial:
  New

Bug description:
  == Comment: #0 - Mauricio Faria De Oliveira - 2017-01-12 05:22:08 ==
  ---Problem Description---
  On ppc64el, the grub-installer script attempts to detect which PReP partition is in the same disk as of the installed system, in order to install grub into it.

  This check is not working properly for NVMe devices, and needs an update.
  It might result in overwriting the PReP partition of another disk, possibly another Linux distro/version, which is unrelated to the current installation.

  Patches for Xenial and Zesty are attached.

  Problem example:
  ---

  - PReP partition actually is '/dev/nvme1n1p1'
  - PReP partition detected is '/dev/sda1'

      ~ # /usr/lib/grub-installer/prep-bootdev -l
      /dev/sda1
      /dev/nvme1n1p1
      /dev/nvme0n1p1

      ~ # grep grub-install /var/log/syslog
      ...
      Jan 11 22:17:25 main-menu[518]: INFO: Menu item 'grub-installer' selected
      Jan 11 22:17:25 grub-installer: info: architecture: ppc64el/chrp_ibm
      Jan 11 22:17:29 grub-installer: info: Identified partition label for /dev/nvme1n1p2: gpt
      Jan 11 22:17:29 grub-installer: info: Wiping PReP partition /dev/sda1
      ...
      Jan 11 22:17:33 grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install  --force "/dev/sda1"
      ...
      Jan 11 22:17:33 grub-installer: info: grub-install ran successfully

      ~ # in-target ofpathname /dev/sda1
      ~ # in-target nvram --print-config=boot-device

      ~ # tail -n2 /var/log/syslog
      ... in-target: /pci at 800000020000015/pci1014,034A at 0/sas/disk at 5000c50067b1166b
      ... in-target: /pci at 800000020000015/pci1014,034A at 0/sas/disk at 5000c50067b1166b


  Patch applied:
  ---

  ~ # grep grub-installer /var/log/syslog
  ...
  Jan 11 23:59:25 main-menu[518]: INFO: Menu item 'grub-installer' selected
  Jan 11 23:59:25 grub-installer: info: architecture: ppc64el/chrp_ibm
  Jan 11 23:59:27 grub-installer: info: Identified partition label for /dev/nvme1n1p2: gpt
  Jan 11 23:59:27 grub-installer: info: Wiping PReP partition /dev/nvme1n1p1
  ...
  Jan 11 23:59:30 grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install  --force "/dev/nvme1n1p1"
  ...
  Jan 11 23:59:31 grub-installer: info: grub-install ran successfully

  
      ~ # in-target nvram --print-config=boot-device
      ~ # tail -n1 /var/log/syslog
      ... in-target: /pci at 800000020000028/pci1bb1,121 at 0/namespace at 1

  After reboot of installation done:

      0 > printenv boot-device 
      -------------- Partition: common -------- Signature: 0x70 ---------------
      boot-device              /pci at 800000020000028/pci1bb1,121 at 0/namespace at 1 

  
  == Comment: #1 - Mauricio Faria De Oliveira <mauricfo at br.ibm.com> - 2017-01-12 05:24:08 ==
  Patch for Xenial

  == Comment: #2 - Mauricio Faria De Oliveira <mauricfo at br.ibm.com> - 2017-01-12 05:24:26 ==
  Patch for Zesty.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub-installer/+bug/1656048/+subscriptions