[Bug 1838525] [NEW] LVM setup fails to install grub on virtio storage

[Paride Legovini]

Public bug reported:

The Eoan debian-installer ISO fails to install GRUB on LVM installs with
virtio storage, as it runs grub-install with /dev/mapper as a target (a
directory), even if instructed to target a device.

The following steps to reproduce have been prepared running the 20190730
build, but this has been broken since about June 18, 2019. Steps to
reproduce:

$ md5sum eoan-server-amd64.iso
f591e30485e5f0b5117f6c116e538c42  eoan-server-amd64.iso
$ qemu-img create -f raw disk1.img 8G
Formatting 'disk1.img', fmt=raw size=8589934592
$ kvm -m 1024 -boot d -cdrom eoan-server-amd64.iso -drive file=disk1.img,if=virtio

Proceed with all the defaults. In the "Partition disk" step select
"Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM". Go ahead accepting the
defaults. At the "Install the GRUB boot loader" step select "/dev/vda"
as the target device. The installer will actually run `grub-install
--force /dev/mapper` and fail after a while. The wrong command is
visible both in the d-i screen and by running `ps` on a different
console.

Full installer syslog: http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/qtZy86dTp6/

It's interesting how this doesn't happen when not using virtio. If from
the commands above the "if=virtio" option is dropped then everything
works as expected. In this case the target block device is called
/dev/sda instead of /dev/vda.

** Affects: debian-installer (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1838525

Title:
  LVM setup fails to install grub on virtio storage

Status in debian-installer package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  The Eoan debian-installer ISO fails to install GRUB on LVM installs
  with virtio storage, as it runs grub-install with /dev/mapper as a
  target (a directory), even if instructed to target a device.

  The following steps to reproduce have been prepared running the
  20190730 build, but this has been broken since about June 18, 2019.
  Steps to reproduce:

  $ md5sum eoan-server-amd64.iso
  f591e30485e5f0b5117f6c116e538c42  eoan-server-amd64.iso
  $ qemu-img create -f raw disk1.img 8G
  Formatting 'disk1.img', fmt=raw size=8589934592
  $ kvm -m 1024 -boot d -cdrom eoan-server-amd64.iso -drive file=disk1.img,if=virtio

  Proceed with all the defaults. In the "Partition disk" step select
  "Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM". Go ahead accepting the
  defaults. At the "Install the GRUB boot loader" step select "/dev/vda"
  as the target device. The installer will actually run `grub-install
  --force /dev/mapper` and fail after a while. The wrong command is
  visible both in the d-i screen and by running `ps` on a different
  console.

  Full installer syslog: http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/qtZy86dTp6/

  It's interesting how this doesn't happen when not using virtio. If
  from the commands above the "if=virtio" option is dropped then
  everything works as expected. In this case the target block device is
  called /dev/sda instead of /dev/vda.

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