Bug#611045: debian-installer: GRUB always installs in /dev/sda
Package: debian-installer
Version: squeeze RC2
Severity: serious
Tags: d-i
despite the Release Notes of Squeeze RC2 state that the Grub install problem
is solved (#568529), I still see a (major in some cases) problem:
Using Expert Mode GRUB is always installed on /dev/sda when you allow it to
install in the bootloader. This is a problem in some situations like haveing
the BIOS configured to boot from a different HDD or when using GPT partitioning
scheme where you need to prepare a special GRUB BIOS boot partition.
If Grub fails on /dev/sda the installer gives the error and aborts. I think
(esp. in expert mode) the user should be asked where to install the bootloader.
Default should be the device where /boot is located or where it finds a BIOS
boot partition on GPT drives.
I've seen this problem on a big server system with additional hardware SAS
RAID controller for booting and I was able to reproduce it easily with msdos
and GPT partition tables in VMware (you have to edit the .vmx file to choose
a boot order of 'bios-hddOrder = "ide0:1"' and assign 2 IDE drives)
Installs on the server were done by the rc2 amd64 netinst iso dd'ed to a usb-
stick, in VMware I mounted the iso directly into the virtual CD drive.
Setting the servity to serious because in analogy with similar bug #568529
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 6.0
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Reply to: