Bug#696615: Another use-case for this bug
I wish to point to another use case where gub installation fails miserably.
In installing an HP DL360G7 I had to use an USB stick as the installation
media (the server has not installed a CD reader) AND another usb stick as
supplementary media for installing the firmware files for the broadcom
ethernets.
so i had:
/dev/sda1 install media
/dev/sdb1 supplementary media
/dev/sdc1 target media (smartarray 410 logical volume)
The installer installed grub on /dev/sda with root at /dev/sdc using
UUID so when I rebooted in the installed system, i had to remove the
supplementary media and the devices list was
/dev/sda1 install media (now with grub that points to the installed system)
/dev/sdb1 installed system root
to correct the situation i had to boot the system as described, but removing the
install media stick (with grub) while the kernel was at initial loading stage, so
the device scan was only
/dev/sda1 installed system
and when fully booted, running grub-install and the update-grub
and the problem was resolved.
(
Please note another thing (not for this bug) that created havoc in device list
is the fact that to load the non-free firmware when it is requested by the installer
my auxiliary stick was not autodetected, so i needed to switch console, mount manually
the stick under /media and then tell the installer to retry. This however leaved the
aux sick mounted since it was absolutely not clear if the installer needed it mounted
or not during the other stages of the installation, with the effect of complicating
the device map for grub. Maybe an help screen in debian installer at the prompt of aux
media that explain how this media must be prepared for the automounting and
autounmounting would be very welcome.
)
what i think is needed to do is that the grub installation part in debian installer
must do two things to catch by default the majority of use cases with minimum user
intervention:
1. necessarily present a list of devices where grub can be installed. (And maybe
automagically removing from that list the installation media device?)
2. set the default drive for grub installation to the drive that contains the root
partition selected during disk partitioning.
and (but this is more an RFE that a bug) in the same menu make the devices
multi-selectable for when we are installing to a raid-1 volume.
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