Bug#852323: debian-installer: grub-installer not convert root= entry to UUID
On 01/23/2017 10:03 AM, Steve McIntyre wrote:
On Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 06:43:27PM +0300, Andrey Jr. Melnikov wrote:
Package: debian-installer
Severity: important
Tags: d-i
Installation procedure of grub2 dont't transform root= entry from /dev/sd?? to UUID notation.
This lead to unbootable system after install.
Hmmm. It normally does this reliably in my experience. What version of
d-i did you use, and did you follow through the menus as normal? Is
there anything special about your setup?
I suspect I have a symptom of the same, or very similar, bug.
My environment is unusual:
1. I'm interested in extremely minimal installs.
2. I have minimal internet connectivity thus I purchase DVD sets.
While waiting for the latest DVD set to arrive, I decided to download
debian-9.1.0-i386-netinst.iso and write it to a USB flash drive. I then
used it to install a very minimal system to another USB flash drive
plugged into the *SAME USB expander*. I specified that Grub be installed
to the MBR of the destination flash drive.
My hardware, on power on, will repeatably recognize multiple devices
attached to the expander in a specific order {based on the physical
location}. The install went normally and it would boot as expected *as
long as* the source drive was present -- independent of the bios seeing
the primary hard drive or the flash drive as the boot device. [1]
If only the destination device was present at boot time there were
multiple scenarios.
If the bios saw the flash device as the boot device *and only if* its
grub.cfg had had all references to /dev/sdd changed to /dev/sdb, it
would boot successfully. [2]
The situation is more complicated if the active grub is in the MBR of
the permanently installed HDD (/dev/sda). I had noticed that running
update-grub did not always yield a workable menu entry. It's a
pathological corner case and I did not record the circumstances.
I see the need to perform multiple installs to document exactly what
factors trigger a failure. Before I run them I need to know what log
files I should preserve for each case.
I also suspect that Bug#876866 is related.
[1] What happens is dependent on whether or not my WiFi hub is attached
to the USB3 port having priority over the USB2 port into which the port
expander was attached.
[2] My WiFi was plugged into the USB3 port during install.
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