Bug#1032435: installation-reports: Fails to install GRUB bootloader

[John Talbut <jt@dpets.uk>]

Package: installation-reports
Severity: important
Tags: d-i
X-Debbugs-Cc: jt@dpets.uk

Boot method: USB
Image version: 
https://gemmei.ftp.acc.umu.se/images/bookworm_di_alpha2/amd64/iso-cd/debian-bookworm-DI-alpha2-amd64-netinst.iso
Date: <6 March 2023>

Machine: Ideapad 5 14
Partitions: <df -Tl will do; the raw partition table is preferred>
Disk /dev/nvme1n1: 238.47 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Disk model: WDC PC SN530 SDBPMPZ-256G-1101
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 5E4D836B-80D7-42DA-BB78-BB015B1D879C

Device           Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme1n1p1    2048    391167    389120   190M EFI System
/dev/nvme1n1p2  391168   1368063    976896   477M Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme1n1p3 1368064 500117503 498749440 237.8G Linux filesystem


Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: Samsung SSD 980 1TB
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 16384 bytes / 131072 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: C3734DD7-2C43-49F4-BE7D-5F796EA39BFD

Device         Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1  2048 1953523711 1953521664 931.5G Linux filesystem


Disk /dev/sda: 7.21 GiB, 7746879488 bytes, 15130624 sectors
Disk model: USB DISK 2.0
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x28b1675d

Device     Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *        0 1400831 1400832  684M  0 Empty
/dev/sda2        4472   23319   18848  9.2M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)


Disk /dev/mapper/nvme0n1p1_crypt: 931.5 GiB, 1000186314752 bytes, 
1953488896 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 16384 bytes / 131072 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/nvme1n1p3_crypt: 237.81 GiB, 255342936064 bytes, 
498716672 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/dk-rt: 23.28 GiB, 24998051840 bytes, 48824320 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/dk-sw: 9.31 GiB, 9999220736 bytes, 19529728 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it

Initial boot:           [O]
Detect network card:    [O]
Configure network:      [O]
Detect media:           [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Clock/timezone setup:   [O]
User/password setup:    [O]
Detect hard drives:     [O]
Partition hard drives:  [O]
Install base system:    [O]
Install tasks:          [O]
Install boot loader:    [E]
Overall install:        [E]

Comments/Problems:

<Description of the install, in prose, and any thoughts, comments
      and ideas you had during the initial install.>

The system has a 256MB SSD and a 1TB SSD.  The installation is LUKS 
encrypted apart from boot and efi partitions.  The 1TB SSD is for user 
files and is LVM volume group da and logical volume da, the 256MB is 
volume group dk and divided into root, home, var, tmp and swap 
partitions.  The installation proceeded correctly up to installing GRUB. 
 It is not clear where to install it but wherever I try I come up with 
a message "Unable to install GRUB in /dev/sda" (or the equivalent in 
other partitions).  It did seem as if initrd was trying to mount root on 
a partition that had not been decrypted, but trying in rescue mode when 
the partitions are decrypted before attempting to install GRUB comes up 
with the same error.


-- Package-specific info:

==============================================
Installer lsb-release:
==============================================
DISTRIB_ID=Debian
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Debian GNU/Linux installer"
DISTRIB_RELEASE="12 (bookworm) - installer build 20230217"
X_INSTALLATION_MEDIUM=cdrom

==============================================
Installer hardware-summary:
==============================================
Attached

Attachment: hardware-summary.gz
Description: application/gzip