grub-installer might not install to the PReP partition of NVMe disks

Default Comment by Bridge

Default Comment by Bridge

------- Comment From <email address hidden> 2017-01-12 13:48 EDT-------
Hi @taco-screen-team,

May you please assign/check with @cyphermox for this one?
He's handled this script/area before for ppc64el.

Thank you,
Mauricio

This needs a fix in grub-installer.

------- Comment From <email address hidden> 2017-01-13 11:09 EDT-------
@cyphermox wrote a different patch, and we coordinated testing of that via IRC.

That is [1], which is verified OK in the system used to debug this.

[1] https://launchpad.net/~cyphermox/+archive/ubuntu/installer-dev/+build/11854412

This bug was fixed in the package grub-installer - 1.128ubuntu7

---------------
grub-installer (1.128ubuntu7) zesty; urgency=medium

  * grub-installer: deal with NVMe devices (or other devices with a partition
    separator) being used to back the PReP partition on ppc64el. (LP: #1656048)

 -- Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre <email address hidden> Fri, 13 Jan 2017 16:19:30 -0500

Hello bugproxy, or anyone else affected,

Accepted grub-installer into xenial-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub-installer/1.128ubuntu5.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed.Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

------- Comment From <email address hidden> 2017-01-27 08:18 EDT-------
Verification done on Xenial. All good!

Used the netboot image in xenial-updates as of Jan 27, with kernel cmdline args 'apt-setup/proposed=true'.

Created a guest w/ a virtual SCSI drive and NVMe drive in PCI-passthrough mode.
In the partitioning dialog, created a PReP partition in the SCSI drive (sda1) so to make sure it's listed first in "prep_bootdev -l", which caused the problem previously.

After installation, gone back to shell and verified that grub-installer indeed used the nvme drive, even though the SCSI drive showed up first in "prep_bootdev -l".. and that the new script bits were downloaded (version 1.128ubuntu5.1) and in place.

~ # /usr/lib/grub-installer/prep-bootdev -l
/dev/sda1
/dev/nvme0n1p1

~ # grep grub-install /var/log/syslog
Jan 27 12:57:03 anna[1761]: DEBUG: retrieving grub-installer 1.128ubuntu5.1
Jan 27 12:57:04 anna[1761]: 2017-01-27 12:57:04 URL:http://us.ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports//pool/main/g/grub-installer/grub-installer_1.128ubuntu5.1_ppc64el.udeb [252334/252334] -> "/var/cache/anna/grub-installer_1.128ubuntu5.1_ppc64el.udeb" [1]
Jan 27 13:05:25 main-menu[518]: INFO: Menu item 'grub-installer' selected
Jan 27 13:05:25 grub-installer: info: architecture: ppc64el/chrp_ibm
Jan 27 13:05:29 grub-installer: info: Identified partition label for /dev/nvme0n1p2: gpt
Jan 27 13:05:29 grub-installer: info: Wiping PReP partition /dev/nvme0n1p1
Jan 27 13:05:31 in-target: grub-install: warning: unknown device type nvme0n1p2^M
Jan 27 13:05:31 grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '/dev/nvme0n1p1'
Jan 27 13:05:31 grub-installer: info: grub-install does not support --no-floppy
Jan 27 13:05:31 grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install --force "/dev/nvme0n1p1"
Jan 27 13:05:31 grub-installer: Installing for powerpc-ieee1275 platform.
Jan 27 13:05:32 grub-installer: Installation finished. No error reported.
Jan 27 13:05:32 grub-installer: info: grub-install ran successfully

~ # grep split_device /usr/bin/grub-installer
split_device () {
prep_dev=$(split_device $prep_p)
offered=$(split_device $disc_offered)
bootdev_split="$(split_device "$bootdev")"
bootfs_split="$(split_device "$bootfs")"

------- Comment From <email address hidden> 2017-01-27 08:21 EDT-------
For documentation purposes, here's the virt-install line used.

(In reply to comment #13)
> Used the netboot image in xenial-updates as of Jan 27, with kernel cmdline
> args 'apt-setup/proposed=true'.
>
> Created a guest w/ a virtual SCSI drive and NVMe drive in PCI-passthrough
> mode.

qemu-img create -f qcow2 /var/lib/libvirt/images/mauricfo-16041-pcipt.qcow2 128g

virsh nodedev-detach pci_0005_01_00_0

virt-install \
--name mauricfo-16041 \
--location http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/dists/xenial-updates/main/installer-ppc64el/ \
--extra-args "apt-setup/proposed=true" \
--vcpus 8,sockets=1,cores=1,threads=8 \
--memory 8192 \
--controller type=scsi,model=virtio-scsi \
--disk format=qcow2,path=/var/lib/libvirt/images/mauricfo-16041-pcipt.qcow2 \
--network bridge=virbr0,model=virtio \
--hostdev pci_0005_01_00_0

This bug was fixed in the package grub-installer - 1.128ubuntu5.1

---------------
grub-installer (1.128ubuntu5.1) xenial; urgency=medium

  * grub-installer: deal with NVMe devices (or other devices with a partition
    separator) being used to back the PReP partition on ppc64el. (LP: #1656048)

 -- Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre <email address hidden> Fri, 13 Jan 2017 16:19:30 -0500

The verification of the Stable Release Update for grub-installer has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.