Bug 704571

Summary: Custom partitioning installation from USB fails to install GRUB on HDD
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Fred <fred>
Component: anacondaAssignee: Brian Lane <bcl>
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: unspecified Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 15CC: anaconda-maint-list, jonathan, marcosfrm, mike.cloaked, vanmeeuwen+fedora
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: i686   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2011-11-18 03:46:41 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Attachments:
Description Flags
anaconda.log
none
anaconda.prgram.log
none
anaconda.storage.log
none
anaconda.syslog none

Description Fred 2011-05-13 15:54:10 UTC
Created attachment 498798 [details]
anaconda.log

Description of problem:
Doing a standard options installation using DVD iso image from a USB stick in F15 Alpha, RC1 and RC2 set GRUB to boot from USB disk.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
anaconda-15.31-1.fc15.i686

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Download DVD iso image
2. Use livecd-iso-to-disk to copy to USB
3. Boot from USB to install on laptop
4. Select all default option except disk partitioning:
  - custom
  - I create 3 partitions: / & /home ext4 and swap
 5. Anaconda later prompts for GRUB installation target which is /dev/sdb1 (USB) by default
 6. I change it to /dev/sda1 (which is the other options)
 7. Validate and complete install "successfully"

  
Actual results:
Laptop doesn't boot (no error message)


Expected results:
normal boot and installation completion (entering user's name, password etc)

Additional info:
Using recovery mode form the DVD install (chroot) I tried grub-install /dev/sda1 and grub-install /dev/sda: neither of them fixed the problem.
I also went into grub and did root (hd0,0) and setup (hd0) which didn't fix the problem.

At the end I edited grub.conf and found out (hd1,0) was still set after all this.

Comment 1 Fred 2011-05-13 15:56:44 UTC
Created attachment 498800 [details]
anaconda.prgram.log

Comment 2 Fred 2011-05-13 15:58:57 UTC
Created attachment 498801 [details]
anaconda.storage.log

Comment 3 Fred 2011-05-13 16:00:12 UTC
Created attachment 498803 [details]
anaconda.syslog

Comment 4 Mike C 2011-05-13 16:47:02 UTC
When it comes to the bootloader section during the install from an install DVD iso booted from a usbkey (on say /dev/sdb1) you need to "Switch device" - then currently you have to make sure that first bios drive is /dev/sda (if that is where the installed system is going "to", and 2nd bios drive is /dev/sdb (or
equivalent for your system) - and then it will write the grub to the
mbr on the internal HDD.

It would be nice if anaconda had a really obvious option on that section of the graphical installer warning that without change then grub would be written to the drive on which the install iso resides and not the device where the system is being written.  Come to think of it, if you boot the install from a DVD with the same install iso burned to it it will write grub to the mbr on the destination disk - so why is it different when the installer is booted from a usbkey rather than a DVD drive?

Comment 5 Fred 2011-05-15 16:10:02 UTC
yes.. I retried and on top of selecting the GRUB installation target you need to go into the "hidden" BIOS option in the same window and also change that order to have /dev/sda1 first. Then it worked fine.

This whole section probably need some GUI improvement for the users to pick the right option.

Comment 6 Marcos Mello 2011-06-07 01:09:12 UTC
Same thing here with F15 Live CD media (Gnome) + liveusb-creator.

(In reply to comment #4)
> 
> It would be nice if anaconda had a really obvious option on that section of the
> graphical installer warning that without change then grub would be written to
> the drive on which the install iso resides and not the device where the system
> is being written.  Come to think of it, if you boot the install from a DVD with
> the same install iso burned to it it will write grub to the mbr on the
> destination disk - so why is it different when the installer is booted from a
> usbkey rather than a DVD drive?

From a mere user (non-dev) point of view, install the bootloader in the USB media (already booted) makes no sense. And, of course, have an unbootable system at the end isn't a good experience...

Comment 8 Marcos Mello 2011-06-15 17:03:14 UTC
Is possible to not have the USB install media listed in the custom partitioning screen? Because I think that can really get people confused. Again, there's no point modify the USB boot media partitions during install.

Comment 9 Fred 2011-11-18 03:46:41 UTC
This is fixed in F16 anaconda. I think we should close this bug now. (looking at the options not sure I'll pick the right one).