[Bug 812503] [NEW] grub-installer fails on machine with many disks

[Jacob Strauss]

Public bug reported:

I'm trying out installing an oneiric prerelease on a machine that has a
few local disks and is also currently attached to an empty disk array.

Grub-installer has a few problems in this setup:
  - The first is that it doesn't work with device names that overflow past a single character identifier (/dev/sdXX instead of /dev/sdX).
  - The other is it doesn't choose the correct device to install grub onto, and hence the machine doesn't boot after installing without installing grub manually.  It tries /dev/sda, which is somewhere in the array rather than one of the local drives. I'd prefer to preseed 'd-i grub-installer/bootdev', but grub-installer doesn't check whether this has been set before deciding to use /dev/sda.

I've attached a patch that fixes both of these problems (at least for
me), and results in a bootable system post-install.

** Affects: grub-installer (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to grub-installer in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/812503

Title:
  grub-installer fails on machine with many disks

Status in “grub-installer” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I'm trying out installing an oneiric prerelease on a machine that has
  a few local disks and is also currently attached to an empty disk
  array.

  Grub-installer has a few problems in this setup:
    - The first is that it doesn't work with device names that overflow past a single character identifier (/dev/sdXX instead of /dev/sdX).
    - The other is it doesn't choose the correct device to install grub onto, and hence the machine doesn't boot after installing without installing grub manually.  It tries /dev/sda, which is somewhere in the array rather than one of the local drives. I'd prefer to preseed 'd-i grub-installer/bootdev', but grub-installer doesn't check whether this has been set before deciding to use /dev/sda.

  I've attached a patch that fixes both of these problems (at least for
  me), and results in a bootable system post-install.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub-installer/+bug/812503/+subscriptions