[Bug 1355845] [NEW] partman/unmount_active is not preseedable

[Jonathan Reed]

Public bug reported:

The partman/unmount_active question is not preseedable.  This is a
problem.

Due to some other d-i bug introduced in trusty, the mountmedia command
is extremely ... insistent, and when we re-install machines in an
unattended mode, it finds /dev/sda1 (a /boot partition) and insists on
mounting it on /media, even when anna/retriever is set to net-retriever.
This causes partman to complain about mounted partitions.  I should be
able to pre-seed this question, but I can't, because it forces the seen
flag to false.  It is a bit presumptuous of d-i to think that it knows
my installation environment better than I do:  these are unattended
machines installed over the network, and any mounted partitions should
get overwritten.  I do understand the desire not to accidentally
scribble over installation media, but at the same time, consider letting
sysadmins who know what they're doing preseed answers to questions here.
If you're concerned, introduce another debconf key
partman/disable_all_safety_checks or something that defaults to false.

For another example of people getting bitten by this problem, see:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2215103&p=12977473#post12977473

** Affects: partman-base (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1355845

Title:
  partman/unmount_active is not preseedable

Status in “partman-base” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  The partman/unmount_active question is not preseedable.  This is a
  problem.

  Due to some other d-i bug introduced in trusty, the mountmedia command
  is extremely ... insistent, and when we re-install machines in an
  unattended mode, it finds /dev/sda1 (a /boot partition) and insists on
  mounting it on /media, even when anna/retriever is set to net-
  retriever.  This causes partman to complain about mounted partitions.
  I should be able to pre-seed this question, but I can't, because it
  forces the seen flag to false.  It is a bit presumptuous of d-i to
  think that it knows my installation environment better than I do:
  these are unattended machines installed over the network, and any
  mounted partitions should get overwritten.  I do understand the desire
  not to accidentally scribble over installation media, but at the same
  time, consider letting sysadmins who know what they're doing preseed
  answers to questions here.  If you're concerned, introduce another
  debconf key partman/disable_all_safety_checks or something that
  defaults to false.

  For another example of people getting bitten by this problem, see:
  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2215103&p=12977473#post12977473

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