Bug 19507

Summary:	Impossible to install the GRUB bootloader in the root partition during installation
Product:	Mageia	Reporter:	Adrien D <email>
Component:	Installer	Assignee:	Mageia tools maintainers <mageiatools>
Status:	RESOLVED INVALID	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	Normal	CC:	email, marja11, thierry.vignaud, zen25000
Version:	Cauldron	Keywords:	NEEDINFO
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Source RPM:		CVE:
Status comment:

Description Adrien D 2016-10-02 11:46:52 CEST

Hi team Mageia,

Description of problem:
With boot-iso, when i try to install Mageia 6, after, at post-install window, it's impossible to install GRUB on root partition. Only MBR suggested.

It's possible with Mageia 5. 
I think it's a regression !!!! (for multoboot users)
All other distributions have the choice (as Mageia 5).

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
Cauldron (target 6)

How reproducible:


Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Adrien D 2016-10-02 11:47:03 CEST

CC: (none) => ghbdtn

Comment 1 Marja Van Waes 2016-10-02 16:57:01 CEST

Hi Adrien,

Grub in both Mga5 and Mga6, and not Grub in Mageia 5 and Grub2 in Mageia 6?

AFAIK, Grub2 does not allow writing the bootloader to a partition, see also bug 18761
(Note that Frank Griffin wrote a workaround in the 3rd comment in that bug report)

Keywords: (none) => NEEDINFO
CC: (none) => marja11, zen25000
Assignee: bugsquad => mageiatools
Summary: Impossible d'installer GRUB sur la partition racine Ã l'installation => Impossible to install the GRUB bootloader in the root partition during installation

Comment 2 Adrien D 2016-10-02 17:31:17 CEST

Hi Marja,

It's GRUB (the default choice).
Even if it's GRUB2, this bootloader can be installed on a partrition (grub-install --force /dev/sdaX)

Comment 3 Adrien D 2016-10-06 19:33:56 CEST

I see on Mageia 5 x86_64 ISO, it's possible to install GRUB2 on root partition.

Comment 4 Thierry Vignaud 2016-10-06 20:26:02 CEST

And that was an error.

It's not reliable as:
- there's usually no space for embedding grub2's core.img
- blocklists aren't reliable as files can be moved
And grub-setup does warn about blocklist's unreliability

It'll work at first but it'll will fail when you least expect it.
bite you - I have done extensive testing of this in the past and it works for a
while then fails when you.

Some FSes support defragmenting, dedup, (insert your favorite feature) ... and blocklist will just point to garbage after a while.

Or files will be copied, deleted etc.
See eg https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=728742 and https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=730915. 

So yes, we could force installing on a partition but then we would get bug reports because some systems would not reboot after a while

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
CC: (none) => thierry.vignaud
Resolution: (none) => WONTFIX

Comment 5 Thierry Vignaud 2016-10-06 20:29:21 CEST

eg:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=730915#c21
"I just hit the problem where grub2 installed into a partition becomes unbootable after an update too. The grub2 package was updated, so I guess that explains it."

And yes that one wouldn't happen on Mageia as we've failsafe for that, but that's an example of unforeseen scenario...

Comment 6 Adrien D 2016-10-06 20:29:54 CEST

What ???
In Ubuntu, Mint, Manjaro, ... it's possible to install on the root partition.

Why you don't keep the choice for Mageia users ????

Status: RESOLVED => REOPENED
Resolution: WONTFIX => (none)

Comment 7 Thierry Vignaud 2016-10-06 20:30:52 CEST

If you want to shoot yourself in the foot, do what you want with your system.
But the installer will prevent users to shoot themselves.

Status: REOPENED => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => WONTFIX

Comment 8 Adrien D 2016-10-06 20:33:11 CEST

OK....
But why it's possible in Mageia 5 ISO ?

this contradicts what you say above.

Status: RESOLVED => REOPENED
Resolution: WONTFIX => (none)

Comment 9 Thierry Vignaud 2016-10-06 21:08:37 CEST

Please stop reopening this bug! We WONT support that as it's broken by design.
And to answer your question, just read the first sentence of comment #4

Status: REOPENED => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => INVALID