/srv/irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/03/04/#ubuntu-installer.txt

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ev cjwatson: correct me if I'm wrong, but installing grub to a partition's VBR when it's already on the MBR will mean you're still booting off the MBR pointing at whatever partition was created when GRUB was installed to the MBR12:14
evin other words, not the desired effect12:14
evI'm wondering if grub leaves any kind of signature on MBR beyond the obvious 0x55AA so we could detect this scenario and warn the user12:15
CIA-3console-setup: cjwatson * r392 ubuntu/debian/ (changelog keyboard-configuration.postinst):12:19
CIA-3console-setup: Don't fail to configure keyboard-configuration if setxkbmap fails to12:19
CIA-3console-setup: talk to the X display (LP: #728764).12:19
cjwatsonev: there is unfortunately no way to reliably detect that12:20
cjwatsonit would be lovely, but the MBR is basically chaos.  any signature you might use is either seriously mutable across GRUB versions, susceptible to not being overwritten when another boot loader is installed, or both12:21
cjwatsonand there are zero bytes free in GRUB's MBR so no room to add anything12:21
cjwatson(0x55AA isn't GRUB's signature, BTW - the disk doesn't have a valid DOS partition table without that)12:22
cjwatsonI'm actually not at all sure how the BIOS detects whether the MBR is bootable12:23
cjwatsonactually I suspect that the MBR must always be bootable and will sometimes chain to a PBR12:24
evoh I didn't mean to imply it was grub's signature, but that of the mbr12:27
evwhich is why I said beyond 0x55AA12:28
evperhaps we should just always display a message when they select a partition12:28
evchances are there will be a bootloader in the mbr12:28
evand just word it to say "if you have a bootloader in the mbr"12:29
evwe don't ever use blocklists, right?12:29
evjust trying to determine what state mpt's laptop is in (running around the office between broken computers today, it seems)12:29
evah, we do.12:31
evI guess that's preferable to taking up an entire primary partition for just core.img, even with the risks of the filesystem moving things around?12:32
cjwatsonthe thing is12:48
cjwatsonthere is a contingent who really, really, really, really, really want to install our boot loader in a partition record12:48
cjwatsonI'm worried we'll piss them off even further by throwing up more and more warnings12:48
cjwatsonand they sort of have a point, they don't want Ubuntu to take over the machine because it isn't their primary OS12:49
cjwatsondon't generalise from mpt's laptop12:49
cjwatsonit's a Mac12:49
cjwatsonthey're weird12:49
cjwatsononce the world switches over to GPT, this will stop being a problem - GRUB will occupy a partition12:50
cjwatsoncan't really do that sanely on MBR though12:50
cjwatsonI confess I can never remember exactly how boot loaders are best installed on Macs, and it always makes my head hurt12:50
cjwatsonI think if you put them in the MBR there, other things stop working12:51
cjwatsonthere are messy interactions with refit and boot camp12:51
CIA-3console-setup: cjwatson * r393 ubuntu/debian/changelog: releasing version 1.57ubuntu1013:42
evfair point13:53
evI'm not arguing for or against blocklists, in case that wasn't clear.  I was just curious as to the motivation for using them given the risks.13:54
cjwatsonlesser evil13:54
cjwatsonI'd love not to need to13:54
evright-o :)13:54
cjwatson(we won't need them with btrfs, once we get round to writing the code to make grub use its bootloader embedding area)13:55
evis this documented/explained somewhere? Google-fu seems to be failing.14:05
cjwatsonthe btrfs bit?14:06
evyes14:08
cjwatsonhttp://www.mail-archive.com/linux-btrfs@vger.kernel.org/msg02036.html14:08
cjwatsonthe 64kb comment14:09
evgreat stuff, thanks14:12
evcjwatson: we had someone try to install Ubuntu today and wasn't offered the resize option, because HP thinks it's funny to use up all four primary partitions.  Given that the only option from here for the regular user is format, what are your thoughts on pointing them in the direction of Wubi in this case (if they have an NTFS partition)?14:28
evNot trying to apply it as the solution to everything, but it seems like one of those cases where their options are already limited and if it doesn't work they're no worse off.14:28
ev(This would presumably be done by greying out the resize option and changing its text to explain the situation with a link to run Wubi.  The code behind the link would copy Wubi to the Windows startup folder and reboot, and I'd change Wubi to remove itself from there during install.)14:28
evsorry to keep bugging you today14:28
evbut I figured this is one of those things you'd want a say on before I just went ahead and did it14:28
cjwatsoninteresting thought14:29
cjwatsonit's not the only option of course since it's conceivable they might want to delete something14:29
cjwatsonbut I think it's worth mentioning14:29
cjwatsonif it can work smoothly, go for it14:30
evbrilliant, thanks14:31
evbut indeed, it would still leave the other options intact14:31
evthis would just replace the resize option in that case14:31
cjwatsonev: bug 712654 - is this something you know of us having fixed between alpha 2 and alpha 3?14:52
ubot2Launchpad bug 712654 in ubiquity "system does not reboot after installation is complete - virtual box" [Medium,New] https://launchpad.net/bugs/71265414:52
evnope14:52
evI've seen intermittent reports of this over the years, but I've never been able to reproduce it14:52
cjwatsoncould you mention that in the bug for the record?14:54
evcjwatson: absolutely15:00
cjwatsonta15:01
evany thoughts on what could be causing this?  It's a bit perplexing as the code around shutting down is fairly simple.15:01
evI wonder if we should start logging the loop level.15:01
cjwatsonI'm not sure, I wondered if it might be outside ubiquity15:03
evyeah, that's definitely possible though quite harder to debug15:05
evespecially if it's X level15:06
ev:-/15:06
evI wonder.  Perhaps the flush during unmount of /target is taking quite a long time15:07
evand it's appearing as though the system has locked up15:07
cjwatsonor could be YA upstart job logic error15:11
evlets tell them to pass --debug and strace -f and just wait for the aufs overlay to fill up. ;)15:13
evI've followed up on the bug15:13
cjwatsonhah15:14
cjwatsonthe other day I wound up waiting until after partitioning and stracing to /target/tmp/ubiquity.trace15:14
cjwatsonwhich was a good decision since the strace was >1GB15:14
cjwatsonev: also - did you notice Brian got back to you on bug 709363?15:18
evoo, I had not.  Thanks15:20
evstrace> :)15:20
evhuh, so it's definitely not swap anymore15:22
evohhh, ecryptfs.15:24
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