preseed installation with RAID + LVM fails on Lucid 10.04

[lemsx1]

(Update: created a bug in Launchpad as nobody seems to have an answer to this. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...id/+bug/591909 )
(Update2: there is now a work around for this problem. see last comment or launchpad bug from the previous URL)

I'm getting the following issues when preseeding a system with 2 (exact same disks) as mirrors with LVM:

1. "d-i partman/confirm boolean true" is not recognize and I get asked to confirm overwriting the partition tables (I'm puzzled by this)

2. after everything installs, the system reboots and the second disk is added to /dev/md1 as a RAID physical device! This destroys everything and initramfs displays error

These 2 are probably bugs. I have not tried opening bugs for them.

I can easily fix this manually after the installation is done (using a Live CD). However, this is not what I'm intending to do with a unattended installation!

This is the relevant information from the preseed file I'm using:

### Partitioning
# 2009-10-20 14:30 EDT
d-i partman-auto/method string raid

# If one of the disks that are going to be automatically partitioned
# contains an old LVM configuration, the user will normally receive a
# warning. This can be preseeded away...
# This makes partman automatically partition without confirmation.

# Write the changes to the storage devices and configure RAID?
d-i partman-md/confirm boolean true

# Write a new empty partition table?
#d-i partman-partitioning/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true

# Remove existing software RAID partitions?
d-i partman-md/device_remove_md boolean true

# Write the changes to disks and configure LVM?
d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true

d-i partman/choose_partition select finish
d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true

# Write the changes to disks?
d-i partman/confirm boolean true

d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda /dev/sdb

d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm boolean true
d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm_span boolean true

d-i partman-auto-lvm/new_vg_name string bootdisk

d-i partman-auto-lvm/guided_size string max

# Notes:
# - partitions are created in the order they are defined
# - higher priority takes precendence
# - highest priority number chosen is 5,000
# - very impotant!! do not leave spaces after \ or it won't work
# RAID:
# /dev/md0 -> /boot -> 100M - 256MB (high priority)
# /dev/md1 -> LVM VG bootdisk -> 500M - 1T (high priority)
# LVM:
# /dev/mapper/bootdisk-root -> / -> 5G - 1T (high priority)
# /dev/mapper/bootdisk-swap_1 -> swap -> 3G - 3 times size of RAM (high priority)
#
# Last you need to specify how the previously defined partitions will be
# used in the RAID setup. Remember to use the correct partition numbers
# for logical partitions.
# Parameters are:
# <raidtype> <devcount> <sparecount> <fstype> <mountpoint> \
# <devices> <sparedevices>
# RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10 are supported; devices are separated using "#"
d-i partman-auto-raid/recipe string \
1 2 0 ext4 /boot \
/dev/sda1#/dev/sdb1 \
. \
1 2 0 lvm / \
/dev/sda2#/dev/sdb2 \
.

# RAID partitions are tagged as "lvmignore"
# and LVM logical volumes as "defaultignore" and "lvmok"
d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe string \
multiraid :: \
100 512 256 raid \
$lvmignore{ } \
$primary{ } \
method{ raid } \
. \
900 5000 1000000000 raid \
$lvmignore{ } \
$primary{ } \
method{ raid } \
. \
700 5000 1000000000 ext4 \
$defaultignore{ } \
$lvmok{ } \
method{ format } \
format{ } \
use_filesystem{ } \
filesystem{ ext4 } \
options/relatime{ relatime } \
mountpoint{ / } \
. \
256 3000 300% linux-swap \
$defaultignore{ } \
$lvmok{ } \
method{ swap } \
format{ } \
.


mdadm mdadm/boot_degraded boolean true

[joker-]

I am having the same problem. I am trying to do unattended PXE installation inside Virtualbox (one server guest, one client guest) and it asks to confirm the partition changes every time.

In first attempt, I used lvm, second attempt was with regular.

d-i partman-auto/method string lvm
d-i partman-auto/method string regular

I haven't been able to solve this yet, but my current guess is, it has something to do with partman/choose_partition. You, like I, seem to have used a value "select finish". This value is used in most of the example files also. However, if you look at this example file, it uses value "select Finish partitioning and write changes to disk"

I'm going to give it a try. Not that exact value, though. Possible alternative select values need to checked first (what are the actual button labels the installer gives you).

[r.gelobter]

The preseed line that "selects finish" needs to be in a certain order in your preseed, the example-preseed does not follow this.

# Partitioning
d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda
d-i partman-auto/method string lvm
d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm boolean true
d-i partman-md/device_remove_md boolean true
d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true
d-i partman/choose_partition select finish
d-i partman-auto-lvm/guided_size string max
# - atomic: all files in one partition
d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select atomic
d-i partman/default_filesystem string ext3
d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/confirm boolean true
d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true

[lemsx1]

The preseed line that "selects finish" needs to be in a certain order in your preseed, the example-preseed does not follow this.

# Partitioning
d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda
d-i partman-auto/method string lvm
d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm boolean true
d-i partman-md/device_remove_md boolean true
d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true
d-i partman/choose_partition select finish
d-i partman-auto-lvm/guided_size string max
# - atomic: all files in one partition
d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select atomic
d-i partman/default_filesystem string ext3
d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/confirm boolean true
d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true

If you look at the bug report ( https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...id/+bug/591909 ), the suggestion to fix problem #1 is to simply add:

d-i partman-md/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true

Now I get no questions asked during boot (except for postfix configuration which I'll fix shortly).

After preseed is done, however, the system still boots into some weird state where /dev/sdb and /dev/sda are part of /dev/md1 instead of /dev/sda2 and /dev/sdb2 part of /dev/md1. This also gets a weird name /dev/md1p1.

/dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1 should be in /dev/md0 (as they are during preseed'ing) but they get wiped by mdadm during sync of the above partitions and /dev/md0p0 has no actual drives attached to it.

In short, like the original post and all screwed up. At least 1 problem has been fixed. Perhaps in another 6 months I'll be able to find a solution for the other one

[lemsx1]

There is now a work around for this problem

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...909/comments/8

Essentially:

1. use boot param partman/alignment=cylinder (or d-i in preseed)
2. use the following recipe

d-i partman-auto-raid/recipe string \
1 2 0 ext4 /boot /dev/sda1#/dev/sdb1 . 1 2 0 lvm / /dev/sda5#/dev/sdb5 .

# RAID partitions are tagged as "lvmignore"
# and LVM logical volumes as "defaultignore" and "lvmok"
d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe string \
multiraid :: \
100 512 256 raid $lvmignore{ } $primary{ } method{ raid } . \
900 5000 1000000000 raid $lvmignore{ } method{ raid } . \
700 5000 200000 ext4 $defaultignore{ } $lvmok{ } \
method{ format } format{ } use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext4 } \
options/relatime{ relatime } mountpoint{ / } . \
256 3000 4500 linux-swap $defaultignore{ } $lvmok{ } method{ swap } format{ } .