GPT pressed

Darren Baginski

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May 28, 2012, 3:20:02 PM5/28/12

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Hi !

Perhaps I didn't search well, but can someone point me how to force GPT partitioning scheme in the preseed.cfg ?
Another question, why debian installer keeps asking about keyboard layout even then I have it set in the preseed.cfg file and have
"preseed/file=/preseed.cfg auto=true, priority=critical lang=english locale=en_US console-keymaps-at/keymap=us console-setup/ask_detect=false console-setup/layoutcode=us"
in the isolinux file.

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Tom H

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May 28, 2012, 6:30:02 PM5/28/12

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On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 3:02 PM, Darren Baginski <kic...@yandex.com> wrote:

> Perhaps I didn't search well, but can someone point me
> how to force GPT partitioning scheme in the preseed.cfg ?

http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2011/04/msg00244.html
http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2011/08/msg00171.html

> Another question, why debian installer keeps asking
> about keyboard layout even then I have it set in the
> preseed.cfg file and have "preseed/file=/preseed.cfg
> auto=true,
> priority=critical lang=english
> locale=en_US
> console-keymaps-at/keymap=us
> console-setup/ask_detect=false
> console-setup/layoutcode=us"
> in the isolinux file.

Why do you have a "=true," after "auto"? AFAIK it should just be auto.

This is what I use, in long form:

auto-install/enable \
debian-installer/keymap=us \
debian-installer/locale=en_US.UTF-8 \
console-setup/ask_detect=false \
console-setup/layoutcode=en_US \
debconf/priority=critical

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Darren Baginski

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May 28, 2012, 7:10:01 PM5/28/12

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29.05.2012, 02:29, "Tom H" <tomh...@gmail.com>:

> On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 3:02 PM, Darren Baginski <kic...@yandex.com> wrote:
>
>> Perhaps I didn't search well, but can someone point me
>> how to force GPT partitioning scheme in the preseed.cfg ?
>
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2011/04/msg00244.html
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2011/08/msg00171.html

Thanks! Will check.

>
>> Another question, why debian installer keeps asking
>> about keyboard layout even then I have it set in the
>> preseed.cfg file and have "preseed/file=/preseed.cfg
>> auto=true,
>> priority=critical lang=english
>> locale=en_US
>> console-keymaps-at/keymap=us
>> console-setup/ask_detect=false
>> console-setup/layoutcode=us"
>> in the isolinux file.
>
> Why do you have a "=true," after "auto"? AFAIK it should just be auto.
>
> This is what I use, in long form:
>
> auto-install/enable \
> debian-installer/keymap=us \
> debian-installer/locale=en_US.UTF-8 \
> console-setup/ask_detect=false \
> console-setup/layoutcode=en_US \
> debconf/priority=critical

I have:

default install
timeout 100
prompt 1
LABEL install
kernel linux
append initrd=initrdc.gz preseed/file=/preseed.cfg auto-install/enable debian-installer/keymap=us debian-installer/locale=en_US.UTF-8 console-setup/ask_detect=false console-setup/layoutcode=en_US debconf/priority=critical

in the isolinux.cfg now, and still asked for keymap.
Preseed file is injected in to the "Debian Installer 7.0 Alpha1" netboot , need to say squeeze didn't ask with previous line.
Perhaps there was changes ?

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Darren Baginski

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May 28, 2012, 7:40:02 PM5/28/12

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29.05.2012, 02:29, "Tom H" <tomh...@gmail.com>:

> On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 3:02 PM, Darren Baginski <kic...@yandex.com> wrote:
>

>> О©╫Perhaps I didn't search well, but can someone point me
>> О©╫how to force GPT partitioning scheme in the preseed.cfg ?
>
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2011/04/msg00244.html
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2011/08/msg00171.html
>

Unfortunately keeps installing msdos partition table...

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Tom H

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May 30, 2012, 12:10:02 PM5/30/12

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It works for me with Squeeze but I usually use the short version of
the variables (I was just giving the long ones for reference; sorry).
You might be having a problem because there's a limit on the length of
the kernel parameters. Or there might be a change. In the latter case,
you can pass "DEBCONF_DEBUG=5" to the kernel and, when you're install
stops with a question, the last syslog line on VT4'll have debconf
value that needs to pre-loaded.

The short versions that I know are:
auto auto-install/enable
classes auto-install/classes
domain netcfg/get_domain
fb debian-installer/framebuffer
file preseed/file
hostname netcfg/get_hostname
interface netcfg/choose_interface
locale debian-installer/locale
priority debconf/priority
suite mirror/suite
tasks tasksel:tasksel/first
url preseed/url

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Tom H

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May 30, 2012, 12:50:02 PM5/30/12

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On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 7:14 PM, Darren Baginski <kic...@yandex.com> wrote:
> 29.05.2012, 02:29, "Tom H" <tomh...@gmail.com>:
>> On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 3:02 PM, Darren Baginski <kic...@yandex.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Perhaps I didn't search well, but can someone point me

>>> how to force GPT partitioning scheme in the preseed.cfg ?
>>
>> http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2011/04/msg00244.html
>> http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2011/08/msg00171.html
>
> Unfortunately keeps installing msdos partition table...

:(

I'd collected some info on creating a gpt label last August for future
use but I never tested it; and I thought that the above was enough
when answering your initial post; sorry. (Didn't the reply on the
second link help?) Looking through the stuff that I'd put together
from the net and from logs, there are also these possible settings:

partman-basicfilesystems/choose_label string gpt
partman-basicfilesystems/default_label string gpt
partman-partitioning/choose_label string gpt
partman-partitioning/default_label string gpt
partman/choose_label string gpt
partman/default_label string gpt

I don't know which one or ones will do the trick (if at all) or
whether you have to prepend "d-i", "partman", or
"partman-partitioning" to those that do work; but you'll, I'm sure,
need at least one of them.

There was also another biosgrub recipe fragment in my notes that's
different from the one in the debian-boot thread (without "$bios_boot{
}" and "$gptonly{ }"; the latter must be dependent on one of the above
in an auto-recipe situation rather than a requirement if you set the
correct gpt label debconf value before the recipe {guessing!}):

1 1 1 free
$primary{ }
method{ biosgrub } .

If there's one thing that I don't like in Debian, it's preseed. Its
syntax is convoluted and very badly documented... :(

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Darren Baginski

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May 30, 2012, 6:50:01 PM5/30/12

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30.05.2012, 20:41, "Tom H" <tomh...@gmail.com>:

I've added lines below and got GPT on a empty 160GB hard drive. Thanks Tom!
Need to understand which of them really needed.
Will use your debugging hint for keymap selection.

####################################################################
# Disk Partitioning/Boot loader
####################################################################

d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda
d-i partman-auto/method string regular
###gpt
d-i partman-basicfilesystems/choose_label string gpt
d-i partman-basicfilesystems/default_label string gpt
d-i partman-partitioning/choose_label string gpt
d-i partman-partitioning/default_label string gpt
d-i partman/choose_label string gpt
d-i partman/default_label string gpt
partman-partitioning partman-partitioning/choose_label select gpt
#gpt
d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe string physics-workstation :: \
32 32 32 free \
$gptonly{ } \
$primary{ } \
$bios_boot{ } \
method{ biosgrub } \
. \
16000 1000 16000 linux-swap \
$gptonly{ } \
$primary{ } \
method{ swap } format{ } \
. \
500 1000 -1 xfs \
$gptonly{ } \
$primary{ } \
method{ format } format{ } \
use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ xfs } \
mountpoint{ / } \
.

d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/choose_partition select Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
d-i partman/confirm boolean true
d-i partman-partitioning/confirm_copy boolean true
d-i partman/confirm_new_label boolean true

# This one makes grub-installer install to the MBR even if finds some other OS
# too, which is less safe as it might not be able to boot that other OS.
d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true

####################################################################

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Tom H

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May 31, 2012, 5:20:02 AM5/31/12

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On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 6:21 PM, Darren Baginski <kic...@yandex.com> wrote:
>
> I've added lines below and got GPT on a empty 160GB hard drive. Thanks Tom!
> Need to understand which of them really needed.
> Will use your debugging hint for keymap selection.
>

> d-i partman-basicfilesystems/choose_label string gpt
> d-i partman-basicfilesystems/default_label string gpt
> d-i partman-partitioning/choose_label string gpt
> d-i partman-partitioning/default_label string gpt
> d-i partman/choose_label string gpt
> d-i partman/default_label string gpt
> partman-partitioning partman-partitioning/choose_label select gpt

> d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe string physics-workstation :: \
> 32 32 32 free \
> $gptonly{ } \
> $primary{ } \
> $bios_boot{ } \
> method{ biosgrub } \
> . \
> 16000 1000 16000 linux-swap \
> $gptonly{ } \
> $primary{ } \
> method{ swap } format{ } \
> . \
> 500 1000 -1 xfs \
> $gptonly{ } \
> $primary{ } \
> method{ format } format{ } \
> use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ xfs } \
> mountpoint{ / } \
> .

You're welcome. It's good to know that a gpt label can be created via
preseed. :)

What's the output of "parted -l /dev/sda" or "gdisk -l /dev/sda" after
this install?

(BTW, you don't need the backslashes in the partitioning section -
although I think that you might need it after the "::".)

Darren Baginski

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Jun 2, 2012, 9:30:01 PM6/2/12

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Final recipe is:

d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe string physics-workstation :: \
32 32 32 free \
$gptonly{ } \
$primary{ } \
$bios_boot{ } \
method{ biosgrub } \
. \

1600 1000 1600 linux-swap \

$gptonly{ } \
$primary{ } \
method{ swap } format{ } \
. \

25500 9000 25555 xfs \

$gptonly{ } \
$primary{ } \
method{ format } format{ } \
use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ xfs } \
mountpoint{ / } \
.

and the output:
# gdisk -l /dev/vda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.4

Partition table scan:
MBR: protective
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/vda: 335544320 sectors, 160.0 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 2A256643-D59F-4B71-B796-9137E7241FE9
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 335544286
Partitions will be aligned on 1-sector boundaries
Total free space is 0 sectors (0 bytes)

Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 34 62534 30.5 MiB EF02
2 62535 3187535 1.5 GiB 8200
3 3187536 52992223 23.7 GiB 0700

31.05.2012, 13:16, "Tom H" <tomh...@gmail.com>:

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Tom H

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Jun 5, 2012, 5:30:02 AM6/5/12

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On Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 9:10 PM, Darren Baginski <kic...@yandex.com> wrote:
> 31.05.2012, 13:16, "Tom H" <tomh...@gmail.com>:
>>

>> What's the output of "parted -l /dev/sda" or "gdisk -l /dev/sda" after
>> this install?
>

> Final recipe is:
> d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe string physics-workstation :: \
> 32 32 32 free \
> $gptonly{ } \
> $primary{ } \
> $bios_boot{ } \
> method{ biosgrub } \
> . \
> 1600 1000 1600 linux-swap \
> $gptonly{ } \
> $primary{ } \
> method{ swap } format{ } \
> . \
> 25500 9000 25555 xfs \
> $gptonly{ } \
> $primary{ } \
> method{ format } format{ } \
> use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ xfs } \
> mountpoint{ / } \
> .
>

> # gdisk -l /dev/vda

> Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
> 1 34 62534 30.5 MiB EF02
> 2 62535 3187535 1.5 GiB 8200
> 3 3187536 52992223 23.7 GiB 0700

I'd been wondering whether "32 32 32" was referring to sectors or MBs.
You've ended up with a large bios_boot partition (given your very
large disk, it doesn't really matter...)

Thanks again.