[Libguestfs] Re: virt-builder debian-12 --update failure
On Sun, Dec 10, 2023 at 09:42:04PM -0500, Stefan Hajnoczi wrote:
Hi,
virt-builder --update debian-12 fails with:
Setting up grub-pc (2.06-13+deb12u1) ...
grub-pc: Running grub-install ...
/dev/vda does not exist, so cannot grub-install to it!
You must correct your GRUB install devices before proceeding:
DEBIAN_FRONTEND=dialog dpkg --configure grub-pc
dpkg --configure -a
dpkg: error processing package grub-pc (--configure):
installed grub-pc package post-installation script subprocess
returned error exit status 1
Any idea why /dev/vda isn't available to grub-install in virt-builder?
I guess there might be some special guest device configuration for the
guestfs appliance that runs virt-builder steps, causing the device to
appear as something other than /dev/vda.
virt-builder templates are generated using whatever default disk
interface virt-install chooses:
https://github.com/rwmjones/guestfs-tools/blob/master/builder/templates/d...
which is probably virtio-blk.
However the libguestfs appliance, where virt-builder does its updates
etc, uses virtio-scsi.
TBH I don't think this is solvable from virt-builder. I would either
"hold" the grub-pc package (see below), or do the update as a
firstboot operation, or try to get Debian to fix it in the grub-pc
package, or maybe we could switch the template to use UEFI in future.
Holding the grub-pc package is something like:
virt-builder .. --run-command 'apt-mark hold grub-pc' \
--update \
--firstboot-command 'apt-mark unhold grub-pc'
(https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man8/apt-mark.8.html)
If I omit --update on the virt-builder command-line and run
"dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc" inside the guest after importing with
virt-install then it succeeds and /dev/vda exists.
You could also use --firstboot-command 'apt update && apt-dist-upgrade'
but you'll have to work out the extra environment variables you need
to make apt run non-interactively.
Rich.
--
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
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