Installing RAID5 + Crypt + LVM: issue installing Grub chrooted

**NiceLittleRabbit** · 04-22-2012

Hello,

I have to install Debian amd64 (crypted + RAID5 + LVM2) on a computer with 4 3TB hard drives.

For that I mainly followed a howto (tjworld.net/wiki/linux/ubuntu/hardyraid5encryptedlvm). I found several issues with Debian live distro not mentioned in the tutorial which I could fix, but I cannot install Grub chrooted.

The relevant steps followed when installing are the following:

The system is booted from the latest debian live distribution amd64, downloaded straight from debian.org

First step: partition the 4 hard drives the same.

Code:

# One partition /boot with 10 GB, primary, bootable, type fd
# One partition SWAP with at least 2 x RAM = 64GB (we choose 128 GB), primary, non-bootable, type fd
# One partition with 1900 GB, primary, non-bootable, type fd

Second step: create the Raid arrays (+format ext4).

Code:

# mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=4 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1
# mdadm --create /dev/md1 --level=1 --raid-devices=4 /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2 /dev/sdc2 /dev/sdd2
# mdadm --create /dev/md2 --level=5 --raid-devices=4 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb3 /dev/sdc3 /dev/sdd3

Third step: crypt and name.

Code:

# cryptsetup --hash sha512 --key-size 256 --cipher aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 luksFormat /dev/md2 /mnt/key.jpg
# cryptsetup --key-file /mnt/key.jpg luksOpen /dev/md2 md2encrypted

Fourth step: create the VGroup.

Code:

# pvcreate /dev/mapper/md2encrypted
# vgcreate –v VGraid5 /dev/mapper/md2encrypted

Fifth step: create the logical volumes.

Code:

# export GB=1000000000
# export MiB=104857
# export PES_BYTES=$(echo "$(vgdisplay VGraid5 | sed -n 's/.*PE Size *\([0-9\.]*\) .*/\1/p') * $MiB" | bc)
# EXTENTS=$(echo "20 * $GB / $PES_BYTES" | bc)
# lvcreate -l $EXTENTS -n root VGraid5
# EXTENTS=$(echo "10 * $GB / $PES_BYTES" | bc)
# lvcreate -l $EXTENTS -n var VGraid5
# lvcreate -l 75%FREE -n home VGraid5

Sixth step: launch Debian installer

Code:

# Select manual partition
# Select /dev/md0 as /boot
# Select /dev/md1 as swap
# Select /dev/mapper/VGraid5-home as /home, new partition, primary partition, ext4, format
# Select /dev/mapper/VGraid5-root as /, new partition, primary partition, ext4, format
# Select /dev/mapper/VGraid5-var as /var, new partition, primary partition, ext4, format
# Commit changes
# Do not allow the boot loader to install
# Do not allow the system to reboot

Seventh step: prepare for installation using chroot.

Code:

# mkdir /mnt/target
# mount /dev/mapper/VGraid5-root /mnt/target
# mount /dev/mapper/VGraid5-var /mnt/target/var
# mount /dev/mapper/VGraid5-home /mnt/target/home
# mount /dev/md0 /mnt/target/boot
# mount -o bind /proc /mnt/target/proc
# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/target/dev

Eighth step: install grub (that's where all this stops and I do not understand why).

Code:

# chroot /mnt/target /bin/bash -c "apt-get install grub"

The systems tells me there's no such package, even though it is referenced by other packages:

Code:

Reading package list... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package grub is not available, but is referred to by other package.
This may mean that the package is missing, or has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package grub has no installation candidate

I can install grub directly from the live cd (without chroot) and the network connection works. I have updated /mnt/target/apt/sources.list to include the standard repositories but to no avail. Tried different little things for hours

Could anyone let me know what is wrong with this command?

Thank you in advance

**claudecat** · 04-22-2012

IIRC, the package is called grub-pc (not on a debian box right now). I'd do a "apt-cache search grub" to make sure and go from there.

**NiceLittleRabbit** · 04-22-2012

Hello Claudecat,

Thank you for your reply. I had also tried with grub-pc and the answer was that this package does not exist.

When I try it without any chroot, the command:

Code:

# apt-get install grub

works flawlessly, as works

Code:

# apt-get install grub-pc

Any other idea?

**Balda** · 04-23-2012

Have you tried update the list of packages after modifying sources.list? I would expect it in /mnt/target/etc/apt/sources.list not in /mnt/target/apt/sources.list. You may chroot to the new installation and investigate the problem there, not just running a particular commands using chroot:

Code:

$ mkdir /mnt/target
$ mount /dev/mapper/VGraid5-root /mnt/target
$ mount /dev/mapper/VGraid5-var /mnt/target/var
$ mount /dev/mapper/VGraid5-home /mnt/target/home
$ mount /dev/md0 /mnt/target/boot
$ mount -o bind /proc /mnt/target/proc
$ mount -o bind /dev /mnt/target/dev
$ mount -o bind /sys /mnt/target/sys     # not sure if sys is also necessary
$ chroot /mnt/target /bin/bash
(chroot)$ apt-get update
(chroot)$ apt-get install grub-pc
(chroot)$ ...
(chroot)$ exit

**NiceLittleRabbit** · 04-25-2012

Hello Balda,

Indeed, the sources.list is located in /mnt/target/etc/apt/, my mistake. And yes, a

Code:

$ chroot /mnt/target /bin/bash
(chroot)$ apt-get update

did it, thank you. When I changed the sources, I needed an update, otherwise apt-get used the former sources.

I am having further issues, but this one is solved. Thanks to all who read this post and especially to those who gave their input.

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