Installing to LVM2 Disk without a Separate Boot Partition

This document (7015808) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 (SLES12)
Logical Volume Manager (LVM)

Situation

Installing SLES12 to a stripped LVM2 logical volume without a separate boot partition.

While the installation process is configuring the boot loader, the following error is observed: "An error occurred during boot loader installation. Retry boot loader configuration?"

The /var/log/YaST2/y2log contains the following error: "[Ruby] modules/Bootloader.rb:508 Installing bootloader failed"

The installer sometimes shows the error: "Internal error. Please report a bug report with logs. Details: undefined method `<=` for nil:NilClass. Caller: /mount/mp_0001/usr/share/YaST2/include/bootloader/grub2/misc.rb:454:in `block in grub_updateMBR`"

The server fails to boot and never shows the GRUB menu or command. The bootloader failed to install properly.

Resolution

This is an unsupported installation scenario as stated in the release notes. Reinstall using non-stripped LVM2 system disk.

Cause

Installing to an unsupported disk configuration.

Additional Information

Per the SLES12 release notes:

2.1.1 Installing with LVM2, Without a Separate /boot Partition

SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 generally supports the installation with a linear LVM2 without a separate /boot partition, for example to use it with Btrfs as the root file system, to achieve full system snapshot and rollback.

However, this setup is only supported under the following conditions:

Only linear LVM2 setups are supported.
There must be enough space in the partitioning "label" (the partition table) for the grub2 bootloader first stage files. If the installation of the grub2 bootloader fails, you will have to create a new partition table. CAVEAT: Creating a new partition table destroys all data on the given disk!

For a migration from an existing SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 system with LVM2 to SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 the /boot partition must be preserved.

Disclaimer

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