I'm using the following partman settings for automated installs of VMs for some years now:
d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda
d-i partman-auto/method string regular
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/alignment string "optimal"
d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe string \
boot-root :: \
64 512 300% linux-swap \
$primary{ } \
method{ swap } format{ } \
. \
500 10000 1000000000 ext4 \
$primary{ } $bootable{ } \
method{ format } format{ } \
use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext4 } \
mountpoint{ / } \
.
d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/choose_partition select finish
d-i partman/confirm boolean true
d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true
This creates a small swap partition at the beginning and uses the rest of the disk for the root partition. This works well and allows easy partition extension when I need to increase the size of the virtual disk.
Now I'm trying to adapt this recipe to install a number of identical bare metal servers. To do that I just switched the partitions and set the sizes to more reasonable values for a machine with 256GB RAM and 460GB system disk (SSDs in a hardware RAID1, but that shouldn't matter):
boot-root :: \
32768 65536 1000000000 ext4 \
$primary{ } $bootable{ } \
method{ format } format{ } \
use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext4 } \
mountpoint{ / } \
. \
16384 16384 65536 linux-swap \
$primary{ } \
method{ swap } format{ } \
.
The rest of the partman* directives are identical.
As far as I understand the documentation (and additional posts like this) this should create a large root partition that spans nearly the entire disk, with a swap partition between 16 and 64 GB at the end.
Well, it doesn't. It creates a 450MB partition, followed by a 460GB swap partition.
When I install the same machine with the preseed for VMs, the partitions are created properly as defined in the preseed file:
So, what am I doing wrong with the recipe for the bare metal machine?
If it matters, the install iso is based on the Ubuntu 16.04.5 server iso.
Output of fdisk /dev/sda and parted /dev/sda print:
Some more variants I tried:
# this belongs to tha last block, as suggested by @Peter
#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
d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe string \
boot-root :: \
##########################
65536 1 -1 ext4 \
$primary{ } $bootable{ } \
method{ format } format{ } \
use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext4 } \
mountpoint{ / } \
. \
65536 65536 65536 linux-swap \
$primary{ } \
method{ swap } format{ } \
.
##########################
# 1 1 -1 ext4 \
# $primary{ } $bootable{ } \
# method{ format } format{ } \
# use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext4 } \
# mountpoint{ / } \
# . \
# 65536 65536 65536 linux-swap \
# $primary{ } \
# method{ swap } format{ } \
# .
##########################
# 32768 50 5242880 ext4 \
# $primary{ } $bootable{ } \
# method{ format } format{ } \
# use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext4 } \
# mountpoint{ / } \
# . \
# 16384 100 65536 linux-swap \
# $primary{ } \
# method{ swap } format{ } \
# .
##########################
# use along with the annoted partman-* directives above
# 538 538 1075 free \
# $iflabel{ gpt } \
# $reusemethod{ } \
# method{ efi } \
# format{ } \
# . \
# 1 1 -1 ext4 \
# $primary{ } $bootable{ } \
# method{ format } format{ } \
# use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext4 } \
# mountpoint{ / } \
# . \
# 65536 65536 65536 linux-swap \
# $primary{ } \
# method{ swap } format { } \ .
# .
It doesn't make a difference, the resulting root partition always has only 453MB.
Best Answer
Special notes
It wasn't mentioned whether there is bios_grub, ESP, GPT or MBR, or which method the firmware uses. When using GPT, you need one or the other (or both). So what will happen is the installer will choose for you, based on some unknown criteria, likely related to disk size. To force using GPT, you can set things like this (which I remember not necessarily always working, despite using all 6 methods I found here):
For example, for bios_grub, you would set:
(I didn't put an
$iflabel{ gpt }in there, and that can be useful because if anything goes wrong and you later convert it from MBR to GPT, you want the reserved space)And for EFI (shamelessly copying and pasting from Preseeding debian install - EFI and didn't remove the iflabel):
And to answer the question
To use the remainder, you use
-1, not an arbitrarily hugely big number, and then just set the other numbers to bogus values like 1. And I wouldn't trust the ranges either... I just use a different preseed file for different hardware, not debian's automagic stuff. So I set it as only 65536, not a range.And make sure it's really using your new preseed file. I like to put it in the netboot initrd image because then it has no dependencies on network, etc. and find that works great. If you change something like the above, and it doesn't work, check it again, and again. If it's http/tftp, check the http/tftp logs or tcpdump. Or make a change that you will surely notice, and see if it did it.
If it's initrd, look in the initrd and see if it's really there. For example: