In my mbr I installed gag. It boots from my bootable partitions. Therfore I install grub in the boot block of a partition I want to boot from, I find this more "sorted". This worked fine for years. I tried it with some prior version of grub2 (I think 1.96-200805xx) on my root (like above sda6) as follows: grub-install /dev/sda6 This does not work. After a lot of tries and some dangerous grub-install /dev/sda6 grub-install /dev/sda7 dd if=/dev/sda7 of=/dev/sda6 bs=512 count=1 actions I got it to work, but this does not always work. I think that work's because sda7 is not mounted at this moment. (There's a longer story behind it with checking the difference of the first 512 bytes of sda6 and sda7 with vbindiff and finding the right jumppoint to core.img...., if you are interested let me know) Now I try it always with sda7 by doing mkdir /1 mount /dev/sda7 /1 grub-install --root-directory=/1 /dev/sda7 umount /1 rmdir /1 when I then do kvm /dev/sda (I know this is dangerous because sda6 is mounted as root and kvm does not check it, but for only trying the bootloader on sda7 I won't destroy anything on sda6) the bootloader works flawless when I reboot and try this from real hardware grub2 stops somewhere in the beginning with a short message. When I do kvm /dev/sda after this reboot I get the same message like from real hardware. My thoughts: I think the message I get after reboot is the message from my last successfull grub2 dd if=.. installation, because the changes that should have been written to the 1st 512 bytes of sda7 are not written back by grub-install, they were only cached. This only occurs when the boot block I want grub2 boot.img install on is actually mounted (I think some tests I did proved this, the boot sector of the partition stayed the same after a reboot like before grub-install). Maybe this information helps you. There's another thing related to this: One advantage of grub1 (or grub-legacy) was that you could install it somewhere and then create or change the grub.conf or menu.lst without the need of reinstalling grub or a update-grub or grub-setup With grub2 this does not work. When I change something in the grub.cfg I must do a grub-setup or update-grub to "apply" changes. This means, the grub.cfg is not really used when booting? Did I do something wrong? Will this always be the behaviour of grub2? (If yes, then grub2 is a big step back in the evolution of bootloader software, it behaves like old lilo did and I don't need full size splash images, I need easy-to-maintain software) Best regards Holger Fischer Don't make Linux too much like Windows, because I don't like Windows but I like Linux and other ?NIX
With Version 1.96+20080617-1 grub-install ran through and worked in a virtual machine directly after install, but not after a reboot anymore. with version 1.96+20080621-1 I get this :~$ mount /dev/sda7 /1 :~$ grub-install /dev/sda6 grub-setup: error: Cannot read `/boot/grub/core.img' correctly :~$ grub-install --root-directory=/1 /dev/sda7 grub-setup: error: Cannot read `/boot/grub/core.img' correctly :~# grub-setup -d /1/boot/grub -r '(hd0,7)' '(hd0,7)' grub-setup: error: Cannot read `/boot/grub/core.img' correctly :~# grub-setup '(hd0,6)' grub-setup: error: Cannot read `/boot/grub/core.img' correctly Oh and (maybe again) some hardware info: MB: Asus m2a-vm (sb600/amd690g) RAM: 8gb ddr800 sata disk samsung 2,5" connected to sata port 4 on mainboard filesytems mounted with uuid in fstab and grub.cfg
Possibly caused by GRUB 2 core.img being bigger. Anyway, mixing bootloader code with your filesystem is dangerous and not recommended.
This sounds a lot like filesystem corruption. If you don't have backups, I suggest you don't unmount this filesystem. You might be unable to mount it again.
Hallo Robert, thanks for your reply, sorry for answering so late, but there's a lot to do at the moment. The good news: I did not screw up my filesystem (I must say, I never expected problems, cause changing the 1st 512 Bytes - the boot sector of a partition - does normally not cause any problems) grub2 2 still works in sda6 - that means there should be no problem installing grub2 in the boot sector of a partition rather than in a mbr. (I got this by doing this "dangerous" dd thing described above) With grub(1) or grub_legacy installing grub to the boot sector of a partition was never a problem. Now back to the problems: An apt-cache show grub2 gives me for Version: 1.96+20080626-1 With this version I could not install grub2 to a partition boot sector anymore. So I downgraded (thanks to my /var/cache/apt) to 20080617 which I reported to work. Then the behaviour is as I described already: $ sudo mount /dev/sda7 /1 $ sudo grub-install --root-directory=/1 /dev/sda7 Installation finished. No error reported. This is the contents of the device map /1/boot/grub/device.map. Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect, fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'. (hd0) /dev/sda $ Then I can do a $ sudo kvm /dev/sda. I get a gag screen (see gag.png). Pressing 2 for sda7 and pressing <down> <up> for stopping grub timeout I get the grub2 screen (see sda7.png) Then I close kvm. (hard disk not touched, nothing destroyed, nothing screwed up) When rebooting and trying item 2 in gag menu I get a black screen with "GRUB" in top left corner. ctrl-alt-del + booting working item 1 (my sda6 with grub2) in gag menu and starting after logging in $ sudo kvm /dev/sda choosing item 2 in gag screen, gives me the same screen like real booting item2 (see sda7_after_reboot_same_as_real_boot.png) One can say: Oh yeah, starting kvm after grub-install screwed it up, but I can do: $ sudo mount /dev/sda7 /1 $ sudo grub-install --root-directory=/1 /dev/sda7 Installation finished. No error reported. This is the contents of the device map /1/boot/grub/device.map. Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect, fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'. (hd0) /dev/sda $ and reboot immediately. Nothing changes. That's why I wrote I think this is a kind of a caching problem. In the running system all works fine, but changes are never written back (as I wrote I checked this by comparing the boot sectors of the partitions) Now with Version from date 20080621 on I could not install grub2 to the boot sector of a partition. I get this error message which leads you to the assumption that my filesystem is screwed up. I think: - Maybe this is a step forward, cause grub2 now checks, that it's not installed correctly (cause itnow makes an ioctl() call) Now and we and grub2 install routine can check out that there's never something written back to the 1st 512 Bytes of sda7. - The only thing the grub2 developer or possibly you must do is checking why this is not written back correctly. Best regards Holger Fischer
Hello Holger, you're report just came by the way up on IRC. How is is now with the current lenny version 1.96+20080724-9 and maybe you could try the current experimental one 1.96+20080831-1 ? In the report you only said grub-install /dev/sda6 and grub-setup "(hd0,6)" but you can even use grub-install "(hd0,6)"
Hi, I tried grub-install "(hd0,6)" or better said "(hd0,8)" because my hardware changed. It does exactly the same as described above. Isn't it only a mapping internally? new hardware: asus m3a-h/hdmi (sb700/amd780g) with phenom 9350e boot partition: sata disk connected with sata - ide adapter as primary master drive root partition: md0 as raid0 from 8 sandisk ultra iv with 8 cf-sata adapters (4 connected to HighPoint Technologies, Inc. RocketRAID 230x 4 Port SATA-II Controller pcie) Maybe I said it before: Can't this be a problem of a shared library grub2 uses to write it's changes (so not a problem of grub2 itself)? - Only an idea. Best regards
Am Mittwoch, den 15.10.2008, 08:37 +0200 schrieb Holger Fischer: Hello, This is very weird, I can't reproduce this at all though I only tested this with glibc 2.8 currently in experimental and with current debian sid kernel and vanilla 2.6.27-git2. grub-setup uses the low level API open()/write() with O_SYNC flag. I looked over the manual of your mainboard to check if it has some sort of bootsector proction which it seems it doestn't. So I'm pretty clueless. Maybe you could try with a livecd chrooted to your system if it happens with it too?
I’m a newbee I use linux so now an then. My system: /dev/sda1 xp -1- primary /dev/sda2 xp -2- primay /dev/sda3 extended there is no /dev/sda4 /dev/sda5 ntsf data /dev/sda6 ntsf data /dev/sda7 fat 32 data /dev/sda8 swap /dev/sda9 ext3 ment for squeze For years I use osl2000 bootmanager. Just perfect for me. OSL2000 hides the not active primary partitions. So xp -1- can’t see or access xp -2- and the other way round. Just what I want. On /dev/sda9 -/dev/hdc9- I installed lenny and grub. Worked great. Grub was just for linux and came after osl2000. Now I wanted to put squeeze on it. Problems began. It is a pitty that the bootmanager is installed in the last steps. Just after that you find out that the installation can’t be accessed an you can start over again. Missing operating system is the message. My trials: Over a rescue cd, I thought the command was: sudo grub-install --force /dev/sda9 just warnings but no result. A not clean install or clean install, grub legacy or grub2, no difference: Missing operating system (4 times installing, costs a lot of time) Then installing lenny again. /dev/hdc9. Grub2 same problems: Missing operating system. Grub legacy works immediately fine. Even after upgrading (http://www.go2linux.org/how-to-upgrade-from-debian-lenny-to-squeeze) grub was changed in grub2. Grub2 and squeeze work both. But now there is no network access anymore. Work to do. So I think the installing of grub2 is not bug free. Installing Grub under squeeze is also not bug free. There are warnings if grub is not installed in mbr. I have not enough knowledge, but if it works after upgrading, why it is not recommended? If I remember good,there was also a warning it would make the system slower. When? During booting or overall? In the first case, no problem. In the second case. I didn’t notice. (After the upgrading) My Question: Is there a way to install squeeze and grub or grub2 correctly on hda9 without upgrading from lenny?
Hello Is there problem solved in the latest grub software? 1.99-24
Hello there, Is this still an on-going issue? Given that the last entry was 2012, I'm leaning towards no, and propose the ticket should be closed. Best wishes Emyr On Sat, 29 Dec 2012 16:30:13 +0000 Martin Naughton <blades2000@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello > > Is there problem solved in the latest grub software? 1.99-24 > > -- > Regards > Martin Naughton
Hello there, Is this still an on-going issue? Given that the last entry was 2012, I'm leaning towards no, and propose the ticket should be closed. Best wishes Emyr On Sat, 29 Dec 2012 16:30:13 +0000 Martin Naughton <blades2000@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello > > Is there problem solved in the latest grub software? 1.99-24 > > -- > Regards > Martin Naughton