Script 30_os-prober tests for existence of os-prober at line 29. If os-prober is not installed, then exit 0 at line 31. My machine did not have os-prober installed. The result is that grub.conf had not reference to my Windows XP istallation. I installed os-prober and re-ran update-grub2, picking up XP partition. Suggest grub-pc package require os-prober and/or report condition at exit noted above. (This may be received twice, as I forwarded an attached verison via regular mail, after text based reportbug failed with SMTP authentication error.) John
I had purged os-prober some time ago but forgotten about. Now I wanted to reenable os-probing. I saw the file /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober despite having purged os-prober (it is a grub-common config file). 1. Now I searched for a package grub-os-prober. Nothing found. 2. Searched for all names grub . Not found os-prober 3. Searched for Version 1.98 . Not found os-prober After 2 hours examination I got the most easy solution (for dummies): apt-get install os-prober I would not have os-prober purged if I knew the entry: GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true in /etc/default/grub (I wish this for a self explaining commented out entry...)
I strongly support this. I've lost a lof of time because of this bug :-( On Sat, 06 Mar 2010 Ralph Ulrich <eulenreich@gmx.de> wrote: [...] I never purged os-prober intensionally, I'm not sure it was ever installed. I support this idea, too. Best regards JSB
I wish os-prober was required in the Debian lenny grub2 installation. On Feb-1 2011 I upgraded to grub2 with synaptic, but my other os's weren't detected during grub-update; and as far as I could determine no indication of the missing package was shown. I had to fish around the internet to have a clue. Ray
Thank you for filing a new Bug report with Debian. This is an automatically generated reply to let you know your message has been received. Your message is being forwarded to the package maintainers and other interested parties for their attention; they will reply in due course. As you requested using X-Debbugs-CC, your message was also forwarded to 563204@bugs.debian.org (after having been given a Bug report number, if it did not have one). Your message has been sent to the package maintainer(s): GRUB Maintainers<pkg-grub-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org> Debian Install System Team<debian-boot@lists.debian.org> If you wish to submit further information on this problem, please send it to 666552@bugs.debian.org. Please do not send mail to owner@bugs.debian.org unless you wish to report a problem with the Bug-tracking system.
Commenting since the report still exists in the bug DB... I've found `os-prober` often produces many false positive OS installation detections. As such I really find recommends too strong, simply including during installation and then merely suggests would be better. If someone removes it, likely that is due to not needing it and the choice should be honored. Worse, on VM systems searching for additional OS installations is a major security risk due to potential for finding VMs instead of host. If one of those manages to boot on bare hardware, everything is compromised. Producing messages during updates though is reasonable. Just don't be too pushy, even keeping recommends packages from being reinstalled requires a careful eye. Mostly documenting some people *really* don't want os-prober, even though we are likely the minority.