Re: grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda1 fails

[Robert Millan <rmh@aybabtu.com>]

On Wed, Jul 01, 2009 at 04:33:25PM +0200, Felix Zielcke wrote:
> Am Montag, den 01.06.2009, 21:39 +0200 schrieb Felix Zielcke:
> > Am Mittwoch, den 06.05.2009, 17:12 +0200 schrieb Vladimir 'phcoder'
> > Serbinenko:
> > > Don't we already have a function which transforms host directory into
> > > grub
> > > directory? AFAIR we have.
> > 
> > There's just the shell function in grub-mkconfig_lib.in
> > Here's now a patch wich implements it in util/hostdisk.c and gets used
> > for core_path_dev in setup ().
> > But it doestn't work with symlinks.
> > readlink () can only be used if the file pointed to is a symlink, not if
> > a symlink is somewhere in between.
> > coreutils where the readlink binary is from is GPL 3+ but the function
> > for it uses hash tables and it seems like it would be too much code to
> > copy just for this.
> 
> So what do we do know about this problem?
> We could just assume that the directory given with grub-setup
> --directory is already the real absolute path and just use the stat
> magic to make it relative.
> Or we use realpath() if avaible to get the real one.
> And on systems not having it, like mingw we could just assume that it's
> already relative and just return the path given.
> Or is there some other way this bug can be fixed?

I just looked into this, and I don't think there's any real problem that
needs fixing.  The "workaround" is just a red herring, it works for him by
pure chance.

See:

  http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?26924

-- 
Robert Millan

  The DRM opt-in fallacy: "Your data belongs to us. We will decide when (and
  how) you may access your data; but nobody's threatening your freedom: we
  still allow you to remove your data and not access it at all."