grub-setup fails with "error message = file not found"

grub-setup fails with "error message = file not found"

[Edward Allcutt]

I initially reported this as Debian bug #494589 [0]

Felix Zielcke asked me to forward this report to this mailing list.

Reproduced with latest upstream SVN (rebuilt r1802 today).

Failing command:
grub-setup -vv --directory=/boot/grub --device-map=/boot/grub/device.map 
'(hd0)' >grub-setup.log 2>&1

grub-setup.log is available at [1]

/boot/grub/core.img exists and was created normally by grub-install. I 
looked at the parameters passed to grub-mkimage and it was using the 
correct modules (ext2 gpt biosdisk). I've run sync and 
unmounted/remounted /boot but that doesn't help.

grub-fstest seems to have no problem with reading from the filesystem:
# grub-fstest /dev/sda1 ls /grub/core.img
core.img
# grub-fstest /dev/sda1 blocklist /grub/core.img
655432+55,655487[0-414]
# grub-fstest /dev/sda1 cmp /grub/core.img /boot/grub/core.img; echo $?
0

/dev/sda is partitioned using GPT. /boot is a normal ext3 filesystem on 
/dev/sda1.

I've made the MBR [2] and sda1 (about 38MB) [3] available.

Final note: this exact setup worked just fine when I installed this 
system in mid-June. I can probably figure out the version of grub2 on 
the install CD if that would help.


[0] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=494589
[1] http://dev.teamgleim.com/~emallcut/grub2/grub-setup.log
[2] http://dev.teamgleim.com/~emallcut/grub2/sda.mbr.gz
[3] http://dev.teamgleim.com/~emallcut/grub2/sda1.gz

-- 
Edward Allcutt

Re: grub-setup fails with "error message = file not found"

[Robert Millan]

On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 11:53:27AM -0400, Edward Allcutt wrote:
> [1] http://dev.teamgleim.com/~emallcut/grub2/grub-setup.log

> grub-setup: info: will leave the core image on the filesystem

The blocklist approach should still work, but it's not recommended.

I suggest you allow GRUB to embed core.img instead by adding a BIOS boot
partitition using Parted.  We still need to trace down the problem with
blocklists, but this will tell us whether the problem is related to this
or something else.

-- 
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."

Re: grub-setup fails with "error message = file not found"

[Edward Allcutt]

Robert Millan wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 11:53:27AM -0400, Edward Allcutt wrote:
>> [1] http://dev.teamgleim.com/~emallcut/grub2/grub-setup.log
> 
>> grub-setup: info: will leave the core image on the filesystem
> 
> The blocklist approach should still work, but it's not recommended.
I was actually unaware that grub2 was using a blocklist. I thought it 
always embedded the core image.

> I suggest you allow GRUB to embed core.img instead by adding a BIOS boot
> partitition using Parted.  We still need to trace down the problem with
> blocklists, but this will tell us whether the problem is related to this
> or something else.
I set the "boot" flag for /dev/sda1 using parted. I hope this is what 
you meant. grub-setup still fails with the same error and it still 
mentions "will leave the core image on the filesystem".

-- 
Edward Allcutt

Re: grub-setup fails with "error message = file not found"

[Robert Millan]

On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 01:04:14PM -0400, Edward Allcutt wrote:
> Robert Millan wrote:
> >On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 11:53:27AM -0400, Edward Allcutt wrote:
> >>[1] http://dev.teamgleim.com/~emallcut/grub2/grub-setup.log
> >
> >>grub-setup: info: will leave the core image on the filesystem
> >
> >The blocklist approach should still work, but it's not recommended.
> I was actually unaware that grub2 was using a blocklist. I thought it 
> always embedded the core image.

It embeds core.img whenever possible, which on GPT depends on whether you
have a dedicated partition for BIOS boot or not.

> >I suggest you allow GRUB to embed core.img instead by adding a BIOS boot
> >partitition using Parted.  We still need to trace down the problem with
> >blocklists, but this will tell us whether the problem is related to this
> >or something else.
> I set the "boot" flag for /dev/sda1 using parted. I hope this is what 
> you meant. grub-setup still fails with the same error and it still 
> mentions "will leave the core image on the filesystem".

The "boot" flag on GPT means "EFI system partition" (this is admittedly
confusing).  There's a flag for bios boot, but only in recent versions of
Parted.  But of course, I wouldn't do that to your existing sda1 unless
you want it to be wiped with GRUB code.

-- 
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."

Re: grub-setup fails with "error message = file not found"

[Edward Allcutt]

Robert Millan wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 01:04:14PM -0400, Edward Allcutt wrote:
>> Robert Millan wrote:
>>> I suggest you allow GRUB to embed core.img instead by adding a BIOS boot
>>> partitition using Parted.  We still need to trace down the problem with
>>> blocklists, but this will tell us whether the problem is related to this
>>> or something else.
>> I set the "boot" flag for /dev/sda1 using parted. I hope this is what 
>> you meant. grub-setup still fails with the same error and it still 
>> mentions "will leave the core image on the filesystem".
> 
> The "boot" flag on GPT means "EFI system partition" (this is admittedly
> confusing).  There's a flag for bios boot, but only in recent versions of
> Parted.  But of course, I wouldn't do that to your existing sda1 unless
> you want it to be wiped with GRUB code.
I wish there were another tool supporting GPT. parted is a real pain to 
use. Still I've got a dedicated "BIOS boot" partition now and grub-setup 
  seems happy to embed core.img on it without any errors.

While my problem is resolved it seems like there's still an annoying bug 
in either the ext2 driver or whatever else is involved in generating 
blocklists.

Thanks for the quick responses :)

-- 
Edward Allcutt
Network Operations

Re: grub-setup fails with "error message = file not found"

[Robert Millan]

On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 11:53:27AM -0400, Edward Allcutt wrote:
> [2] http://dev.teamgleim.com/~emallcut/grub2/sda.mbr.gz
> [3] http://dev.teamgleim.com/~emallcut/grub2/sda1.gz

Those scattered pieces of disk are not very useful.  My suspicion is that
grub-setup has trashed your GPT metadata.  Can you verify that all your
partitions are still readable from real GRUB, and that files are accessible
as well? (from a rescue disk or so)

grub-fstest / grub-emu checks are not that reliable, since they might still
work because of the host OS disk cache.

-- 
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."

Re: grub-setup fails with "error message = file not found"

[Edward Allcutt]

Robert Millan wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 11:53:27AM -0400, Edward Allcutt wrote:
>> [2] http://dev.teamgleim.com/~emallcut/grub2/sda.mbr.gz
>> [3] http://dev.teamgleim.com/~emallcut/grub2/sda1.gz
> 
> Those scattered pieces of disk are not very useful.  My suspicion is that
> grub-setup has trashed your GPT metadata.  Can you verify that all your
> partitions are still readable from real GRUB, and that files are accessible
> as well? (from a rescue disk or so)
Just booted from a floppy image created by latest upstream. It read the 
GPT data just fine.

I'll see if I can juggle the existing partitions sufficiently to fit a 
dedicated boot partition.

-- 
Edward Allcutt
Network Operations