Bug#251526: If XFS selected for / then fallback to Lilo

[Karl Hegbloom <hegbloom@pdx.edu>]

On Wed, 2004-06-02 at 11:09 -0700, Karl Hegbloom wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-06-02 at 12:22 -0400, Martin K. Petersen wrote:
> > This feature is orthogonal to grub's first stage loader residing on
> > XFS.
> > 
> > ext2/3 leave 4KB of empty space before the filesystem actually starts.
> > That makes it possible to share the partition between the boot loader
> > and the filesystem.  XFS, however, does not leave empty space at the
> > beginning so you can't put grub/lilo on that.
> 
> Ah, ok, so that explains how I was able to have an XFS / on several
> machines.  I put Grub in the MBR, not the boot block of the partition.
> I was not aware that XFS does not leave space for a boot loader!  Good
> thing it Just Worked with Grub in the MBR.

Since it does work with GRUB in the MBR, is there any reason not to
modify the message and grub-installer logic to allow grub in the MBR
when XFS is used for /?

I found that trying to do this with the present installer, it would
attempt it, but would hang forever in grub-installer.  On the third
console it printed the message from grub about scanning for BIOS drives
or whatever, but nothing else.  Killing grub-installer and grub by hand
makes the installer progress bar continue, and it thinks it has
succeeded in installing grub.  Back on console 2, I run grub by hand,
and at it's prompt, I issue "setup (hd0) (hd0,N)" and it just works.
Reboot succeeds, it boots Windows, etc.

-- 
Karl Hegbloom <hegbloom@pdx.edu>