Bug#509299: installation: Error in Windows-Based Debial Installation

[Robert Millan <rmh@aybabtu.com>]

On Sat, Dec 20, 2008 at 05:06:54PM -0700, Mike Armstrong wrote:
> Package: installation
> Severity: important
> Justification: fails to build from source
> 
> 
>    Windows identifies two partitions (drives) involved in the boot
> process - the boot drive and the system drive. The boot drive is
> the active partition and the system drive is the drive containing
> the Windows kernel (ntoskrnl.exe)
>    The Windows-Based Install for Debian assumes that the Windows
> boot drive and system drive are the same. The install uses
> the value in %SystemDrive% to identify where to install the grub
> bootloader stuff (g2ldr, g2ldr.mbr, grub.conf) and the \debian 
> directory.  This is AOK for most Windows installations.
>    However the root drive and system drive can be different (e.g.
> I have a small boot partition that will boot either Vista or 
> XP both of which are located in a separate partition).  In this case 
> the Debian boot-install will not boot.
>    The temporary fix is to reboot into Windows and copy/move 
> \g2ldr, \g2ldr.mbr, \grub.conf and \debian into the boot drive.  
> Then reboot and do the install.
>    The Debian install should check to see if the file "\ntldr" (for
> Windows NT, 2000, server 2000. XP, server 2003) or "\bootmgr" (for
> Vista and Server 2008) exists in %SystemDrive%.  If neither doesn't
> exist then Debian should (a) search for them or (b) ask the user
> where the initial boot program is located.  Identifying the active
> partition may not be sufficient as the user may be using a non-
> Windows bootloader that doesn't rely on the active partition to boot.
>    I hope this helps to improve the install process.

Thanks.  I know about System Drive vs Boot Drive, but it seems win32-loader's
use of it wasn't really consistent.

I think I fixed this now.  Please could you test latest SVN?

If you don't know how to build from source, let me know and I'll provide a
binary for you.

-- 
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."