Bug#635968: installation-reports: Initial boot after installation failed
30.07.2011 01:06, Ralf Jung wrote:
> Machine: HP Compaq 615
> Processor: AMD Athlon(tm)X2 DualCore QL-66
> Memory: 4 GiB
> Partitions:
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sda1 * 2048 122879999 61438976 83 Linux
> /dev/sda2 122880000 131071999 4096000 82 Linux swap / Solaris
> /dev/sda3 131074046 625141759 247033857 5 Extended
> /dev/sda5 131074048 625141759 247033856 83 Linux
>
[]
> Installation went fine, however, the initial boot into the actual system
> failed: The BIOS complained it would not find anything to boot on my HDD. I
> tried both graphical and console installation, with the same result - of course
> I always replied "Yes" when asked whether I want GRUB to be installed into the
> MBR. I then tried to fix the problem by chroot'ing into the installed system
> and running "grub-install /dev/sda", but even though this completed
> successfully, the PC would still refuse to boot. After three installation
> attempts with two different versions of the disc (I used a two-months old
> version for my first attempts), I tried to set the boot flag on the root
> partition, using GParted from the system rescue CD. The next installation
> attempt then completed successfully.
>
> I suspect that either my system is special in that it needs that flag on the
> partition even though grub resides in the MBR, or this is a bug in grub-
> install: It should also make sure the partition containing grub has the boot
> flag set so that booting actually worked. If that's impossible, the installer
> should at least set the boot flag for the /boot or / partition - the partition
> in question was actually created during Debian installation, so it definitely
> should have been set up correctly. The way things work currently, the user ends
> up with a completely unusable system.
Can you verify this by clearing the boot flag you now
have and seeing if your system will boot after that?
So far, I for one haven't seen a system which requires a
partition _table_ to boot, not to mention a bootable
partition in it. BIOS merely loads first 512 bytes of
a disk into memory and jumps into that area, without
trying to interpret what's inside. Unless you use some
recovery/diagnostic mode which is embedded into some
BIOSes/machines.
Thanks,
/mjt
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