Bug#621919: GRUB fails to install when there is some GPT left over
Package: installation-reports
Severity: important
Tags: d-i squeeze
-- Package-specific info:
Boot method: network
Image version:
Date: 20100408
Machine: Custom server
Partitions:
Disk /dev/sda: 243201 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0
Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 0+ 243200 243201- 1953512001 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda2 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/sda3 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/sda4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
and this until `sdn'.
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot: [O]
Detect network card: [O]
Configure network: [O]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [O]
Install base system: [O]
Clock/timezone setup: [O]
User/password setup: [O]
Install tasks: [O]
Install boot loader: [E]
Overall install: [ ]
Comments/Problems:
I've tried to install Squeeze on a 14 disks RAID6 array with LVM on top of it.
GRUB failed to install.
After spending several hours with Vladimir Serbinenko on #grub, we managed
to discover that the problem lies in the fact that I created GPT tables on a
first try to install, and this on all disks. Then, in a second try to
install, I created a msdos partition table instead of the GPT ones.
But there was some leftover of the first GPT partition table, and this seems
to have been detected and used by Linux.
The easy fix would be to wipe out the first and last 256kb on each disk
before creating a partition table. This would wipe out any left over of
other partition table type.
--
-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.38-2-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
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