Re: How to troubleshoot when stuck at "GRUB loading."?

2013/9/16 Anders Ingemann <anders@ingemann.de>

Hey guys

I posted to help-grub@gnu.org, asking for help to figure out why my
VirtualBox image is stuck at "GRUB loading.". I thought that it might
be more relevant over there, but maybe you guys have some ideas as
well.
Here's the link to the mailing list:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-grub/2013-09/threads.html (not
a direct link, mailman seems to take its time indexing my post)
...and here's what I wrote
---------------------------
Hello everybody

I am developing the debian bootstrapper "build-debian-cloud"
(https://github.com/andsens/build-debian-cloud) and am having some
trouble getting grub to boot my debian installation.
Since I bootstrap from a host system (with chroot etc.) I had to use
some workarounds to get grub installed onto a loopback device
(http://ebroder.net/2009/08/04/installing-grub-onto-a-disk-image/).

The setup consists of a vdi image partitioned with GPT into boot,
root, swap (in that order).
I am unable to get past the "GRUB loading." message when booting the
image in VirtualBox.

Hi Anders,

what did you change compared to the virtualbox implementation I first provided ?

The virtualbox provider in python branch worked fine at booting the first bootable disk with grub installed via the loopback.

did you use grub2 on host machine ? grub1 fails to install over loopback device and lead to boot error (can't find grub).

Olivier

I have a hard time figuring out what is wrong with the setup,
especially because the scenario is a bit off the beaten path (mounting
vdi as an network block device, bootstrapping, using dmsetup to fake a
real hdd etc.). So the usual "just run BootRepair" or "reinstall grub"
won't really help to create a stable bootstrapping process.
I have run Ubuntus Boot Repair system to check if anything was wrong,
but I can't seem to find anything. The output is here:
http://paste.ubuntu.com/6115737/

The setup can be fully reproduced by cloning my repo and running
`./build-debian-cloud manifests/virtualbox.manifest.json` (only tested
on debian wheezy).
Simply create a new virtual machine in VBox, attach the resulting
image and boot it.

I would appreciate any help you can offer
Anders Ingemann
---------------------------

--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-cloud-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
Archive: [🔎] CAMcOGXFiLv2+WQ3fXe87wGv6ihs8eTfQBejqb4Vuof99OnrzZg@mail.gmail.com" target="_blank">http://lists.debian.org/[🔎] CAMcOGXFiLv2+WQ3fXe87wGv6ihs8eTfQBejqb4Vuof99OnrzZg@mail.gmail.com

gpg key id: 4096R/326D8438  (keyring.debian.org)

Key fingerprint = 5FB4 6F83 D3B9 5204 6335  D26D 78DC 68DB 326D 8438