Re: debian 6.0 boot failure after update to grub2

[Philipp Überbacher <hollunder@lavabit.com>]

Excerpts from Joe's message of 2011-06-26 21:46:47 +0200:
> On Sun, 26 Jun 2011 18:44:49 +0200
> Philipp Überbacher <hollunder@lavabit.com> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > I tried manual mounting from busybox:
> > mount /dev/sda1 /root
> >     fails with Invalid Argument
> > 
> > mount -t jfs /dev/sda1 /root
> >     fails with No such device
> > 
> > So this is what happens during boot as well. I found a post suggesting
> > that it might be a missing driver because the device is there. I tried
> > modprobing a couple of modules in busybox, but nothing I tried helped.
> > 
> > initramfs.conf is set to most and I rebuilt it a couple of times.
> > 
> > Ideas please?
> > 
> > 
> 
> A wild guess, but you sound just about ready for that:
> 
> A few months ago, I copied (offline) a Lenny installation to a new
> drive, and then tried to install grub (-legacy) to the MBR from the
> running system. No luck, though it might be that I did not find the
> right method. Anyway, I removed the working drive, moved the cables,
> then booted from a CD and tried to restore the MBR to the new drive.
> There are instructions for doing that everywhere on the Net, the only
> problem being that they didn't work for me. Once I could see what I was
> doing I tried a few syntax variations, still with no luck.
> 
> Trying different boot media, I got several different failure messages,
> mostly to do with files and folders not being found, when they were
> clearly visible to the rescue OS, and I was able to mount the hard
> drive partitions and even write to them.
> 
> I know grub has its own disc drivers, and I guessed that the version
> installed on the hard drive was not the same as the rescue version. So
> I tried every grub-legacy boot medium I had and eventually found one
> that worked. I can't remember now what it was, but it was either the
> last CD Knoppix I have, 3.9, or an old Ubuntu. Most recent live distros
> use grub2, which was no use at all.
> 
> So it looks to me that grub is changing quickly (as was grub-legacy),
> and to make a successful rescue you need to be using a grub version
> which is the same as or very close to the one on the hard drive.
> 
> As it happens, a couple of years ago I had your problem on Sid. The
> two-grubs-in-series booting was working OK, so I ran the command to
> upgrade fully to grub2 and the drive never booted again. I reinstalled
> Sid, which was fine with a new grub2. Had I had the time then, I might
> have investigated further and found the grub version issue, which was
> almost certainly what stopped me repairing things. I assumed then that
> if the SuperGrub2 disc didn't work, nothing would.
> 
> Never used to have this trouble with lilo....
> 
>    ...though of course in the last few years before grub appeared, lilo
> was very mature and stable. I still have a tomsrtbt floppy...
> 
> -- 
> Joe

Thanks Joe,
this didn't help me unfortunately.

However, after spending many hours on this (thanks phcoder from #grub)
it turned out that necessary modules were missing from initramfs.
Adding jfs was enough for the system to boot in qemu but not for the
real hardware. I've not yet found out what's necessary for that. So,
almost solved.. and not sure what to put into the bug report yet.