Re: Grub cannot fit into boot record
On Σαβ, 2012-01-14 at 16:23 +0100, tv.debian@googlemail.com wrote:
> 14/01/2012 15:21, Panayiotis Karabassis wrote:
> > Thanks to all.
> >
> > On 01/14/2012 03:06 PM, tv.debian@googlemail.com wrote:
> >> 14/01/2012 13:18, Tom H:
> >>> On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 5:06 AM, Panayiotis
> >>> Karabassis<panayk@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> On my desktop, which is running Squeeze, I tried to upgrade some
> >>>> packages to their Wheezy version. I have now reverted the upgrade, but I
> >>>> am alarmed.
> >>>>
> >>>> One of the packages was grub2 which was at version
> >>>> 1.98+20100804-14+squeeze1 and was upgraded to 1.99-14.
> >>>>
> >>>> To cut a long story short, I ended with an unbootable system. Grub
> >>>> refused to install on the MBR. I do not remember the message exactly,
> >>>> but it mentioned that the record was unusually short, and core.img could
> >>>> not fit into it. Then it told me that the only option was to use
> >>>> blocklists but that was discouraged as unreliable.
> >>>>
> >>>> What am I going to do when Wheezy becomes stable. This is a new
> >>>> computer.
> >>>
> >>> I've both upgraded to and installed wheezy without a hitch so you've
> >>> either hit some local hitch or stumbled into a bug.
> >>>
> >>> It'd be nice to see the actual error message...
> >>>
> >>> This must be ab msdos disk. How large is the post-MBR gap? How large
> >>> is "core.img"?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >> Hint for the above:
> >>
> >> ls -lh /boot/grub | grep core.img
> >
> > It's 29K. But this is for Squeeze's grub, which works! I don't know how
> > to find out the size of the gap...
> >
> >> ;-)
> >>
> >> But this is likely not the problem. The disk is under 2TB, so Debian
> >> installer wouldn't have used gpt automatically, and since you don't know
> >> what gpt [1] is you probably didn't do it yourself.
> >>
> >> The disk belongs to a raid, right ? Did you try to install grub on all
> >> raid members ? How did you setup the raid, from the Debian installer or
> >> otherwise ?
> >
> > Yes, it's two identical 1TB disks (raid1), and on top of them LVM. The
> > boot partition is contained in the LVM (I use an initrd). grub-install
> > works for both disks on Squeeze, and fails for both disks on Wheezy.
> >
> > The partitions were created by the Squeeze's Debian installer.
> >
> >> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table
> >
> > Thanks. I won't upgrade to Wheezy until it is stable, but what should I
> > do then if it isn't fixed? Should I go with the blocklists method?
> >
> [cut]
> >
> > Thanks again.
> >
>
> I run a wheezy system on raid1 (/boot is on raid too) and don't have any
> problem, but I don't have lvm on top of it. It's likely to be something
> specific to lvm and/or you setup.
> At this stage if you can reproduce the problem it would be very
> interesting to file a bug report. Maybe look at the open grub-pc bugs
> first, you may find something interesting. I'll happily help you later
> today and have a look there too.
>
> In the meantime you could get info about the grub failure by using debug
> mode, the following command could enlighten us a little (output likely
> to be long, redirect to a text file):
>
> grub-install --debug /dev/"your_disk" 2>&1
>
> where "your_disk" is the device you want to install grub to (sda, sdb ...).
> The "grub-mkimage" part of the output will tell you what's being
> included in the core.img to make it so big.
> If you are not afraid of messing up the system any further (hint: full
> backup or test system) you could try to "--force" grub-install and see
> if the system boots.
Thanks! The problem is that is this is my main, stable computer, I run
some servers on it, and I don't want to mess it up since it's working
now with Squeeze. Can you think of any way to experiment with the Wheezy
packages without risking? It would be nice if we could use a virtual
machine...
I have another computer running Wheezy with lvm and it's working fine.
Maybe it's the sum of the md driver + lvm driver that is too big to fit
in the gap? Maybe these drivers got bigger in Wheezy...
I'll think about what to do (bug report etc.) until tomorrow. Please
don't let me occupy your time, this is not urgent at all, since Squeeze
works.
Thanks again,
Panayiotis
P.S. BTW, is there any estimation of the Wheezy release date?
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