Bug 227506

Summary:	grub auto configuration with YAST not working
Product:	[openSUSE] openSUSE 10.2	Reporter:	Olaf Amm <Olaf.Amm>
Component:	YaST2	Assignee:	Olaf Dabrunz <odabrunz>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED	QA Contact:	Jiri Srain <jsrain>
Severity:	Normal
Priority:	P5 - None	CC:	jplack, Olaf.Amm, speedebikes
Version:	Final
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	32bit
OS:	Other
Whiteboard:
Found By:	Customer	Services Priority:
Business Priority:		Blocker:	---
Marketing QA Status:	---	IT Deployment:	---
Attachments:	fdisk -l grub.conf fstab working /boot/grub/menu.lst (after manual editing)

Description Olaf Amm 2006-12-11 01:31:44 UTC

I use a double boot Windows/ Linux configuration, and upgraded from SuSE 9.3 to OpenSuse 10.2. grub was working without problems on 9.3. In the automatic configuration of grub during the update/installation process, already some parser error in grub occured (didn't save error message, sorry). When trying to reboot to Linux after initial installation, grub was not at all present.

Started installed system using DVD, ran yast2, boot loader configuration, selected automatic configuration. The result was a non-working grub configuration in which kernel= and initrd= *didn't even have any value*. After several tries, I edited the grub configuration files manually, now it works.

This is a show stopper for beginners, as they won't even be able to boot again into Linux, and won't be able to do manual editing of configuration files, either.

Comment 1 Matej Horvath 2006-12-11 22:34:12 UTC

Please attach your yast log files, and output of the 'fdisk -l' (as root).

You can post the yast logs just to this or the previous report. Then please leave here or in the other one a comment about it.

Thank you.

Comment 2 Olaf Amm 2006-12-13 20:02:21 UTC

Created attachment 109626 [details]
fdisk -l

Comment 3 Olaf Amm 2006-12-13 20:04:20 UTC

YaST logs posted in bug 227505
(https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=227505)

Note that all files come from the state *after* I fixed the bug manually! (Now made changes to grub files manually, rerun grub, works; so no grub bug, but a YaST autoconfiguration one fir grub)

Comment 4 Stefan Fent 2006-12-20 09:17:46 UTC

Could you please also add /boot/grub/menu.lst, as it was before you edited manually, /etc/grub.conf and /etc/fstab.

Comment 5 Olaf Amm 2006-12-22 18:47:34 UTC

Created attachment 110959 [details]
grub.conf

Comment 6 Olaf Amm 2006-12-22 18:48:08 UTC

Created attachment 110960 [details]
fstab

Comment 7 Olaf Amm 2006-12-22 18:53:54 UTC

Unfortunately, the /boot/grub/menu.lst directly after update is not anymore saved on my disk. As I wrote earlier, the "kernel" and "initrd" parameters had to entries at all.

Comment 8 Todd Allen 2007-01-14 15:48:41 UTC

I believe I have also run into this bug.  I am a LINUX beginner (but an experienced programmer) and this was my first install of Linux on my computer.  During the initial install the Grub auto-config failed with an invalid parameter error.  I then tried choosing LILO but that also failed saying something like "lilo not found" or perhaps it was "/bin/sh not found" I don't remember exactly.

As guided by this bug report I was able to boot into the installed system using the original install/boot cd.  I ran Yast2 and this time Grub auto-configured without bombing out but as above when I attempted to boot I get an error message something like "the kernel must be loaded before initrd" which I suspect is due to the same issue.

I haven't yet corrected this as I'm not quite sure what to do, ie exactly which configuration files need manual updating and what changes I must make.

However, I did find other instructions on how to create a bootable cd and have done that and can now boot into linux fairly painlessly.  That process was also a little awkward as the instructions had the following line
"cp /usr/share/syslinux/isolinux.bin /tmp/CDroot"
and I had no such file.  But I did find an isolinux.bin on the original install cd and that worked ok.

I'd be happy to do what I can to help provide further info if someone has instructions for me.

Todd Allen (speedebikes @ gmail . com)

Comment 9 Olaf Amm 2007-01-18 17:22:34 UTC

I also ran into the "the kernel must be loaded before initrd" message, most likely it is the same issue like for me after grub autoconfiguration, namely that the 'kernel' and 'initrd' parameters are empty after that process.

I have attached my (manually edited) /boot/grub/menu.lst, maybe it helps you (but of course you need to change it according to the disk layout of your system).

Comment 10 Olaf Amm 2007-01-18 17:23:36 UTC

Created attachment 113710 [details]
working /boot/grub/menu.lst (after manual editing)

Comment 11 Joachim Plack 2007-10-12 11:17:35 UTC

looks like a multi disk system.
There are quite some changes in the boot/MBR handling
should work now.