Bug#282127: grub-install fails with "mismatched or corrupt version of stage1/stage2"

[Craig Sanders]

i've finally got time to post update to the bug report i posted a few days
ago...maybe this will save someone else from discovering it themselves.


it turns out that the problem isn't as severe as i thought it was.

the "mismatched or corrupt version" error is ONLY happening because i'm running
grub-install with --grub-shell="/sbin/grub --read-only".  because grub is
running in read-only mode, it doesn't actually update the MBR, and that's the
stage1 that it's complaining about, NOT the /boot/grub/stage1 file that i
thought it was referring to.

if i run grub-install normally (i.e. without the --read-only), then it works
perfectly.

i still think that this is a bug that should be fixed because it's perfectly
reasonable (in fact, sane and to be recommended) to test any drastic,
irreversible action like overwriting the MBR *before* you do it.

at the very least, this surprising behaviour should be documented.


NOTE: this problem will only be seen by someone converting from LILO to
grub, or who is installing a new version of stage1 into the MBR.  if you have
the current version already installed, then there won't be a mismatch.


craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>           (part time cyborg)