Bug#412021: grub fails to cope with '/boot' on different partition to '/'

[Bernard Boudet]

Package: grub
Version: 0.97-23
Severity: critical
Justification: breaks the whole system


My /boot partition is on /dev/hda11, so in menu.lst it says: root (hd0,11)

update-grub trashes that and resets each case to: root (hd0,0)

This happens whenever a new kernel is installed and it leaves the system unbootable.  My workaround is to manually edit
menu.lst after each time a new kernel is installed and before rebooting.


baron:/boot/grub# grep -v -e '^$' -e '^#' menu.lst
default         0
timeout         5
color cyan/blue white/blue
title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18.baron.20070221.0915
root            (hd0,11)
kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.18.baron.20070221.0915 root=/dev/hda1 ro
initrd          /initrd.img-2.6.18.baron.20070221.0915
savedefault
title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18.baron.20070221.0915 (single-user mode)
root            (hd0,11)
kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.18.baron.20070221.0915 root=/dev/hda1 ro single
initrd          /initrd.img-2.6.18.baron.20070221.0915
savedefault
title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-custom.01
root            (hd0,11)
kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.18-custom.01 root=/dev/hda1 ro
initrd          /initrd.img-2.6.18-custom.01
savedefault
title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-custom.01 (single-user mode)
root            (hd0,11)
kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.18-custom.01 root=/dev/hda1 ro single
initrd          /initrd.img-2.6.18-custom.01
savedefault
title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-3-686
root            (hd0,11)
kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.18-3-686 root=/dev/hda1 ro
initrd          /initrd.img-2.6.18-3-686
savedefault
title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-3-686 (single-user mode)
root            (hd0,11)
kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.18-3-686 root=/dev/hda1 ro single
initrd          /initrd.img-2.6.18-3-686
savedefault
title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.17-2-686
root            (hd0,11)
kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.17-2-686 root=/dev/hda1 ro
initrd          /initrd.img-2.6.17-2-686
savedefault
title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.17-2-686 (single-user mode)
root            (hd0,11)
kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.17-2-686 root=/dev/hda1 ro single
initrd          /initrd.img-2.6.17-2-686
savedefault
baron:/boot/grub# cp menu.lst menu.lst.save
baron:/boot/grub# update-grub
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.18.baron.20070221.0915
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.18-custom.01
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.18-3-686
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.17-2-686
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done

baron:/boot/grub# diff menu.lst.save menu.lst
119c119
< root          (hd0,11)
---
> root          (hd0,0)
125c125
< root          (hd0,11)
---
> root          (hd0,0)
131c131
< root          (hd0,11)
---
> root          (hd0,0)
137c137
< root          (hd0,11)
---
> root          (hd0,0)
143c143
< root          (hd0,11)
---
> root          (hd0,0)
149c149
< root          (hd0,11)
---
> root          (hd0,0)
155c155
< root          (hd0,11)
---
> root          (hd0,0)
161c161
< root          (hd0,11)
---
> root          (hd0,0)



-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18.baron.20070221.0915
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages grub depends on:
ii  libc6                       2.3.6.ds1-11 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libncurses5                 5.5-5        Shared libraries for terminal hand

grub recommends no packages.

-- no debconf information