Bug#409073: grub2: GRUB2 fails to install on GPT-partitioned rootdevice

[Michael Renner]

Package: grub2
Version: 1.95-2
Severity: important
Tags: upstream

GRUB 2 (1.95) refused to get installed on a GPT-partitioned server.

The layout is as follows:

parted:

Disk /dev/sda: 3000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      17.4kB  32.0GB  32.0GB  ext3         root
 2      32.0GB  33.0GB  1000MB  linux-swap   swap
 3      33.0GB  3000GB  2967GB               data

/proc/partitions:

major minor  #blocks  name

   8     0 2929686528 sda
   8     1   31249983 sda1
   8     2     976562 sda2
   8     3 2897459948 sda3
   8    16  488386584 sdb
   8    17   15623181 sdb1
   8    18     979965 sdb2


grub-setup fails with:

datadump:~# grub-setup --root-device='(hd0,1)' '(hd0)'
grub-setup: error: unknown device
datadump:~#

and grub-install has misleading errors:

datadump:/boot/grub# grub-install --root-directory=/ --modules=gpt.mod --modules=ext2.mod '(hd0)'
cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sda1.
grub-setup: error: Cannot guess the root device. Specify the option ``--root-device''.
datadump:/boot/grub# grub-install --root-directory=/ --modules=gpt.mod --modules=ext2.mod --root-device='(hd0,1)' '(hd0)'
Unrecognized option `--root-device=(hd0,1)'
[..]

The root device was /dev/sda1 while I tried this, booting from a second block
device containing only the bootloader and kernel.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.19.2
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages grub2 depends on:
ii  debconf                      1.5.11      Debian configuration management sy
ii  libc6                        2.3.6.ds1-8 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  liblzo1                      1.08-3      data compression library (old vers
ii  libncurses5                  5.5-5       Shared libraries for terminal hand

grub2 recommends no packages.

-- no debconf information