Bug#540125: grub-pc: upgrade renders system unbootable

[Jayen]

Package: grub-pc
Version: 1.96+20090725-1
Severity: critical
Justification: breaks the whole system


I know On i386-pc (and amd64), the grub package never updates the installed 
version of GRUB automatically.  However, this has rendered the system 
unbootable for me twice now.  I know I'm running something unstable, but users 
should NOT be expected to know how to fix an unbootable system.  There should 
at least be a debconf question of whether to run grub-install.

The error I'm getting is "Unknown command: initrd" similar to #513592 and 
#497791 (and probably others).

--Jayen

-- Package-specific info:

*********************** BEGIN /proc/mounts
/dev/disk/by-uuid/ab5d8c7a-80a8-4241-a80b-28496df577d4 / ext3 rw,noatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/disk/by-uuid/ab5d8c7a-80a8-4241-a80b-28496df577d4 /home/jayen/pkg/32/home ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/disk/by-uuid/ab5d8c7a-80a8-4241-a80b-28496df577d4 /home/jayen/pkg/32/tmp ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered 0 0
*********************** END /proc/mounts

*********************** BEGIN /boot/grub/device.map
(hd0)	/dev/sda
*********************** END /boot/grub/device.map

*********************** BEGIN /boot/grub/grub.cfg
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
set default=0
set timeout=5
set root=(hd0,5)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ab5d8c7a-80a8-4241-a80b-28496df577d4
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/ascii.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=640x480
  insmod gfxterm
  insmod vbe
  if terminal_output.gfxterm ; then true ; else
    # For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
    # understand terminal_output
    terminal gfxterm
  fi
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set root=(hd0,5)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ab5d8c7a-80a8-4241-a80b-28496df577d4
insmod png
if background_image /boot/grub/moreblue-orbit-grub.png ; then
  set color_normal=black/black
  set color_highlight=magenta/black
else
  set menu_color_normal=cyan/blue
  set menu_color_highlight=white/blue
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, Linux 2.6.29-2-amd64" {
	set root=(hd0,5)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ab5d8c7a-80a8-4241-a80b-28496df577d4
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.29-2-amd64 root=UUID=ab5d8c7a-80a8-4241-a80b-28496df577d4 ro quiet 
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.29-2-amd64
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, Linux 2.6.29-2-amd64 (recovery mode)" {
	set root=(hd0,5)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ab5d8c7a-80a8-4241-a80b-28496df577d4
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.29-2-amd64 root=UUID=ab5d8c7a-80a8-4241-a80b-28496df577d4 ro single quiet
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.29-2-amd64
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, Linux 2.6.26-2-amd64" {
	set root=(hd0,5)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ab5d8c7a-80a8-4241-a80b-28496df577d4
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-amd64 root=UUID=ab5d8c7a-80a8-4241-a80b-28496df577d4 ro quiet 
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-amd64
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, Linux 2.6.26-2-amd64 (recovery mode)" {
	set root=(hd0,5)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ab5d8c7a-80a8-4241-a80b-28496df577d4
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-amd64 root=UUID=ab5d8c7a-80a8-4241-a80b-28496df577d4 ro single quiet
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-amd64
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file is an example on how to add custom entries
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
*********************** END /boot/grub/grub.cfg

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (980, 'testing'), (960, 'stable'), (900, 'unstable'), (800, 'experimental'), (500, 'oldstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.29-2-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_AU.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_AU.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages grub-pc depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]    1.5.27          Debian configuration management sy
ii  grub-common              1.96+20090725-1 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 
ii  libc6                    2.9-12          GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  ucf                      3.0018          Update Configuration File: preserv

grub-pc recommends no packages.

Versions of packages grub-pc suggests:
pn  desktop-base                  <none>     (no description available)
ii  genisoimage                   9:1.1.9-1  Creates ISO-9660 CD-ROM filesystem
ii  os-prober                     1.28       utility to detect other OSes on a 

-- debconf information:
* grub-pc/linux_cmdline:
* grub-pc/chainload_from_menu.lst: false
  grub-pc/install_devices: