Bug#514705: On upgrade, please check if the grub version installed on the system is still compatible with the new package -- and if not: ACT AGAINST IT!

[Fabian Greffrath]

Package: grub-common
Version: 1.96+20080724-14
Severity: important

Dear grub-maintainers,

the severity of this bug report should be somewhere between wishlist 
(because it is a feature request) and release-critical (because it is 
related to my Lenny system not booting anymore after a package 
upgrade). I believe severity important is a good compromise. ;)

Yesterday I upgraded my system to 1.96+20080724-14 and was bitten by 
the same issue that has already reported several times, most notably 
in #497791 and #512787: My system refused to boot due to "unknown 
command `initrd'".

I have to admit I haven't run grub-install since the implementation of 
the os-prober add-on (which should be nearly one year ago), just 
because I never had to. Now I know that I have should!

Which leads me to my request:
If there may be an incompatibility between the bootloader that is 
installed on my system's MBR and the recent Debian package, please 
detect this inconsistency and act against it!

I don't know if it is possible to guess (on package upgrade) where the 
bootloader is currently installed (although I believe grub-emu 
actually does this) and if it is then possible to extract some kind of 
version information from it.

<actual-request>
In either case, if grub-install is not to be run automatically on 
upgrade (which I understand would be very critical), there should at 
least be either (1) a message displayed that warns me about possible 
inconsistencies and recommends me to manually run grub-install against 
the right partition or (2) an option provided to run grub-install 
automatically against the guessed partition.
</actual-request>

I am thinking about a warning dialog similar to the one that is 
displayed when you upgrade libc6 and asks you to restart the system 
deamons. BTW, this bug reminds me of the mixing-up of /dev/hda and 
/dev/sda on kernal upgrade for (I believe) PATA drives that occured 
somewhere in the 2.6.17 era. IIRC this was considered RC that time...


Cheers,
Fabian ;)



-- 
Dipl.-Phys. Fabian Greffrath

Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Lehrstuhl für Energieanlagen und Energieprozesstechnik (LEAT)
Universitätsstr. 150, IB 3/134
D-44780 Bochum

Telefon: +49 (0)234 / 32-26334
Fax:     +49 (0)234 / 32-14227
E-Mail:  greffrath at leat.ruhr-uni-bochum.de