Bug#545910: updating to grub-pc fails to boot memtest+

[Chris Knadle]

Package: grub-pc
Version: 1.97~beta2-2
Severity: grave
Justification: renders package unusable


Updating to grub-pc from grub-legacy creates a script in
/etc/grub.d/20-memtest+ but unfortunately the entry fails to
boot memtest+ after the upgrade.  Specifically, this won't work:

     menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
             linux $MEMTESTPATH
     }

But this does:

     menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
             linux16 $MEMTESTPATH
     }

I was finally able to find the answer here (thank you Felix):
   http://osdir.com/ml/grub-devel-gnu/2009-08/msg00101.html

Also note that other recommendations, such as the one listed
here, did NOT work (using 'netbsd' in place of 'linux16'):
   http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Grub2#Booting_Memtest86.2B

It would also really be helpful if the documentation for grub-pc
contained a working example for memtest+ in examples/grub.cfg as it
would at least give a hint as to how to go about modifying the
/etc/grub.d/20-memtest+ script by hand after the upgrade; because
without doing that /boot/grub/grub.cfg is overwritten when
update-grub or update-grub2 are run.

Similarly the Grub2 wiki at http://grub.enbug.org/ doesn't list
anything about booting memtest+ either.  :-/

   -- Chris

Chris Knadle
Chris.Knadle at coredump.us

-- Package-specific info:

*********************** BEGIN /proc/mounts
/dev/root / xfs rw,relatime,noquota 0 0
/dev/sda3 /boot ext2 rw,relatime,errors=continue 0 0
/dev/sda7 /home xfs rw,relatime,noquota 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
if terminal_input console ; then true ; else
  # For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
  # understand terminal_input
  terminal console
fi
if terminal_output console ; then true ; else
  # For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
  # understand terminal_output
  terminal console
fi
set timeout=5
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=cyan/blue
set menu_color_highlight=white/blue
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, Linux 2.6.30.5-c2d-crk12" {
	insmod ext2
	set root=(hd0,3)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 1feb58ff-2dac-4eeb-ab8d-eb14861d3570
	linux	/vmlinuz-2.6.30.5-c2d-crk12 root=/dev/sda6 ro  
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, Linux 2.6.30.5-c2d-crk12 (recovery mode)" {
	insmod ext2
	set root=(hd0,3)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 1feb58ff-2dac-4eeb-ab8d-eb14861d3570
	linux	/vmlinuz-2.6.30.5-c2d-crk12 root=/dev/sda6 ro single 
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
	linux16	/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
	linux16	/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda1)" {
	insmod ntfs
	set root=(hd0,1)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 160e2be30e2bba9f
	chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda2)" {
	insmod ntfs
	set root=(hd0,2)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 0224302c24302557
	chainloader +1
}
### 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 unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.30.5-c2d-crk12 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages grub-pc depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]       1.5.27       Debian configuration management sy
ii  grub-common                 1.97~beta2-2 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 
ii  libc6                       2.9-26       GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  ucf                         3.0021       Update Configuration File: preserv

grub-pc recommends no packages.

Versions of packages grub-pc suggests:
ii  desktop-base                  5.0.5      common files for the Debian Deskto
ii  genisoimage                   9:1.1.9-1  Creates ISO-9660 CD-ROM filesystem

-- debconf information:
  grub2/kfreebsd_cmdline:
* grub2/linux_cmdline:
* grub-pc/chainload_from_menu.lst: true
  grub-pc/install_devices:
  grub-pc/postrm_purge_boot_grub: false
  grub2/kfreebsd_cmdline_default: quiet
* grub2/linux_cmdline_default: quiet