Bug#546796: grub-pc: grub reboots instantly after several successful bootups

[Marcel Beister]

Package: grub-pc
Version: 1.97~beta3-1
Severity: important

My old desktop machine (Athlon XP with Asus A7V880 and GeForce 6800)
has strange problems with grub2. If I install grub2, usually
everything works fine for a finite number of reboots. But some 
hours/days later, grub seems to be broken and reboots instantly without
showing anything at all. I tried to narrow down the problem by trying
warm/cold reboots and windows/linux reboots, but I didn't find a pattern.

I never had problems with grub1 and the machine runs very stable without
any other problems. The problem persists since grub 1.96-something, so
it's nothing recently introduced.

I'm willing to provide additional assistance to find the source of this
problem.

Btw. the package-specific info is created during a grml-chroot session
on the reported machine. Therefore the loop device ;-)

Marcel

-- Package-specific info:

*********************** BEGIN /proc/mounts
/dev/sr1 /live/image iso9660 ro,noatime 0 0
/dev/loop0 /grml.squashfs squashfs ro,noatime 0 0
/dev/pts /dev/pts devpts rw,mode=600 0 0
/dev/sda5 / xfs rw,noquota 0 0
/dev/sda2 /boot ext3 rw,errors=continue,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
insmod xfs
set root=(hd0,5)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 1e7b35a7-59e5-4233-af81-4b03ed11062a
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.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
set timeout=5
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,2)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2651d952-9930-467f-8132-db50b47e1320
insmod png
if background_image /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 2.6.31" {
	insmod ext2
	set root=(hd0,2)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2651d952-9930-467f-8132-db50b47e1320
	linux	/vmlinuz-2.6.31 root=UUID=1e7b35a7-59e5-4233-af81-4b03ed11062a ro vga=794 
	initrd	/initrd.img-2.6.31
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, Linux 2.6.31 (recovery mode)" {
	insmod ext2
	set root=(hd0,2)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2651d952-9930-467f-8132-db50b47e1320
	linux	/vmlinuz-2.6.31 root=UUID=1e7b35a7-59e5-4233-af81-4b03ed11062a ro single vga=794
	initrd	/initrd.img-2.6.31
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

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

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda1)" {
	insmod ntfs
	set root=(hd0,1)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 26c8f1ccc8f19a6f
	drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
	chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
*********************** END /boot/grub/grub.cfg

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.28-grml (SMP w/1 CPU core; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
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~beta3-1 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: vga=794
  grub-pc/chainload_from_menu.lst: true
  grub-pc/kopt_extracted: false
* grub-pc/install_devices: /dev/sda
  grub-pc/postrm_purge_boot_grub: false
  grub2/kfreebsd_cmdline_default: quiet
* grub2/linux_cmdline_default: