Bug#567230: grub-pc: more flexible installation paths

[Paul Wise]

Package: grub-pc
Version: 1.98~20100115-1
Severity: wishlist

I recently got bit by the symptoms listed in #564093. Luckily I was able
to fix it by copying the vmlinuz and initrd.img over to a Windows
partition and use win32-loader to boot normally then run
dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc to fix the issue. This Debian system is often
booted over USB from various systems and sometimes from the internal
SATA slot on my laptop. I chose /dev/sdb as the install device because
the Debian hard drive is more often than not booting over USB.
Unfortunately I was not booting over USB when I upgraded grub-pc, which
caused the issue listed in #564093. It would be nice if I could specify
a label or UUID of the /boot partition as the install device and grub
would resolve that to the right device to install grub onto. This would
make grub / Debian more useful for roaming USB stick situations.

-- Package-specific info:

debconf-settings for grub2 are:

  grub2/kfreebsd_cmdline:
  grub-pc/linux_cmdline: fillme
* grub2/linux_cmdline: quiet loglevel=0
  grub-pc/chainload_from_menu.lst: true
  grub-pc/kopt_extracted: false
* grub-pc/install_devices: /dev/sdb
  grub-pc/postrm_purge_boot_grub: false
  grub2/kfreebsd_cmdline_default: quiet
* grub2/linux_cmdline_default:

*********************** BEGIN /proc/mounts
/dev/mapper/chianamo-root / ext3 rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,acl,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /boot ext2 rw,relatime,errors=continue 0 0
*********************** END /proc/mounts

*********************** BEGIN /boot/grub/device.map
(hd0)	/dev/sda
(hd1)	/dev/sdb
*********************** 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 ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
  load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
  set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
  save_env saved_entry
  set prev_saved_entry=
  save_env prev_saved_entry
  set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
  if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
    saved_entry=${chosen}
    save_env saved_entry
  fi
}
insmod ext2
set root=(hd1,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set c85c6a91-3d55-4775-879b-eb3f8cdfd925
if loadfont /grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=800x600
  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 locale_dir=/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
set timeout=5
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
insmod ext2
set root=(hd1,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set c85c6a91-3d55-4775-879b-eb3f8cdfd925
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, with Linux 2.6.32-trunk-amd64" {
	insmod ext2
	set root=(hd1,1)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set c85c6a91-3d55-4775-879b-eb3f8cdfd925
	echo	Loading Linux 2.6.32-trunk-amd64 ...
	linux	//vmlinuz-2.6.32-trunk-amd64 root=/dev/mapper/chianamo-root ro quiet loglevel=0 
	echo	Loading initial ramdisk ...
	initrd	//initrd.img-2.6.32-trunk-amd64
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 2.6.32-trunk-amd64 (recovery mode)" {
	insmod ext2
	set root=(hd1,1)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set c85c6a91-3d55-4775-879b-eb3f8cdfd925
	echo	Loading Linux 2.6.32-trunk-amd64 ...
	linux	//vmlinuz-2.6.32-trunk-amd64 root=/dev/mapper/chianamo-root ro single quiet loglevel=0
	echo	Loading initial ramdisk ...
	initrd	//initrd.img-2.6.32-trunk-amd64
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86 ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86)" {
	linux16	/memtest86.bin
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86 ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
	insmod ext2
	set root=(hd1,1)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set c85c6a91-3d55-4775-879b-eb3f8cdfd925
	linux16	/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
	insmod ext2
	set root=(hd1,1)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set c85c6a91-3d55-4775-879b-eb3f8cdfd925
	linux16	/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### 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 testing
  APT policy: (700, 'testing'), (600, 'unstable'), (550, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-trunk-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]    1.5.28          Debian configuration management sy
ii  grub-common              1.98~20100115-1 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 
ii  libc6                    2.10.2-2        GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  ucf                      3.0025          Update Configuration File: preserv

Versions of packages grub-pc suggests:
ii  desktop-base                  5.0.5      common files for the Debian Deskto

-- 
bye,
pabs

http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise
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