Bug#588370: (#588370) symbol not found: 'grub_xputs'

[Michael]

Colin,

> debconf-show grub-pc

Look not everyone is a geek. At least you could have told Martin how he could have done this (via the proper boot-cd and chroot). But then, why not just telling him how to fix it in the first place ?

> This happens when you grub-install to a location other than that from which your computer
> actually boots.

I had the same incident after a regular weekly update, yesterday. I did not change any setting or anything. It just didn't work anymore. This is sid of course...

I was able to resolve the problem by burning a debian netinstall amd64 'testing' boot cd from the debian installer homepage, on my laptop. After booting it i chose rescue mode,  and reinstall bootloader. Then i entered a root shell (still on the cd filesystem), mounted my harddisk / and exchanged the /boot/grub folder. Because if i didn't do that it still wouldn't boot. I tried it.
Then rebooted and switched the harddisk grub into 'edit' mode ('ESC' -> 'e') and then edited the kernel image and initrd version numbers (which were still from the other system) to have them fit to the harddisk ones. I booted regularly, removed the /boot/grub folder again and reinstalled grub from within the main system.
  
I believe there must be an easier solution. Actually, i did not tell you the whole story (an outdated harddisk rescue system was involved) to make it short.

I just wanted to give you a hint how many complex things could be involved to fix such an issue.
I know a package maintainer is not supposed to give support on a bug tracker. But this is a special case, it's a 'super-critical' bug. I would even introduce this category for this kind of bugs. And people easily feel left in the dark by the debian project if the debian package system breaks their computer. Wouldn't it be appropriate to offer immediate help, instead of asking for extra data and send people to file another bug report ? At least, you could tell them a proper mailing list.

/ r: debconf-show grub-pc
  grub2/kfreebsd_cmdline:
* grub2/device_map_regenerated:
* grub2/linux_cmdline:
  grub-pc/install_devices_empty: false
  grub-pc/install_devices_failed: false
* grub-pc/chainload_from_menu.lst: true
  grub-pc/kopt_extracted: true
* grub-pc/install_devices: /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3320620AS_5QF1HAVQ
  grub-pc/postrm_purge_boot_grub: false
  grub-pc/install_devices_failed_upgrade: true
  grub-pc/disk_description:
  grub2/kfreebsd_cmdline_default: quiet
  grub-pc/partition_description:
  grub-pc/install_devices_disks_changed:
* grub2/linux_cmdline_default:
  grub-pc/mixed_legacy_and_grub2: true

This is still the same grub package as before, reinstallation just used the cached version. Isn't it strange it works now again ? I will try to do some more tests later.

OS is Linux 2.6.32-4-amd64. The update was done under 2.6.32-5 but i didn't boot into that again right now. I will try this next. 2.6.32-5 was running for quite some weeks before, though, with several updates w/o problems.

/ r: fdisk -l

This looks complicated but in a nutshell, there are 2 different systems (main and rescue) and some media and backup partitions on 3 harddisks but i did run only the main one for some months, with weekly updates. The main system has /boot as folder in / (but some complicated other mountpoints which i believe do not matter here).

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0005bd28

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1       12158    97659103+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2           12159       38913   214909537+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5           12159       18237    48829536   83  Linux
/dev/sda6           18238       24316    48829536   83  Linux
/dev/sda7           24317       26748    19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sda8           26749       27964     9767488+  83  Linux
/dev/sda9           27965       28450     3903763+  83  Linux
/dev/sda10  *       28451       30882    19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sda11          30883       31368     3903763+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda12          31369       32584     9767488+  83  Linux
/dev/sda13          32585       33800     9767488+  83  Linux
/dev/sda14          33801       38906    41013913+  83  Linux
/dev/sda15          38907       38913       56196   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00092098

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       29792   239304208+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb2   *       29793       30401     4891792+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdc: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xffffffff

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1       20668   166015678+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc2           20669       32827    97667167+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc3           32828       36477    29318625    5  Extended
/dev/sdc4   *       36478       38913    19567170   83  Linux
/dev/sdc5           32828       36477    29318593+  83  Linux

hth mi