Bug#790289: Debian netinstall 8.1 i386 GRUB2 does not copy i386-pc modules to /boot/grub

[3827eeabc49e4509 at gmail.com]

Package: grub-pc
Version: 2.02~beta2-22

Hello!
I don't know if the package is at fault or the installer. I guess the
installer. (But which package is that?)


I installed Debian 8.1 on my Sony Vaio VGN-N21E/W (Intel Core Duo T2200,
1 GB RAM, SATA HDD, BIOS).
(BTW I had to install it twice because Windows 10 Insider Preview
deleted my debian boot and crypt partitions.)

I noticed that GRUB2 is installed with a functioning
/boot/grub/grub.cfg, but that all modules that grub requires for booting
are not installed. Therefor grub boots into a very basic console.

The first time I booted with the netinst CD into a rescue shell and
installed grub from there, using "grub-install -v /dev/sda".

The second time I did the same thing after installing grub from the
Debian netinst CD. Grub installed without errors with the installation
process but again lacked /boot/grub/i386-pc/*. In another VT I did a
chroot, specifically "chroot /target /bin/bash" followed by "source
/etc/profile" and installed grub using "grub-install -v /dev/sda" which
gave a lot of errors, but copied the necessary modules to
/boot/grub/i386-pc. I also tried "grub-update", but that did no good at
all since /dev was not mounted in the target chroot.

Anyway, it booted.

It is worth mentioning that I booted the netinst CD into "graphical expert".

I may also be a factor (but I doubt it) that I had all Linux partitions
in the extended MBR partition as follows:
/dev/sda4 (extended partition)
/dev/sda5 -- /boot
/dev/sda6 -- crypt partition, containing an LVM partition, containing
swap and /root

(With the first install, another extended partition located behind
/dev/sda5 and /dev/sda6 and containing an NTFS file system was placed as
/dev/sda5 when I deleted and recreated the boot and crypt partitions --
which became /dev/sda6 and /dev/sda7, even though physically located
before the NFTS partition then /dev/sda5. This may be the reason for
Windows 10 Insider Preview deleting the partitions. With the second
install I used the a VT to fix the partition order from withing fdisk,
extra functionality (x) to reorder the partitions.)


That grub does not copy the modules should be fixed, even though the
manual fix is trivial if you are experienced with Linux.