Bug#974838: grub: GRUB as of 2020-November.15: Failure to boot multiple systems - seemingly random

[waxhead]

Colin Watson wrote:
> Control: reassign -1 grub-pc
> 
> On Sun, Nov 15, 2020 at 12:47:34PM +0100, waxhead wrote:
>> First I hope I am reporitng this on the correct package. Apologize if not.
> 
> grub is GRUB Legacy; grub-pc is GRUB 2.  (Though I'm guessing that
> you're using BIOS, rather than UEFI; on a UEFI system it would be
> grub-efi-amd64 instead.)
> 
> We definitely need to know what version of GRUB you're using.

Correct, I am using GRUB2 and a classic BIOS boot. On this system the 
mainboard is a ASUS P5B Deluxe from about 2007-2008 without UEFI.

Currently on this system the package version is grub-pc 2.04-10
> 
>> I have various systems all running BTRFS as the rootfs. BTRFS is installed on partitions that are offset of the first sector=2048
>> The systems I use range from 8 to 20 drives. BTRFS is set up with data=raid1 , and metadata =raid1c4
>> After updates which update the grub package GRUB fails very often on my systems.
>> I can't remember all the error codes I have had,  which makes this a rather poor bug report, but the latest one (today) was:
> 
> Every distinct error is potentially a distinct bug.  I'm going to refuse
> to deal with more than one distinct error in a single bug report,
> because that's entirely unmanageable, so I'll focus on this one:
> 
Understood. I do however think it is important to know the background 
story to emphasize that there *may* be more than a lone bug.

It might be that I am restarting a server tomorrow. If I do I assume 
that I get the same boot problems that have prevented us from remote 
restarting this successfully the last couple of months - I'll try to 
gather all relevant info and post individual bugreports on each differnt 
prompt I get.

>> error: symbol 'grub_calloc' not found.
>> grub rescue>
> 
> This sounds like #966575, so it's vital for us to know what version of
> grub-pc you have installed.  We'll also need the output of "debconf-show
> grub-pc" and information about the disk setup of your system.
> 

#debconf-show grub-pc
   grub2/kfreebsd_cmdline_default: quiet
   grub-pc/chainload_from_menu.lst: true
* grub-pc/install_devices: 
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-SanDisk_SDSSDXP120G_[CENCORED]
   grub-pc/mixed_legacy_and_grub2: true
   grub-pc/timeout: 5
   grub-pc/install_devices_failed_upgrade: true
   grub-pc/disk_description:
   grub-pc/partition_description:
   grub-pc/kopt_extracted: false
   grub-pc/install_devices_failed: false
   grub2/force_efi_extra_removable: false
* grub2/linux_cmdline:
   grub2/kfreebsd_cmdline:
* grub2/linux_cmdline_default:
   grub-pc/postrm_purge_boot_grub: false
   grub-pc/install_devices_empty: false
   grub-pc/install_devices_disks_changed:
   grub2/update_nvram: true
   grub-pc/hidden_timeout: false

Not sure what info you're after - but this is from this machine.
All SSD's grub-install done on sda,sdb,sdc,sdd,sde,sdf and sdg

#lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 238.5G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0 107.8G  0 part
├─sda2   8:2    0     4G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sda3   8:3    0  55.9G  0 part /VMs
sdb      8:16   0 238.5G  0 disk
├─sdb1   8:17   0 107.8G  0 part
├─sdb2   8:18   0     4G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sdb3   8:19   0  55.9G  0 part
sdc      8:32   0 111.8G  0 disk
├─sdc1   8:33   0 107.8G  0 part /
├─sdc2   8:34   0     1K  0 part
└─sdc5   8:37   0     4G  0 part [SWAP]
sdd      8:48   0 238.5G  0 disk
├─sdd1   8:49   0 107.8G  0 part
├─sdd2   8:50   0     4G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sdd3   8:51   0  55.9G  0 part
sde      8:64   0 167.7G  0 disk
├─sde1   8:65   0 107.8G  0 part
├─sde2   8:66   0     4G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sde3   8:67   0  55.9G  0 part
sdf      8:80   0 111.8G  0 disk
├─sdf1   8:81   0 107.8G  0 part
└─sdf2   8:82   0     4G  0 part [SWAP]
sdg      8:96   0 111.8G  0 disk
├─sdg1   8:97   0 107.8G  0 part
└─sdg2   8:98   0     4G  0 part [SWAP]
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom

all partition #1 are BTRFS and all partition#3 are a separate BTRFS 
filesystem as well.

#lsscsi
[2:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      OCZ-VECTOR       3.0   /dev/sda
[3:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      OCZ-VECTOR       3.0   /dev/sdb
[5:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      SanDisk SDSSDXP1 1     /dev/sdc
[6:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      OCZ-VECTOR       3.0   /dev/sdd
[7:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      INTEL SSDSC2BF18 LSTi  /dev/sde
[12:0:0:0]   disk    ATA      OCZ-VERTEX3      2.25  /dev/sdf
[13:0:0:0]   disk    ATA      OCZ-VERTEX3      2.25  /dev/sdg
[17:0:0:0]   cd/dvd  TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-224DB  SB01  /dev/sr0

Disk controllers on this system are:
* Intel 82801HR/HD/HH (ICH8R/DO/DH) 6 port. - AHCI mode
* JMicron JMB363 SATA/IDE ctornller - AHCI mode
* ASMedia ASM1062 SATA controller - AHCI mode

All these use the ahci kernel driver and disks show up as JBOD

> It might be easier to close this bug and use "reportbug grub-pc" from
> the relevant system, which should automatically attach some useful
> information.
> 
Ok, whatever helps. If you want to do that let me know and I'll repost 
the bugreport.

I will regardless to that for the other bugreports I plan to post 
perhaps tomorrow.

Thanks.