Bug#990017: [REGRESSION] Bullseye CD installer images fail to install GRUB on OpenPOWER machines

[Colin Watson]

Control: tag -1 moreinfo

On Thu, Jun 17, 2021 at 07:56:27PM -0500, Timothy Pearson wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Steve McIntyre" <steve at einval.com>
> > To: "Timothy Pearson" <tpearson at raptorengineering.com>, 990017 at bugs.debian.org
> > Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2021 7:43:15 PM
> > Subject: Re: Bug#990017: [REGRESSION] Bullseye CD installer images fail to install GRUB on OpenPOWER machines
> 
> > Reassigning this to the correct package where it should get more
> > attention...
> 
> Thank you, much appreciated.
> 
> > On Thu, Jun 17, 2021 at 04:20:47PM -0500, Timothy Pearson wrote:
> >>Attempting to use the latest Bullseye RC2 CD installer on an OpenPOWER machine
> >>results in a fatal error during bootloader installation:
> >>
> >>Jun 17 21:14:45 grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '/dev/sda1'
> >>Jun 17 21:14:45 grub-installer: info: grub-install does not support --no-floppy
> >>Jun 17 21:14:45 grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install
> >>--force "/dev/sda1"
> >>Jun 17 21:14:45 grub-installer: Installing for powerpc-ieee1275 platform.
> >>Jun 17 21:14:57 grub-installer: grub-install: error: unknown filesystem.
> >>Jun 17 21:14:57 grub-installer: error: Running 'grub-install  --force
> >>"/dev/sda1"' failed.
> >>
> >>The bootloader installs normally using the Buster CD installers on the same
> >>hardware.
> > 
> > Just a quick sanity check - how did you partition the disk? Does it
> > have the normal boot partition etc. needed for OpenPOWER? I'll admit I
> > don't know all the details here - I'm not a powerpc expert.
> 
> All defaults.  PReP partition was added automatically by the apparition, it almost looks like Grub doesn't know what to do with it?
> 
> Layout:
> PReP:   /dev/sda1
> System: /dev/sda2
> Swap:   /dev/sda3

It's been quite a while since I dealt with this, but grub-install
certainly shouldn't be looking for a filesystem on the PReP partition -
indeed, the current code expects it to be empty.

When the install fails, could you please run:

  chroot /target grub-install --debug --force /dev/sda1 >/var/log/grub-install.out 2>&1

... and then extract the resulting /var/log/grub-install.out file (e.g.
using the "Save debug logs" main menu entry)?

If you're able to also run "grub-install --debug /dev/sda1" on a working
buster system (assuming the PReP partition is on /dev/sda1 there too)
and provide the full output for comparison purposes, that would be
helpful as well.  You may need to clear that partition first using dd,
but if so grub-install should tell you the necessary command.

Thanks,

-- 
Colin Watson (he/him)                              [cjwatson at debian.org]