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List:       opensuse
Subject:    [opensuse] Re: Grub bugs ... should I file separate bugs for each	one?
From:       Linda Walsh <suse () tlinx ! org>
Date:       2009-06-13 7:39:15
Message-ID: 4A3357A3.5060001 () tlinx ! org
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Pit Suetterlin wrote:
> Linda Walsh wrote:
> > Grub has a few problems...
> > my 'boot' partition was too small, so I repurposed an unused partition
> > (named 'Boot', and renamed the old partition to 'OBoot').
> 
> So did you re-install grub after that?  Else the MBR loader still points to
> the old partition and loads what is there.  That's not a bug, I'd say...
---
	But my system is setup to only reference file systems
by "Label".

	The fact that grub isn't booting my new partition
indicates that the argument of moving to 'labels', so your boot
partition won't move around when you add or remove disks goes
right out the window.  

	Since the whole purpose of using disk label is that install
(I presume, I just told it to use labels), config's grub to boot
to the 'Boot' Partition -- why would it suddenly start using
a partition named 'OBoot'?  That's not what I configured as the
/boot partition name.


> 
> > Bug3)
> > I go into the yast2 boot loader options to see if it tells me anything -- 
> > and IT shows me my NEW longer menu -- so YAST2 isn't showing
> > what I actually get during boot -- it should display the same menu I see
> > at boot time.
> 
> Hmm, good point.  For this YaST would have to analyse the MBR, I guess right
> now it is only looking at /boot
> 
> No idea about the graphical menu.
> 
> > So how do I tell the boot load to boot from the partition mounted on
> > /boot with label 'Boot', and how do I purge these evil references, I was
> > told were no longer useful and not to be used?
> 
> Typically by starting grub, setting root to the proper partition with the new
> boot contents and then calling setup for the disk to install the chain
> loaders.  So if your new partition boot is sda3 it would be
> root (hd0,2)
> setup (hd0)
> which should install grub in the MBR and call the stage loaders in your new
> partition
===
	Um...hd0?  sda3?  I don't understand -- I was told not to
use those ancient names and that I should convert to using only Labels
so I could remain blissfully unaware of the grimy underbelly of
the real hardware that linux is running.  I even made sure that my
new partition 'Boot' was set to be the "1 and only" bootable partition
on disk -- so of course, since I could set that flag in the boot loader,
it must mean that it "does something" in linux, right?

	I mean, pity the poor user who has been told that the bootable
partition is the one that a PC boots from, and to have the option to set it in the \
GUI, and then have it ignored?  On top of ignoring my the fact that yast looks in \
LABEL=BOOT(/boot)/grub/menu.lst, to display its boot options.

	Can't a user get a break?  Is this whole nonsense people have
been talking about with 'labels' a huge farce?  The point was to
solve the problem with disks re-ordering themselves when disks were
installed or deleted -- but how does this help when your boot disk
gets moved?

	What's the point of everyone being on the 'label' or pathname
or permanent device name "bandwagon", if it doesn't solve the
dynamic movement of the boot device?

	I did figure out how to workaround this issue -- only to run
across information that tells me grub is fast and loose with disk accesses and as a \
result doesn't seem to work with grub -- even though lilo  does.  

	So why jump through hoops for labels and booting w/grub 
when they don't work yet and are buggy?  Why not get the the boot
process working with labels before pushing everyone to convert to
pathnames or labels or UUID's that the boot managers apparently can't
work with?



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