Fedora11-Preview without GRUB

[Ján ONDREJ (SAL)]

Hello,

after my rawhide installation was corrupted, I planned to install a fresh
Fedora11-Preview in virt-manager. Everything worked well, just GRUB has been
not installed. I can't fix this by running some commands in rescue mode.
My attempts are here:

sh-4.0# df /boot
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/vda1               198337     13573    174524   8% /boot

My root partition is /dev/vda1, so my root disk is /dev/vda (paravirtualized
disk).

sh-4.0# grub-install /dev/vda
expr: non-numeric argument
/dev/vda1 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.
sh-4.0# grub-install --recheck /dev/vda
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
No suitable drive was found in the generated device map.
Reverting to backed up copy.
sh-4.0#

grub-install always fails. Trying grub:

sh-4.0# cat /boot/grub/device.map 
# this device map was generated by anaconda
(hd0)     /dev/vda
sh-4.0# grub
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.

GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.  For the first word, TAB
   lists possible command completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
   completions of a device/filename.]
grub> setup (hd0)
setup (hd0)

Error 12: Invalid device requested
grub>

Always no effect. No I don't know, where is my problem. May be this was a
problem of my new virt-manager-0.7, which added some incompatible
parameters. My installed packages (for host system):

[ondrejj@work ~]$ rpm -qa *virt* gtk-vnc qemu* *kvm* | sort
etherboot-roms-kvm-5.4.4-13.fc11.noarch
etherboot-zroms-kvm-5.4.4-13.fc11.noarch
gtk-vnc-0.3.8-8.fc11.i586
libvirt-python-0.6.1-1.fc10.i386
libvirt-0.6.1-1.fc10.i386
python-virtinst-0.400.3-3.fc10.noarch
python-virtualenv-1.3.2-1.fc10.noarch
qemu-common-0.10-12.fc11.i586
qemu-img-0.10-12.fc11.i586
qemu-system-arm-0.10-12.fc11.i586
qemu-system-cris-0.10-12.fc11.i586
qemu-system-mips-0.10-12.fc11.i586
qemu-system-m68k-0.10-12.fc11.i586
qemu-system-ppc-0.10-12.fc11.i586
qemu-system-sh4-0.10-12.fc11.i586
qemu-system-sparc-0.10-12.fc11.i586
qemu-system-x86-0.10-12.fc11.i586
qemu-user-0.10-12.fc11.i586
qemu-0.10-12.fc11.i586
virt-df-2.1.5-1.fc10.i386
virt-manager-0.7.0-4.fc10.i386
virt-mem-0.2.9-6.fc10.i386
virt-top-1.0.3-2.fc10.i386
virt-viewer-0.0.3-3.fc10.i386

Any ideas, what happened and if it's an error, how to report this?

SAL

[Emre Erenoglu]

2009/4/29 Ján ONDREJ (SAL)
> Hello,
>
> after my rawhide installation was corrupted, I planned to install a fresh
> Fedora11-Preview in virt-manager. Everything worked well, just GRUB has
> been
> not installed. I can't fix this by running some commands in rescue mode.
> My attempts are here:
>
> sh-4.0# df /boot
> Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
> /dev/vda1               198337     13573    174524   8% /boot
>
> My root partition is /dev/vda1, so my root disk is /dev/vda
> (paravirtualized
> disk).
>
> sh-4.0# grub-install /dev/vda
> expr: non-numeric argument
> /dev/vda1 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.

Hi, I have the same problem even though my host and guest are not Fedora but
Pardus. It seems somehow that GRUB does not play well with vda disks. As a
workaround, I added the same disk image as hda, installed GRUB, then
reverted it back to vda. It works.

[Ján ONDREJ (SAL)]

On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 02:25:05PM +0200, Emre Erenoglu wrote:
> 2009/4/29 Ján ONDREJ (SAL)
> > after my rawhide installation was corrupted, I planned to install a fresh
> > Fedora11-Preview in virt-manager. Everything worked well, just GRUB has
> > been
> > not installed. I can't fix this by running some commands in rescue mode.
> > My attempts are here:
> >
> > sh-4.0# df /boot
> > Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
> > /dev/vda1               198337     13573    174524   8% /boot
> >
> > My root partition is /dev/vda1, so my root disk is /dev/vda
> > (paravirtualized
> > disk).
> >
> > sh-4.0# grub-install /dev/vda
> > expr: non-numeric argument
> > /dev/vda1 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.
>
> Hi, I have the same problem even though my host and guest are not Fedora but
> Pardus. It seems somehow that GRUB does not play well with vda disks. As a
> workaround, I added the same disk image as hda, installed GRUB, then
> reverted it back to vda. It works.

Thanks for reply. Another workaround is installation of Fedora 11-Beta and
then update to current rawhide. :)

Curious, that this problem occured in preview release and not in any Beta.

This is same bug or not?
   Bug 479760 -  [PATCH] add support for virtio_blk devices to grub-install
   https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=479760

SAL

[Emre Erenoglu]

2009/4/29 Ján ONDREJ (SAL)
> Thanks for reply. Another workaround is installation of Fedora 11-Beta and
> then update to current rawhide. :)
>
> Curious, that this problem occured in preview release and not in any Beta.
>
> This is same bug or not?
>   Bug 479760 -  [PATCH] add support for virtio_blk devices to grub-install
>   https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=479760

I think it is. My distro developers said there' s no development on GRUB and
everybody forks his own GRUB with patches. Let's see how this one will be
cleared up.

[Bill Davidsen]

Ján ONDREJ (SAL) wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 02:25:05PM +0200, Emre Erenoglu wrote:
> > 2009/4/29 Ján ONDREJ (SAL)
> > > after my rawhide installation was corrupted, I planned to install a fresh
> > > Fedora11-Preview in virt-manager. Everything worked well, just GRUB has
> > > been
> > > not installed. I can't fix this by running some commands in rescue mode.
> > > My attempts are here:
> > >
> > > sh-4.0# df /boot
> > > Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
> > > /dev/vda1               198337     13573    174524   8% /boot
> > >
> > > My root partition is /dev/vda1, so my root disk is /dev/vda
> > > (paravirtualized
> > > disk).
> > >
> > > sh-4.0# grub-install /dev/vda
> > > expr: non-numeric argument
> > > /dev/vda1 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.
> >
> > Hi, I have the same problem even though my host and guest are not Fedora but
> > Pardus. It seems somehow that GRUB does not play well with vda disks. As a
> > workaround, I added the same disk image as hda, installed GRUB, then
> > reverted it back to vda. It works.
>
> Thanks for reply. Another workaround is installation of Fedora 11-Beta and
> then update to current rawhide. :)

I had problems during the update for that as well, when the beta came 
out it run for a few weeks and then an upgrade broke it. Not an install 
issue, I just broke things so badly I couldn't update any further to fix 
them.

My current machines were built on the "snapshot" CD, install, update. As 
of this morning it's good. I'm running a snapshot machine for some 
development, since it will need to use the latest gcc.
> Curious, that this problem occured in preview release and not in any Beta.
>
> This is same bug or not?
>    Bug 479760 -  [PATCH] add support for virtio_blk devices to grub-install
>    https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=479760

AFAIK.

[Mark McLoughlin]

Hi,

On Wed, 2009-04-29 at 11:58 +0200, Ján ONDREJ (SAL) wrote:
> Hello,
>
> after my rawhide installation was corrupted, I planned to install a fresh
> Fedora11-Preview in virt-manager. Everything worked well, just GRUB has been
> not installed.

I think the cause of this was actually a generic grub/anaconda issue -
I'm sure I've seen other reports of grub failing with F11 virt preview.
I think it's been known to hang in the "installing bootloader" installer
step? I can't find any references now, anyone else seen it?
> I can't fix this by running some commands in rescue mode.
> My attempts are here:
>
> sh-4.0# df /boot
> Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
> /dev/vda1               198337     13573    174524   8% /boot
>
> My root partition is /dev/vda1, so my root disk is /dev/vda (paravirtualized
> disk).
>
> sh-4.0# grub-install /dev/vda
> expr: non-numeric argument
> /dev/vda1 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.

With the fix (i.e. grub-0.97-50.fc11) for:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/479760

the following works for me:

$> grub-install /dev/vda1

with "(hd0) /dev/vda" in /boot/grub/device.map
> grub-install always fails. Trying grub:
>
> sh-4.0# cat /boot/grub/device.map 
> # this device map was generated by anaconda
> (hd0)     /dev/vda
> sh-4.0# grub

you need to actually pass it the device map:

$> grub --device-map=/boot/grub/device.map
  grub> root (hd0,0)
  setup --prefix=/grub (hd0)

Cheers,
Mark.

[Ján ONDREJ (SAL)]

On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 10:18:11AM +0100, Mark McLoughlin wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Wed, 2009-04-29 at 11:58 +0200, Ján ONDREJ (SAL) wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > after my rawhide installation was corrupted, I planned to install a fresh
> > Fedora11-Preview in virt-manager. Everything worked well, just GRUB has been
> > not installed.
>
> I think the cause of this was actually a generic grub/anaconda issue -
> I'm sure I've seen other reports of grub failing with F11 virt preview.
> I think it's been known to hang in the "installing bootloader" installer
> step? I can't find any references now, anyone else seen it?

Installation worked well, just after installation an reboot qemu only shows:

Booting from Hard Disk ...

and nothing else. :(
> > I can't fix this by running some commands in rescue mode.
> > My attempts are here:
> >
> > sh-4.0# df /boot
> > Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
> > /dev/vda1               198337     13573    174524   8% /boot
> >
> > My root partition is /dev/vda1, so my root disk is /dev/vda (paravirtualized
> > disk).
> >
> > sh-4.0# grub-install /dev/vda
> > expr: non-numeric argument
> > /dev/vda1 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.
>
> With the fix (i.e. grub-0.97-50.fc11) for:
>
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/479760

May be this will help, but I can't test it now.
> you need to actually pass it the device map:
>
> $> grub --device-map=/boot/grub/device.map

It's not default?

SAL

[Mark McLoughlin]

On Thu, 2009-04-30 at 11:23 +0200, Ján ONDREJ (SAL) wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 10:18:11AM +0100, Mark McLoughlin wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > On Wed, 2009-04-29 at 11:58 +0200, Ján ONDREJ (SAL) wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > after my rawhide installation was corrupted, I planned to install a fresh
> > > Fedora11-Preview in virt-manager. Everything worked well, just GRUB has been
> > > not installed.
> >
> > I think the cause of this was actually a generic grub/anaconda issue -
> > I'm sure I've seen other reports of grub failing with F11 virt preview.
> > I think it's been known to hang in the "installing bootloader" installer
> > step? I can't find any references now, anyone else seen it?
>
> Installation worked well, just after installation an reboot qemu only shows:
>
> Booting from Hard Disk ...
>
> and nothing else. :(

Okay, I've just tried an F11-Preview install and it worked for me, grub
installed just fine.
> > > I can't fix this by running some commands in rescue mode.
> > > My attempts are here:
> > >
> > > sh-4.0# df /boot
> > > Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
> > > /dev/vda1               198337     13573    174524   8% /boot
> > >
> > > My root partition is /dev/vda1, so my root disk is /dev/vda (paravirtualized
> > > disk).
> > >
> > > sh-4.0# grub-install /dev/vda
> > > expr: non-numeric argument
> > > /dev/vda1 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.
> >
> > With the fix (i.e. grub-0.97-50.fc11) for:
> >
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/479760
>
> May be this will help, but I can't test it now.

No, it won't help the problem you saw where anaconda didn't install the
bootloader because anaconda/booty doesn't suffer from this grub-install
issue ... it just runs:

Note, anaconda/booty doesn't suffer from the grub-install problem
because it does:

Running... ['/sbin/grub-install', '--just-copy']
Running... ['/sbin/grub', '--batch', '--no-floppy', '--device-map=/boot/grub/device.map']

GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.  For the first word, TAB
   lists possible command completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
   completions of a device/filename.]
grub> root (hd0,0)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub> install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /grub/stage1 d (hd0) /grub/stage2 p (hd0,0)/grub/grub.conf
grub>
> > you need to actually pass it the device map:
> >
> > $> grub --device-map=/boot/grub/device.map
>
> It's not default?

No device.map is used by default. And AFAIK, you need one with virtio
because the BIOS doesn't know anything about the drive.

Cheers,
Mark.