Bug#544155: [grub-pc] grub update renders system unbootable (unaligned pointer 0x700ba)

Martin Steigerwald Martin at lichtvoll.de
Sat Aug 29 09:14:14 UTC 2009


Package: grub-pc
Version: 1.96+20090317-1
Severity: grave

--- Please enter the report below this line. ---
Note: This bug report is for 1.96+20090826-3, I downgraded to the squeeze 
version to make system bootable again.

I just let aptitude update grub-pc to 1.96+20090826-3. I do not know the 
earlier version, but I guess it was one version before, cause if I still 
had the squeeze one it wouldn't have updated to the unstable 
automatically.

On booting up today I got:

[Linux-bzImage, setup=0x2c00, size=0x25a070]
vga=792 is deprecated. Use set gfxpayload=1024x768x24,1024x768 before 
linux command instead.
unaligned pointer 0x700ba
Aborted. Press any key to exit.Operating system not found

I also tried with another kernel with the same result.

Then I booted into grml, overwrote the swap partition and recreated it via 
mkswap in order to make sure the TuxOnIce snapshot is invalidated to avoid 
data loss in next boot.

Then I chrooted to my debian system after bind mounting /dev, /proc, /sys 
to it, downgraded grub-pc to 1.96+20090317-1 from squeeze and ran grub-
install.

I thought about running grub-install for the grub-pc from unstable, but I 
read the current sid version might be broken anyway[1], thus I thought I'd 
better downgrade to the squeeze one in order to get a working system 
quickly again. I could try updating to the sid one again, without running 
grub-install manually and then I run it manually and see whether it fixes 
the issue. So you could know whether its grub itself or a missing grub-
install.

Anyway the expected result is: After an update of grub-pc package the 
system boots up manually. Thus if a new version is incompatible to the old 
stage 1 the upgrade process has to force a grub-install IMHO or at least 
strongly recommend it. I don't remember seeing anything about this in 
debconf questions. And if a new version of grub-pc doesn't work on my 
ThinkPad T42 it shouldn´t enter testing ;)

This is on an IBM ThinkPad T42.

[1] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=540125#75

Regards,
Martin

--- System information. ---
Architecture: i386
Kernel:       Linux 2.6.31-rc7-tp42-toi-3.0.1-04741-g57e61c0

Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  500 stable          x2go.obviously-nice.de 
  500 stable          security.debian.org 
  500 stable          debian.n-ix.net 
  450 testing         security.debian.org 
  450 testing         debian.n-ix.net 
  400 unstable        www.debian-multimedia.org 
  400 unstable        ftp.de.debian.org 
  101 experimental    ftp.de.debian.org 

--- Package information. ---
Depends                   (Version) | Installed
===================================-+-====================
libc6                      (>= 2.3) | 2.9-12
debconf                   (>= 0.5)  | 1.5.26
 OR debconf-2.0                     | 
grub-common     (= 1.96+20090317-1) | 1.96+20090317-1


Package's Recommends field is empty.

Suggests          (Version) | Installed
===========================-+-===========
desktop-base     (>= 4.0.6) | 5.0.5
os-prober                   | 



--- Output from package bug script ---

*********************** BEGIN /proc/mounts
/dev/disk/by-uuid/fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670 / ext4 
rw,relatime,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/sda5 /home xfs rw,relatime,attr2,logbufs=8,logbsize=256k,noquota 0 0
*********************** END /proc/mounts

*********************** BEGIN /boot/grub/device.map
(hd0)	/dev/sda
*********************** END /boot/grub/device.map

*********************** BEGIN /boot/grub/grub.cfg
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from  and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
set default=0
set timeout=5
set root=(hd0,1)
search --fs-uuid --set fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/ascii.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=640x480
  insmod gfxterm
  insmod vbe
  if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
    # For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
    # understand terminal_output
    terminal gfxterm
  fi
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set root=(hd0,1)
search --fs-uuid --set fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670
insmod png
if background_image /boot/grub/moreblue-orbit-grub.png ; then
  set color_normal=black/black
  set color_highlight=magenta/black
else
  set menu_color_normal=cyan/blue
  set menu_color_highlight=white/blue
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, linux 2.6.31-rc7-tp42-toi-3.0.1-04741-
g57e61c0" {
	set root=(hd0,1)
	search --fs-uuid --set fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-rc7-tp42-toi-3.0.1-04741-g57e61c0 
root=UUID=fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670 ro resume=swap:/dev/sda6 
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-rc7-tp42-toi-3.0.1-04741-g57e61c0
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, linux 2.6.31-rc7-tp42-toi-3.0.1-04741-
g57e61c0 (recovery mode)" {
	set root=(hd0,1)
	search --fs-uuid --set fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-rc7-tp42-toi-3.0.1-04741-g57e61c0 
root=UUID=fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670 ro single 
resume=swap:/dev/sda6
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-rc7-tp42-toi-3.0.1-04741-g57e61c0
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, linux 2.6.30-1-686" {
	set root=(hd0,1)
	search --fs-uuid --set fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.30-1-686 root=UUID=fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-
bde3-50674324e670 ro resume=swap:/dev/sda6 
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.30-1-686
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, linux 2.6.30-1-686 (recovery mode)" {
	set root=(hd0,1)
	search --fs-uuid --set fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.30-1-686 root=UUID=fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-
bde3-50674324e670 ro single resume=swap:/dev/sda6
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.30-1-686
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, linux 2.6.29.6-tp42-toi-3.0.1-01085-gf325e4a" 
{
	set root=(hd0,1)
	search --fs-uuid --set fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.29.6-tp42-toi-3.0.1-01085-gf325e4a 
root=UUID=fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670 ro resume=swap:/dev/sda6 
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.29.6-tp42-toi-3.0.1-01085-gf325e4a
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, linux 2.6.29.6-tp42-toi-3.0.1-01085-gf325e4a 
(recovery mode)" {
	set root=(hd0,1)
	search --fs-uuid --set fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.29.6-tp42-toi-3.0.1-01085-gf325e4a 
root=UUID=fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670 ro single 
resume=swap:/dev/sda6
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.29.6-tp42-toi-3.0.1-01085-gf325e4a
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, linux 2.6.26-2-686" {
	set root=(hd0,1)
	search --fs-uuid --set fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-686 root=UUID=fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-
bde3-50674324e670 ro resume=swap:/dev/sda6 
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-686
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, linux 2.6.26-2-686 (recovery mode)" {
	set root=(hd0,1)
	search --fs-uuid --set fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-bde3-50674324e670
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-686 root=UUID=fb9cbb11-964a-4b92-
bde3-50674324e670 ro single resume=swap:/dev/sda6
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-686
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86 ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86)" {
	linux	/boot/memtest86.bin
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86 ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
	linux	/boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
	linux	/boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file is an example on how to add custom entries
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
*********************** END /boot/grub/grub.cfg

-- 
Martin 'Helios' Steigerwald - http://www.Lichtvoll.de
GPG: 03B0 0D6C 0040 0710 4AFA  B82F 991B EAAC A599 84C7
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