Installation of GRUB on a reiserfs partition always fails

[M. Vefa Bicakci]

Hello,

When one tries to install GRUB on a reiserfs partition instead of the MBR,
the installation fails with the following message:

"Executing 'grub-install (hd0,9)' failed.
This is a fatal error."

I have confirmed that this error does not occur when an ext3 partition
or the MBR is used for GRUB.

In /var/log/syslog (which I will attach in a minute) one sees the following
error message

"Error 6: Mismatched or corrupt version of stage1/stage2"

This bug exists at least in Kubuntu Feisty.

I will attach a screenshot of the error message in addition to the
relevant log files.

Thank you for your attention.

- situert

[OS/2-User (fzf7a2c02)]

As a beginner with Linux in general and Ubuntu specifically, I was struggling with exactly the same issue, starting with Feisty 7.04 and all the way through up to 7.10 tribe-3 right now.

For me, the grub-installer: section in my user.log reads exactly the same. I'm having '/' on a 10GB JFS and tried to get /boot on a 24MB JFS as well, which always failed with the same error message as described by the OP.

BTW, it also is kind of poor, especially with Ubuntu Desktop being targeted to Linux beginners, that if /boot is only 14MB, what I had at first, you get the same stupid error message about grub-install, but no hint whatsoever, that /boot simply being too small is the *real* problem.
How is a beginner supposed to find out about that?

[Henning Moll (drscott)]

I confirm this bug.

Here's how to reproduce it in a vmware machine. I am not sure, wheather the disk geometry is relevant for this bug, so please use the same values for disk sizing and partitioning:

Create a VM with following configuration:
-typical / Linux / Ubuntu / 8.0GB / uncheck "allocate disk space now" (the last should not be relavant...)

Boot Feisty-InstallCD
Start Installer and keep defaults up to partitioning.
Choose 'manual' and create the following three partitions:
* logical - 100MB - beginning - reiserfs - /boot
* logical - 1024MB - beginning - swap
* logical - remaining space (7468) - beginning - reiserfs - /

Continue with installation. On the final page use button 'advanced' to set the grub installation target to (hd0,4).
The installation will fail on 94%

The syslog says:
Aug 8 12:15:21 ubuntu grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install --no-floppy "(hd0,4)"
...
Aug 8 12:15:23 ubuntu grub-installer: grub> root (hd0,4)
Aug 8 12:15:23 ubuntu grub-installer: grub> setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 --prefix=/grub (hd0,4)
Aug 8 12:15:23 ubuntu grub-installer: Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Aug 8 12:15:23 ubuntu grub-installer: Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Aug 8 12:15:23 ubuntu grub-installer: Checking if "/grub/reiserfs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Aug 8 12:15:23 ubuntu grub-installer: Running "embed /grub/reiserfs_stage1_5 (hd0,4)"... 20 sectors are embedded.
Aug 8 12:15:23 ubuntu grub-installer: succeeded
Aug 8 12:15:23 ubuntu grub-installer: Running "install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /grub/stage1 (hd0,4) (hd0,4)1+20 p (hd0,4)/grub/stage2 /grub/menu.lst"... failed
Aug 8 12:15:23 ubuntu grub-installer:
Aug 8 12:15:23 ubuntu grub-installer: Error 6: Mismatched or corrupt version of stage1/stage2

But, very interesting: After closing the (unfinished) installer, the target system is still mounted on /target. If i execute the command

sudo chroot /target grub-install --no-floppy --debug "(hd0,4)"

manually (only --debug added), it succeeds with this messages:

grub> root (hd0,4)
grub> setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 --prefix=/grub (hd0,4)
 Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/grub/reiserfs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /grub/reiserfs_stage1_5 (hd0,4)"... 20 sectors are embedded. succeeded
 Running "install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /grub/stage1 (hd0,4) (hd0,4)1+20 p (hd0,4)/grub/stage2 /grub/menu.lst"... succeeded

[zebul666 (zebul666)]

i installed hardy heron 8.04 desktop x86 edition from the live cd on a reiserfs partition.
and used the advanced button at the last stage of installer to install grub on the / partition instead of the MBR.
and grub-install failed with the error described above.

i had to kill the installer because it stalled there doing nothing. so i got not log of the installer.

i had to create a /boot/grub/menu.lst with update-grub and install manually grub in the partition with grub-install.

what a pity ! the bug is one year old.
if i could do it by hand from a chroot to ubuntu partition, it's not a grub-install bug, is it ?

is this bug a duplicate for #185878 ?