Debian Bug report logs - #594128
grub-installer: grub doesn't update MBR on my disk - (trying Squeeze) Cannot Choose :P

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Message #5 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: WC Jones <[email protected]>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <[email protected]>

Subject: grub-installer: grub doesn't update MBR on my disk - (trying Squeeze) Cannot Choose :P

Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:17:59 -0400

Package: grub-installer
Severity: wishlist


Irrespective of bugs:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=292513
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=497168
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=557242

The grub-installer should at the very least allow for target
(MBR/partition) selection prior to actually doing anything; I tested
AMD64 and i386 (Testing) -- both grub-legacy and grub2 and finally
ended up with a recovered NTFS boot-able system and 1 savable Ext3
partition ... could have been worse; but I wonder - can the
grub-installer be better? -- Please note: the lost of partitions I
accept full responsibility for so please understand that point is not
an issue.

My set up prior to trying the testing distro squeeze -

/dev/sda (1TB drive) - layout:
/dev/sda1 - 32GB NTFS  ( Drive C:\ )
/dev/sda2 - 2GB swap
/dev/sda3 - 900GB+ /sneex Ext4 :Disaster Recovery parition

/dev/sdb (1TB drive) - layout:
/dev/sdb1 - 32GB NTFS ( Drive D:\ )
/dev/sdb2 - 900GB+ / Ext 3 :Root running RHEL v5.5 64 bit (for a
project at PGA Tour)

Only one OS showed on the Grub menu - RHEL with WinXP blissfully hidden.

Everything worked as expected - RHEL correctly asked which drive sda
or sdb I wanted the MBR written to; I picked sdb and thus left sda as
default, I could easily dual boot (using the BIOS Multi-Boot menu) and
WinXP ran by default anyway; so anyway the project ended and since I
technically do not have a license to run RHEL beyond the 30 day try
before you buy phase (not to mention no updates) I really wanted to
run Debian AMD64 Squeeze (but after the install it craps out with an
SMP protection fault - but that's another story.)  So I tried i386...

After too many installation gyrations (mostly because the
grub-installer stage will never ask for a MBR/partition target (one
other version did but I do not remember whether it was a live, a
testing, or a sid release.))  Needless to say I ended up using
TestDisk off the Gnome Partition Editor iso (Debian Live DR iso in SF:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/) to at least reclaim both NTFS
partitions and the secondary backup of the Ext3 data (the swap and
/sneex were lost - but I do have a backup.)

I am not saying Debian has to be better than distro so-in-so but I
respectfully ask that Debian be technically sane when making decisions
- even when I am prolly not.


Thank you for your time and efforts -- I truly appreciate them.
Bill

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