address@hidden: Bug#243835: grub-install hangs with xfs root/boot]

[Jason Thomas]

----- Forwarded message from Joey Hess <address@hidden> -----

> Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 20:40:19 -0400
> From: Joey Hess <address@hidden>
> To: Debian Bug Tracking System <address@hidden>
> Subject: Bug#243835: grub-install hangs with xfs root/boot
> 
> Package: grub
> Version: 0.93+cvs20031021-8
> Severity: normal
> Tags: d-i
> 
> The debian installer can install a system with / or /boot on XFS. When
> it tries to install grub on such a system, the grub-install run hangs,
> seemingly forever. The last thing output is "Probing devices to guess
> BIOS drives." The cpu is pegged too. This has been reproduced on more
> than one machine, and I found something that looked like the same
> problem on google. I've seen it with both the 2.4.25 and 2.6.5 kernels.
> 
> We have put a guard in d-i to deal with this, it warns users that XFS
> /boot (or root) will not work with grub. This is not an ideal solution,
> users want to use XFS for these partitions.
> 
> Note that often, if the hanging grub is killed, grub-install can be
> re-run and it does not hang, and works. I don't know why, but this makes
> reproducing the problem annoying; the best way is to do a new d-i install
> each time. :-/
> 
> Ancedotally, people seem to think the problem happens if the XFS
> filesystem is not synced to disk when grub accesses it directly.
> 
> I've tried a few things. I tried adding 3 calls to sync before each call
> to $grub_shell, but it still hangs. I remounted the filesystem ro and
> then back to rw before calling grub-install, on the theory this might
> make xfs put it in a consistent state, but no luck, it still hung.
> 
> It would be nice if this could be fixed, or even worked around better
> than it currently is.
> 
> -- 
> see shy jo



----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Jason Thomas
Linux System Administrator
Planet Netcom P/L