[bug #17043] CD boot fails loading stage 2, for some filesystem structures only

[Stephen Kell]

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=detailitem&item_id=17043>

                 Summary: CD boot fails loading stage 2, for some filesystem
structures only
                 Project: GNU GRUB
            Submitted by: srk31
            Submitted on: Thursday 07/06/2006 at 11:48
                Category: Booting
                Severity: Major
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: Software Error
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: Stephen Kell
        Originator Email: address@hidden
             Open/Closed: Open
                 Release: 0.97
         Reproducibility: Every Time
         Planned Release: 

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Details:

I've successfully made a working bootable CD using GRUB 0.97. However, if I
re-make the CD with a slightly altered directory structure (by adding one or
more directories) I get a variety of similar errors on boot. If I add only
one directory, I see:

Loading stage2 ....
Loading stage2 ....
Loading stage2 ....
Loading stage2 ....
(many times, terminated by either
Loading stage2 ..FATAL: bios_printf: unknown format
or a complete lock-up, seemingly at random)

If I add several directories, I see:

Loading stage2 ....................Read error 0x80

The filesystem that works looks like this:

.
|-- REVISION
|-- boot
|   |-- System.map-2.6.16-1-486
|   |-- System.map-2.6.16.13-xen
|   |-- config-2.6.16-1-486
|   |-- config-2.6.16.13-xen
|   |-- grub
|   |   |-- default
|   |   |-- device.map
|   |   |-- e2fs_stage1_5
|   |   |-- fat_stage1_5
|   |   |-- ffs_stage1_5
|   |   |-- jfs_stage1_5
|   |   |-- menu.lst
|   |   |-- minix_stage1_5
|   |   |-- nbgrub
|   |   |-- pxegrub
|   |   |-- reiserfs_stage1_5
|   |   |-- stage1
|   |   |-- stage2
|   |   |-- stage2.netboot
|   |   |-- stage2_eltorito
|   |   |-- vstafs_stage1_5
|   |   `-- xfs_stage1_5
|   |-- initrd-2.6.16-1-486.img
|   |-- initrd-2.6.16.13-xen.img
|   |-- vmlinux-syms-2.6.16.13-xen
|   |-- vmlinuz-2.6-xen -> vmlinuz-2.6.16.13-xen
|   |-- vmlinuz-2.6.16-1-486
|   |-- vmlinuz-2.6.16-xen -> vmlinuz-2.6.16.13-xen
|   |-- vmlinuz-2.6.16.13-xen
|   |-- xen-3.0.2-3.gz
|   |-- xen-3.0.gz -> xen-3.0.2-3.gz
|   |-- xen-3.gz -> xen-3.0.2-3.gz
|   |-- xen-syms-3.0.2-3
|   `-- xen.gz -> xen-3.0.2-3.gz
|-- boot.catalog
|-- rootfs.img
`-- xen-3.0-testing-20060627.tar.bz2

2 directories, 37 files

One that displays the first described errors looks like this:
.
|-- REVISION
|-- boot
|   |-- System.map-2.6.16-1-486
|   |-- System.map-2.6.16.13-xen
|   |-- config-2.6.16-1-486
|   |-- config-2.6.16.13-xen
|   |-- grub
|   |   |-- default
|   |   |-- device.map
|   |   |-- e2fs_stage1_5
|   |   |-- fat_stage1_5
|   |   |-- ffs_stage1_5
|   |   |-- jfs_stage1_5
|   |   |-- menu.lst
|   |   |-- minix_stage1_5
|   |   |-- nbgrub
|   |   |-- pxegrub
|   |   |-- reiserfs_stage1_5
|   |   |-- stage1
|   |   |-- stage2
|   |   |-- stage2.netboot
|   |   |-- stage2_eltorito
|   |   |-- vstafs_stage1_5
|   |   `-- xfs_stage1_5
|   |-- initrd-2.6.16-1-486.img
|   |-- initrd-2.6.16.13-xen.img
|   |-- vmlinux-syms-2.6.16.13-xen
|   |-- vmlinuz-2.6-xen -> vmlinuz-2.6.16.13-xen
|   |-- vmlinuz-2.6.16-1-486
|   |-- vmlinuz-2.6.16-xen -> vmlinuz-2.6.16.13-xen
|   |-- vmlinuz-2.6.16.13-xen
|   |-- xen-3.0.2-3.gz
|   |-- xen-3.0.gz -> xen-3.0.2-3.gz
|   |-- xen-3.gz -> xen-3.0.2-3.gz
|   |-- xen-syms-3.0.2-3
|   `-- xen.gz -> xen-3.0.2-3.gz
|-- boot.catalog
|-- rootfs.img
|-- scripts
|   |-- README
|   |-- e2fs-zero.py
|   |-- make-livecd
|   |-- update-initrd
|   `-- update-rootfs
`-- xen-3.0-testing-20060627.tar.bz2

3 directories, 42 files

i.e. it has the "scripts" directory added.  I've tried many variations, and
it doesn't seem to matter whether the directory contains any files, or what
it's called, or even whether it's added in the root or in /boot. If I add
several directories (three or more), I see the second of the error cases
described above.

The CDs are all built using the following command:

mkisofs -r -J -z -no-emul-boot -b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito -c boot.catalog
-boot-load-size 4 -o
/dev/stdout /store/tmp/working/new-iso-fs > some-file.iso

where /store/tmp/working/new-iso-fs is a directory as shown above. Note that
I'm using transparent compression, but not on any files in /boot/grub. I also
tried without the compression, with no change.

I've also tried removing all files from boot/grub except stage2_eltorito and
menu.lst, but that has no effect. The menu.lst looks as follows:

terminal console 
timeout 10
default 0

title Debian-based Dom0 (from testing)
root (cd)
kernel /boot/xen-3.0.2-3.gz watchdog 
module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16.13-xen ro selinux=0 ramdisk_size=32758
image=rootfs.img boot=cow
module /boot/initrd-2.6.16.13-xen.img

title Debian-based Dom0 in text mode (from testing)
root (cd)
kernel /boot/xen-3.0.2-3.gz watchdog
module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16.13-xen ro 2 selinux=0 ramdisk_size=32758
image=rootfs.img boot=cow
module /boot/initrd-2.6.16.13-xen.img

title Debian on Native Kernel 2.6.16 (from testing) (text mode only)
root (cd)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16-1-486 ro 2 selinux=0 ramdisk_size=32758
image=rootfs.img boot=cow
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.16-1-486.img

I've tried the images on both my Thinkpad T60p and qemu 0.8.1, with the same
results on both. Likewise, I've tried three different builds of GRUB (the one
from Debian unstable, one I built myself using gcc 4.1.2, and a third that was
present on the CD image from which mine derive).

You can download a minimal image which displays the second of the two errors
at 
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/srk31/private/grub-bug/test-livecd23.iso

and I can provide a larger image which shows the first error on request (by
e-mail please).

Thanks for reading. Let me know if you need more information. There's a
chance it's down to a mistake I've made somewhere....






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