Bug 17488

Summary:	Cauldron 'Network' installer trashes MBR if aborted during 'installing packages'
Product:	Mageia	Reporter:	Maurice Batey <maurice77>
Component:	Installer	Assignee:	Mageia Bug Squad <bugsquad>
Status:	RESOLVED INVALID	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	Normal	CC:	marja11
Version:	Cauldron	Keywords:	NEEDINFO
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	x86_64
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Source RPM:		CVE:
Status comment:

Description Maurice Batey 2016-01-13 12:23:35 CET

Description of problem:

  Cauldron Network Install trashes the MBR if aborted during 'installing packages'

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:


Steps to Reproduce:

1. On real hardware (as opposed to e.g. VirtualBox)  do Cauldron 'network install' by booting from the following boot.iso:

ftp://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/linux/Mageia/distrib/cauldron/x86_64/install/images/boot.iso

2. During the 'installing packages' stage, abort the install.

3. Try to boot the PC: Will not boot: GRUB error 15

   (Recovery: Restore the  MBR.)

(See also: https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17486
regarding missing mouse pointer during 'Select Language' initial stage.)

N.B. If aborted during 'Select Language' (e.g. because of absence of mouse pointer) the MBR is not affected.


Reproducible: 

Steps to Reproduce:

Comment 1 Marja Van Waes 2016-01-13 21:11:45 CET

Did you try to install to the partition from which grub was installed to the MBR before? If so, then this is expected.

The root partition does always get formatted at the end of the partitioning step, so /boot/grub/menu.lst will then be gone, too.

If you installed grub from a different partition before, then please attach the /boot/grub/menu.lst from that partition and the /root/drakx/report.bug.xz from the partition you were installing to.

Keywords: (none) => NEEDINFO
CC: (none) => marja11

Comment 2 Maurice Batey 2016-01-13 23:13:28 CET

The MBR in question (/dev/sda) is written by the Mageia installer wherever it has just installed Mageia, whether that be on a partition on /dev/sda or /dev/sdb.

> The root partition does always get formatted at the end of the partitioning 
> step, so /boot/grub/menu.lst will then be gone, too.

  Yes, always. No problem there.

What I am asking is: Why did the network installer do *anything* with the MBR before it gets to the point where GRUB has to be installed in the MBR at the end of the installation process?

Comment 3 Maurice Batey 2016-01-14 11:55:57 CET

> The root partition does always get formatted at the end of the partitioning 
> step, so /boot/grub/menu.lst will then be gone, too.

MEA CULPA!

Marja, you hit the proverbial nail right on the head. I apologise to the installer team for having raised this report in error, and for my incorrect response late last night. MBR not trashed.

[My New Year's resolutions: Do not respond to technical discussions late at night after a difficult day, do not abort an installation, and reconsider decision not to use VirtualBox for testing purposes...] :-)

The incident reported was a first timer for me, after 6 years of trouble-free use of installers which - like the Mageia installer - are able to detect existing installations and build a /boot/grub/menu.lst to provide access to all of them. 
   (The only 'existing install' problem with the Mageia-5 installer was that in some cases it failed to add a stanza to boot Windows.)

My use of that facility stems from the impossibility 6 years ago of continuing to use the GAG bootloader on my then new twin-drive PC.  
   Little did I realise there was a hidden trap-door in the installers' ability to identify existing installs through which I fell during my first use of 'network install' this week...

Humble apologies once again...

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => INVALID