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:
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) => NEEDINFOCC: (none) => marja11
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?
> 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 => RESOLVEDResolution: (none) => INVALID