256-byte Inodes + Unpatched GRUB = No problem

stoat · #1 10th June 2008, 05:15 AM

There's been some talk lately and a Bugzilla report about the problem being caused for GRUB by the 256-byte inodes in the filesystems apparently created by default in Fedora 9. People have discovered that GRUBs that have not been patched for this issue (older Fedoras and some other distros) can't boot Fedora 9. Some of them resorted to installing Fedora 9 into partitions created in advance with 128-byte inodes. That worked to allow older existing GRUB boot loader arrangements to boot Fedora 9.

Today I installed Fedora 9 into a single ext3 root partition alongside an existing Fedora 8 system. The F9 anaconda created and formatted that root partition. I chose the boot loader option to install GRUB in the F9 partition's boot sector to preserve the F8 boot loader in the MBR. The swap was shared. Like everyone else, I found that copying the kernel and initrd menu commands from the F9 grub.conf to the F8 grub.conf would not boot F9. Neither would the configfile menu command. Both of those attempts resulted in the following message...

Code:

Error 2: Bad file or directory type
Press any key to continue...

However, the chainloader menu command booted the F9 system. Here is the F8 grub.conf that I used to test these three methods of booting F9 from F8's grub.conf and menu...

Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda2
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.24.5-85.fc8)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24.5-85.fc8 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
	initrd /initrd-2.6.24.5-85.fc8.img
title Fedora (2.6.24.4-64.fc8)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24.4-64.fc8 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
	initrd /initrd-2.6.24.4-64.fc8.img
title XP
	rootnoverify (hd1,0)
        map (hd0) (hd1)
        map (hd1) (hd0)
	chainloader +1
title Fedora 9 Direct Test
	root (hd0,4)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25-14.fc9.i686 ro root=UUID=805aa475-6654-4427-aa3c-5f101bbeb041 rhgb quiet
	initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25-14.fc9.i686.img
title Fedora 9 Configfile Test
	configfile (hd0,4)/boot/grub/grub.conf
title Fedora 9 Chainloader Test
	root (hd0,4)
	chainloader +1

Only the very last title section (chainloader) booted Fedora 9.

After that experiment, I thought I would re-install F9's GRUB in the master boot record and try booting F8 with F9's grub.conf and menu. I re-installed F9's GRUB in the MBR by the usual method with grub-install /dev/sda in linux rescue. For the chainloader test, I also re-installed F8's GRUB in the F8 boot sector using grub-install /dev/sda1 in the running F8 system. I rebooted. Fedora 9, of course booted. I edited F9's grub.conf to add title sections for F8 like I did for the F8 grub.conf test. All three methods worked to boot F8 from F9's grub.conf and menu. Here is the F9 grub.conf that I used to test the three methods of booting F8 from F9's grub.conf and menu.

Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You do not have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
#          root (hd0,4)
#          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda5
#          initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda5
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,4)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.25-14.fc9.i686)
	root (hd0,4)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25-14.fc9.i686 ro root=UUID=805aa475-6654-4427-aa3c-5f101bbeb041 rhgb quiet
	initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25-14.fc9.i686.img
title Other
	rootnoverify (hd1,0)
	chainloader +1
title Fedora 8 Direct Test
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24.5-85.fc8 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
	initrd /initrd-2.6.24.5-85.fc8.img
title Fedora 8 Configfile Test
	configfile (hd0,0)/grub/grub.conf
title Fedora 8 Chainloader Test
	root (hd0,0)
	chainloader +1

All three of the Fedora 8 sections worked to boot F8.

Summary and Conclusion

The ext4 filesystem is coming. Apparently, the filesystems created by Fedora 9 already have 256-byte inodes. For that reason, non-patched Legacy GRUBs can't boot Fedora 9 by the traditional method of copying the kernel and initrd menu commands from the Fedora 9 grub.conf to the config file of the older system's boot loader. The configfile menu command also fails. One solution is to install Fedora 9 (or at least its boot partition) into partitions with 128-byte inodes and prevent Fedora 9's anaconda from reformatting them. Two other (possibly better) ideas are as follows...

Install Fedora 9's GRUB in the master boot record and use it to boot the older systems.
Install Fedora 9's GRUB in the first sector of the F9 boot partition and use the chainloader menu command in the older GRUB's grub.conf to boot F9.

Either way makes this 256-byte inode & GRUB thing not a big deal (IMO). And someday it will all go away anyway.

daneel971 · #2 10th June 2008, 07:08 AM

The "256 bytes inode patch" is already in use for Debian, Ubuntu, Arch and Suse. Don't know about others.
In my case, with a patched grub form Arch in the MBR and F9 grub in the first sector of sda2, chainloading doesn't work but the "configfile trick" does.

erasmix · #3 6th July 2008, 08:25 PM

Are they planning to make the patch available for Fedora 8? When?

stoat · #4 7th July 2008, 07:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erasmix

Are they planning to make the patch available for Fedora 8? When?

Last January.

According to the grub changelog, the inode issue was addressed with version 0.97-21 back in January.

http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/fedora/....fc8.i386.html
http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/fedora/....fc9.i386.html

But according to my yum logs, my F8 grub was updated only to version 0.97-19.i386 on February 19th and not updated again until June 21st for version 0.97-33.1. And I yum update weekly.

So, if you haven't already done it, yum update your Fedora 8 system and this inode issue concerning F8 booting F9 shouldn't be there anymore. I haven't tried again since I did some tests on this on June 10th before I had the patched GRUB and started this thread, but I feel certain this is over now.

JEO · #5 7th July 2008, 07:51 AM

grub package version grub-0.97-33.1.fc8 has the patch. I updated mine about June 22.

Edit: stoat's reply wasn't there when I replied but it is now else I wouldn't have bothered.

stoat · #6 7th July 2008, 07:59 AM

I forgot to mention one other thing about this matter. Everyone should realize, of course, that updating the grub package is not all that needs to be done if this issue has been a problem for you. You would then also need to re-install the GRUB boot loader with it using grub-install or the GRUB shell.

P.S.: On second thought, use only grub-install to re-install GRUB for this issue. Did you know that none of the files in the /boot/grub directory are rewritten when you use the GRUB shell (root, setup) to re-install GRUB in a master boot record or a boot sector? And that includes stage2 which does the job of launching the kernel. However, grub-install rewrites all of the files in /boot/grub except device.map, grub.conf, menu.lst, and splash.xpm.gz. Try it yourself. So to cure this inode issue when booting F9 with the pre-patch GRUBs, I believe it is important to ensure that a new stage2 is created also.

stoat · #7 7th July 2008, 01:07 PM

See the file list of my F8 /boot/grub directory before re-installing GRUB...

Code:

[root@localhost grub]# ls -l
total 328
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     63 2007-12-15 07:13 device.map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  12000 2008-06-22 08:57 e2fs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11872 2008-06-22 08:57 fat_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11104 2008-06-22 08:57 ffs_stage1_5
-rw------- 1 root root    712 2008-07-06 08:40 grub.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11104 2008-06-22 08:57 iso9660_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  12576 2008-06-22 08:57 jfs_stage1_5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     11 2007-12-15 07:13 menu.lst -> ./grub.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11264 2008-06-22 08:57 minix_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  13600 2008-06-22 08:57 reiserfs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   7459 2007-11-14 10:00 splash.xpm.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    512 2008-06-22 08:57 stage1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 109212 2008-06-22 08:57 stage2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11424 2008-06-22 08:57 ufs2_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  10656 2008-06-22 08:57 vstafs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  13152 2008-06-22 08:57 xfs_stage1_5
[root@localhost grub]#

Then GRUB was re-installed in the first sector of the Fedora partition with the GRUB shell...

Code:

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
 (hd0,2)
 (hd0,5)

grub> root (hd0,2)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> setup (hd0,2)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0,2)"... failed (this is not fatal)
 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd,)"... failed (this is not fatal)
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0,2) /boot/grub/stage2 p /boot/grub/grub
.conf "... succeeded
Done.

grub>

See no changes in the file list of /boot/grub afterwards...

Code:

[root@localhost grub]# ls -l
total 328
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     63 2007-12-15 07:13 device.map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  12000 2008-06-22 08:57 e2fs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11872 2008-06-22 08:57 fat_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11104 2008-06-22 08:57 ffs_stage1_5
-rw------- 1 root root    712 2008-07-06 08:40 grub.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11104 2008-06-22 08:57 iso9660_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  12576 2008-06-22 08:57 jfs_stage1_5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     11 2007-12-15 07:13 menu.lst -> ./grub.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11264 2008-06-22 08:57 minix_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  13600 2008-06-22 08:57 reiserfs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   7459 2007-11-14 10:00 splash.xpm.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    512 2008-06-22 08:57 stage1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 109212 2008-06-22 08:57 stage2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11424 2008-06-22 08:57 ufs2_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  10656 2008-06-22 08:57 vstafs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  13152 2008-06-22 08:57 xfs_stage1_5
[root@localhost grub]#

Then GRUB was re-installed again with grub-install...

Code:

[root@localhost grub]# /sbin/grub-install /dev/sda3
Installation finished. No error reported.
This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map.
Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.

# this device map was generated by anaconda
(hd0)     /dev/sda
[root@localhost grub]#

See all of the rewritten files in /boot/grub afterwards...

Code:

[root@localhost grub]# ls -l
total 328
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     63 2007-12-15 07:13 device.map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  12000 2008-07-07 07:07 e2fs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11872 2008-07-07 07:07 fat_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11104 2008-07-07 07:07 ffs_stage1_5
-rw------- 1 root root    712 2008-07-06 08:40 grub.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11104 2008-07-07 07:07 iso9660_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  12576 2008-07-07 07:07 jfs_stage1_5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     11 2007-12-15 07:13 menu.lst -> ./grub.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11264 2008-07-07 07:07 minix_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  13600 2008-07-07 07:07 reiserfs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   7459 2007-11-14 10:00 splash.xpm.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    512 2008-07-07 07:07 stage1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 109212 2008-07-07 07:07 stage2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  11424 2008-07-07 07:07 ufs2_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  10656 2008-07-07 07:07 vstafs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  13152 2008-07-07 07:07 xfs_stage1_5
[root@localhost grub]#

Use grub-install after yum updating the grub package for the 256-byte inode issue that, in some circumstances, may occur when booting F9 from older Fedoras with pre-patch GRUBs.

buccaneere · #8 5th March 2009, 07:49 PM

Good call!

Been on this for 3 days now, LOTS of readin', and saw a few names with references more than once, including stoat. But never a reference to this thread.

Here's old and new menu entries:

Quote:

title openSuSE chainloader <--- WORKED
root (hd2,1)
chainloader +1

title openSUSE in (hd2,1) <--- Didn't work
root (hd2,1)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

title openSUSE 11.1 <---Didn't work
root (hd2,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.7-9-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3802110A_5LR74M8V-part2 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3802110A_5LR74M8V-part1 splash=silent showopts vga=0x317
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.7-9-default

If your primary OS is an updated version from an older version, instead of a fresh install, GRUB does NOT get patched!

leigh123linux · #9 5th March 2009, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buccaneere

Good call!

Been on this for 3 days now, LOTS of readin', and saw a few names with references more than once, including stoat. But never a reference to this thread.

Here's old and new menu entries:

If your primary OS is an updated version from an older version, instead of a fresh install, GRUB does NOT get patched!

You could try this as well.

Code:

title openSUSE 11.1
        configfile (hd2,1)/boot/grub/menu.lst

stoat · #10 5th March 2009, 09:56 PM

The grub patch for this 256-byte inode issue was introduced in January 2008 in the middle of the life cycle of Fedora 8 which is now obsolete. This issue should be disappearing as we get farther and farther out from that date. Eventually nobody will be using a grub package (or its boot loader) older than v0.97-21 which was the first version with the patch. And even though we know that people still install obsolete Fedora versions, it's unlikely IMO for them to use such old systems to boot new systems with 256-byte inode filesystems.

Anyway, until it does disappear, here is the basic issue summarized again...

When the installed grub package is older than v0.97-21, then any GRUB command at the grub> prompt that attempts to find a file in a filesystem that uses 256-byte inodes will fail.
When the GRUB boot loader was installed by a grub package older than v0.97-21, then any GRUB command in grub.conf that attempts to find a file in a filesystem that uses 256-byte inodes will fail.
Examples of GRUB commands that involve finding a file in a filesystem and are therefore affected by this issue...
kernel
initrd
configfile
The chainloader +1 command does not involve a filesystem. It only loads and executes partition boot sector code. It is therefore not affected by this issue.
The newer patched grub versions and the boot loaders installed by them have no problem booting older systems with 128-byte inode filesystems.

buccaneere · #11 5th March 2009, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoat

of Fedora 8 which is now obsolete.

Nice!

After I got SuSE to load, I put FC8 live next to it. FC8 discs (Live load, full DVD) came with RHEL/FC8 Bible (Negus). Is there a step-by-step for direct web upgrade 8 -> 10? Links? (I just loaded it, so there's nothing to back up.)

I did the 8 -> 10 direct upgrade last week on a laptop, and repo conflicts caused major headaches...

EDIT:
http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-upg...top-and-server
I got this one goin' now, which I did for the other 8 ->10 upgrade. Only problems were repos in conflict. I don't know if it was by default, or if I enabled them at some time.