[Bug 154763] Grub is inadequate without Lilo for backup

Mike Bird mgb-fedora at yosemite.net
Wed Apr 20 20:21:28 UTC 2005


On Wed, 2005-04-20 at 12:29, Peter Jones wrote:
> File this in bugzilla.  In the bug, please include:
> 
> a) what version of the OS you're using
> b) which grub package you've installed
> c) what you're trying to accomplish with this abnormal /BOOT setup
> 
> Along with this info, please attach:
> 
> a) /proc/partitions
> b) grub.conf
> c) device.map
> d) the output of "ls -lR /BOOT"
> 
> I suspect this is user error, but I'll be happy to have a look at it
> once you've filed the bug with this information.

Why should anyone jump through all those hoops, Peter?  All the relevant
bug information was in the original email.  You want the solution too?

You're screen-scraping "df" output and not handling long device names
properly.  It's nothing compared to the fragility of the mdadm
screen-scrapes but I needed an easy non-MD example for Guy and it was
the first that my eye fell on.

Go read the grub-install source code and look at all the code that will
break whenever mdadm output format changes - you have horizontal,
vertical, and case dependencies.  Don't you read your code before
shipping it?  You erroneously assume that real devices are all /dev/foo
where foo is not '^md.*$', but what you've coded comes nowhere close:

  awk '/\/dev\/[^(md)]/ {print $7}'

Also check that all the cases of missing quotes are actually safe.  Then
read the Lilo source code and see how it should be done.  Then fix Grub.

Have I ever written code that bad?  Sure.  Some of my one-off scripts
were undoubtedly a lot worse.  But I don't try to force the world to use
them when there's a better alternative.

Meantime, why not let us old farts use Lilo?

--Mike Bird




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