Bug 596040

Summary: F12->F13 update fails to install grub and leaves system unbootable
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: D. Wagner <daw-redhatbugzilla>
Component: anacondaAssignee: Anaconda Maintenance Team <anaconda-maint-list>
Status: CLOSED DUPLICATE QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: 13CC: anaconda-maint-list, jonathan, vanmeeuwen+fedora
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
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Last Closed: 2010-05-26 15:05:32 UTC Type: ---
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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anaconda.log none

Description D. Wagner 2010-05-26 08:04:50 UTC 
Description of problem:

I upgraded from Fedora 12 to Fedora 13 tonight using the F13 DVD (Anaconda upgrader, not preupgrade).  Previously, the system booted fine.  After the upgrade, the system would no longer boot.  Instead, on booting, I got a grub prompt (I think it was "grub> ", but I'm not certain) and the system didn't boot into linux.  There were no errors in /root/update.log or /root/update.log.syslog.

To fix this, I had to mount the rescue disk and run "chroot /mnt/sysimage" and "grub-install /dev/sdb".

In case it is relevant, I have two hard disks, /dev/sda and /dev/sdb.  My Linux installation is on /dev/sdb, and that's the one that I upgraded with Anaconda.  I have /boot on a separate partition from /.

This is a long-standing problem in Anaconda and apparently remains unfixed.  It has been reported against F9, F10, F11, F12, and now F13.  From a user experience perspective, this is not good: most users cannot be expected to diagnose or recover from this error condition, and it leads to an unusable and unbootable system.  See, e.g., bug #450143, bug #509622, and the following mailing list message:
  http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/users/2010-May/373041.html
Comment 1 Chris Lumens 2010-05-26 12:56:49 UTC 
Please attach /var/log/anaconda*log to this bug report.
Comment 2 Chris Lumens 2010-05-26 15:05:32 UTC 
Marking as a dup of another bug.  If you could, please attach the requested information to that one instead.  Thanks.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 509622 ***
Comment 3 D. Wagner 2010-05-26 16:30:10 UTC 
Created attachment 416919 [details]
anaconda.log