Bug 2429501 - grub2-install fails on Rawhide BIOS with XFS: grub_fs_probe unknown filesystem
Summary: grub2-install fails on Rawhide BIOS with XFS: grub_fs_probe unknown filesystem
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: grub2
Version: rawhide
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Linux
unspecified
high
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Nicolas Frayer
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
: 2430018 (view as bug list)
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-01-14 02:54 UTC by Xiaofeng Wang
Modified: 2026-01-15 16:36 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
Type: ---
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Xiaofeng Wang 2026-01-14 02:54:13 UTC
On Fedora Rawhide, grub2-install fails in BIOS mode when the root filesystem is XFS, causing bootc and Anaconda installations to fail with:

grub_fs_probe: unknown filesystem

This is a regression compared to Fedora 43. The same workflow succeeds when using btrfs or when booting in UEFI mode.

This breaks:
bootc install to-disk
Anaconda installer (BootloaderInstallationError)

Environment:
Fedora Rawhide (current)
grub2 >= 2.12-49.fc44 (Rawhide)
Boot mode: BIOS (i386-pc)
Root filesystem: XFS
Target disk: loopback device (/dev/loop0)
Tooling: bootc + bootupd

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
bootc install to-disk \
  --disable-selinux \
  --via-loopback \
  --filesystem xfs \
  --source-imgref docker://quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc:stream10 \
  ./disk.img

bootc automatically enables --generic-image.

Partitioning created by bootc:

/dev/loop0p1  BIOS boot      1 MiB
/dev/loop0p2  EFI System   512 MiB (vfat)
/dev/loop0p3  Linux root   9.5 GiB (XFS)

Filesystem creation:

mkfs.xfs /dev/loop0p3
mkfs.fat /dev/loop0p2

Actual Results:
Bootloader installation fails:
Installing for i386-pc platform.
/usr/sbin/grub2-install: error: ../grub-core/kern/fs.c:grub_fs_probe:123:unknown filesystem.


bootc then aborts:
error: boot data installation failed: installing component BIOS
Failed to run "/usr/sbin/grub2-install" ... "/dev/loop0"


Full command:
grub2-install --target i386-pc \
  --boot-directory /run/bootc/mounts/rootfs/boot \
  --modules "mdraid1x part_gpt" \
  /dev/loop0


Final failure:
BootloaderInstallationError / Installing bootloader failed


Expected Results:
Installation should succeed and GRUB should be installed to the disk as it does on early Fedora rawhide or Fedora 43.

Additional Information:
This appears to be caused by recent GRUB changes in Rawhide (possibly related to stricter filesystem probing introduced by the GRUB OOM-fix series).

Possibly related to Bug 2427945 (GRUB regression in Rawhide), but this issue affects BIOS + XFS during installation rather than UEFI boot at runtime.

Comment 1 Marta Lewandowska 2026-01-14 13:11:06 UTC
Created attachment 2122138 [details]
xfs error during grub2-install

Comment 2 Marta Lewandowska 2026-01-14 13:11:36 UTC
Created attachment 2122139 [details]
tail of verbose grub2-install command

Comment 3 Marta Lewandowska 2026-01-15 10:05:40 UTC
Nicolas identified an upstream patch that fixes this, based on my testing. It will get to fedora soon.
https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.git/commit/?id=1ed2628b560cedac7fd1a696985ab85b24541a8e

Comment 4 Marta Lewandowska 2026-01-15 16:36:56 UTC
*** Bug 2430018 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***


Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.