I took another look at this.
The problem (in my case) is in find_device ().
# Usage: find_device file
# Find block device on which the file resides.
find_device () {
# For now, this uses the program `df' to get the device name, but is
# this really portable?
tmp_fname=`df $1/ | sed -n 's%.*\(/dev/[^ ]*\).*%\1%p'`
This breaks when chrooted into a non-running system, if mtab doesn't reflect
the partition layout. (df its gets partition info from /etc/mtab. If mtab
reflects a different partition layout, then df reports the wrong
partitions).
I have confirmed that manually correcting the mtab entry for / is sufficient
for grub-install to complete. (/boot may be needed as well, no /boot
partition on this box).
A possible fix might be to parse /etc/fstab instead. Attached is a patch to
do this. The current version does not attempt to handle partitions mounted
using uids/labels. Is it worthwhile trying to extend the patch, or is
there a better approach?
Unless I hear otherwise, I'll file a bug on coreutils in a few days about
the wrong df output.
HTH
Andrew V.
--- /sbin/grub-install 2005-04-19 09:39:44.000000000 +1000
+++ /shared/grub-install 2006-01-26 05:34:49.000000000 +1100
@@ -261,18 +261,32 @@
# Usage: find_device file
# Find block device on which the file resides.
find_device () {
- # For now, this uses the program `df' to get the device name, but is
- # this really portable?
- tmp_fname=`df $1/ | sed -n 's%.*\(/dev/[^ ]*\).*%\1%p'`
+ tmp_filename="$1"
+
+ # we get called once with $1=null
+ # look for the root partion if $1=""
+ if test -z "$tmp_filename" ; then
+ tmp_filename="/"
+ fi
+
+ tmp_devicename=""
+ while ( test -z "$tmp_devicename" ) ; do
+ # get parse /etc/fstab
+ tmp_devicename=`cat /etc/fstab | sed -n \
+ -e"s%^[ \t]*\(/dev/[^ \t]\{3,5\}\)[^/]*$tmp_filename[ \t].*%\1%p"`
+
+ # lop off last directory segment for next iteration.
+ tmp_filename=`dirname "$tmp_filename"`
+ done
- if test -z "$tmp_fname"; then
+ if ( test -z "$tmp_devicename" ) ; then
echo "Could not find device for $1" 2>&1
exit 1
fi
- tmp_fname=`resolve_symlink $tmp_fname`
+ tmp_devicename=`resolve_symlink $tmp_devicename`
- echo "$tmp_fname"
+ echo "$tmp_devicename"
}
# Check the arguments.
